Page:President of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Thomas G. Masaryk.pdf/15

 because he knows that only thus will they find contentment for their souls". But Masaryk heard the questions of doubters: what is the use of this Czech Brotherhood and religious problem when we have before us tasks of national, economic, and political natures? He would always answer: "Who asserts that economic, political and national questions are not of importance, of great importance? I was in Parliament myself and never thought of talking there about religious questions directly. Chelčický's "Net of Faith" cannot repair the port of Holešovice; but neither can the literature of all our liberal representatives and partisans bring nearer the hour of coronation desired by the State Rights Party. I have nothing against politics, against economics, etc., but I am convinced that all these endeavours must have a deeper and homogenous foundation, and that this foundation was possessed by the leaders of our national awakening. I merely assert that all the present public and in a great measure literary struggling is superficial and therefore ineffectual; I assert that it is also not truly Czech. No respectable person will expound his most sacred convictions every little while at the slightest provocation, but every respectable person has such convictions and lives up to them. Now and then he will have to bear witness to truth expressly, but as a rule he will use his convictions as a guide to his conduct."

Masaryk's opinions on the national program, on national work in general and politics in particular, disquieted the contemporaries and leaders of the eighties and nineties of the last century. "The Czech Question" reads:

"Our political program and in fact also our national program is effectual in so small a degree because it is too abstract, because it does not express the fullness of modern cultural needs. A national program is not formed merely of mottos—which are of course also necessary—but rather of the acquaintance with all the means which under given conditions could fulfill the ultimate aims of national endeavours. It is self-understood that the political parties must proclaim State Rights, to be understood as political independence—their final end. But what is important is that the proclaimers should be aware of the means leading to this end and that they should not stop with their proclamation but all work indefatigably, each in his own province, for the advancement of his own education and that of others, as Palacky required. Independence will not preserve and save any nation. The nation must preserve its independence,—morality and education will be our salvation; even political independence is 7