Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/10

 Zhoře—the last-named of whom would be accounted a great historian in any country—became known, though only to a very limited extent. The history of Bohemia is perhaps one of the saddest in the world’s story. A country that for a time had been in the van of civilization became almost a desert, and suffered for centuries from political, national and ecclesiastical oppres- sion.

It is perhaps natural that those who belong to a small and little-known nation should consider it to a greater extent their duty to make their country known, than those who are citizens of a country that has world-wide fame. The words of the great historian Palacký, spoken on the occasion of his last appearance in public which I have quoted at the end of my last lecture, have long impelled me to do what little is in my power to make my country known and refute those who have endeavoured to tarnish its fame.

1 therefore owe a great debt of gratitude to my friend Prof. Morfill, who kindly suggested that I should lecture at Oxford on a subject concerning Bohemia. Nothing could be more in accord with my wishes and the interest of my country than that