Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/123

 begun, promises well, and will probably prove a valuable contribution to the knowledge of the great Bohemian, who has been so little understood and so often misrepresented.

It is, I think, fitting that I should terminate these lectures by again referring to the great name of Palacký, whom I have so often mentioned.

In 1876 (the year of Palacký’s death) a banquet was given to celebrate the termination of his great historical work, to which he had only in that year given the final touch. The veteran then addressed the audience, consisting mainly of men of a younger generation: ‘Being now able,’ he said, ‘to address the flower of the nation, I wish to attract the attention of my friends and all are my friends who work for the welfare of the nation to the one thing that is most necessary, and it is this. We have many patriots, who are proud of their patriotism; but they do nothing for the benefit of the country and of their native land. Our nation is in great danger, surrounded as it is by enemies in every direction; but I do not despair. I hope that it will be able to vanquish them if it has but the will to do so. It is not enough to say “I will.” Every one must co-operate, must work, must make what sacrifices he can for the common welfare, for the preservation of our nationality.

‘Bohemia has a glorious past. The time of Hus was glorious. The Bohemian nation was then intellectually in advance of all other European nations. For this it was indebted not only to Charles IV (who founded the University of Prague), but also to its own will to extend the culture of the country. It is necessary that we also should do so. This is the testament