Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/99

 really important events—so different from those that temporarily appear important—which will render the nineteenth century memorable. The reconstruction of a Slavic state in central Europe, a Slavic outpost in the midst of Teutonic lands, will probably have a considerable influence on the future of Europe.

The movement had a very modest origin, and was at first indirectly and unintentionally furthered by one who was a determined enemy of the Bohemian people. I refer to the Emperor Joseph II, who was also king, though uncrowned king, of Bohemia. That monarch was thoroughly imbued with the views held by the enlightened sovereigns of the eighteenth century of whom Frederick the Great is the type. These men were in many ways in advance of their times. Their desire to further public education, to diminish the privileges of the omnipotent nobility and a luxurious and wealthy clergy, to assure at least a limited amount of equality before the law, and to grant some liberty to the press, cannot fail to be admired by all enlightened men. That these men absolutely failed to grasp the value which a people attaches to its nationality and language is also certain. Joseph's contempt for the Bohemian language founded indeed on ignorance was not greater than that which Frederick the Great, whose brilliant works are all written in French, felt for the German language.

It is certain that, by allowing the publication of a newspaper written in the Bohemian language, by permitting the printing of the works of ancient Bohemian authors and the translation of foreign works into the national language, Joseph considerably con-