Page:The future of Bohemia by Seton-Watson (1915).pdf/7



GNORANCE of Bohemia has been a tradition in this country ever since the days when Shakespeare wrecked a certain famous ship upon its imaginary coasts. Yet in those days Bohemia still possessed an independent existence as one of the chief kingdoms of Christendom. By a still stranger confusion the word “Bohemian” has come to be associated with the Latin Quarter, and has thus acquired a peculiar, and a peculiarly misleading, flavour. It is right that in this year the memory of Bohemia should be revived, not merely because we hope that Bohemia may rise phœnix-like from the great European conflagration, but because the 6th of July serves to remind us of Bohemia’s greatest citizen, and of Bohemia’s greatest achievement in the history of Europe. On that day five hundred years ago, John Hus was burnt at the stake at the Council of Constance.

Till very recently it was the fashion to deride things Slavonic, as uncivilized and barbarous. The best answer to this—quite apart from the triumphs of Russian musical, literary, and dramatic genius which are no longer unfamiliar