Page:Zawis and Kunigunde (1895).djvu/276

 “My statesman friend, the learned Rabbi ben Gerson, now in large measure represents the unrestricted associations of Bohemian enterprise with all nationalities, especially to the east and south. The new inroad from the west threatens to alter these relations and circumscribe the political as well as the commercial conditions in the future.

“My respected and reverend friend Prokop embodies the growth of thought that has marked Bohemia during four centuries; and is being rapidly effaced and obscured, but not eradicated, by new western dogmas and tendencies.

“Unitedly we represent the Bohemia of the past. But if an old man’s long experience and observation are of value, neither the one nor the other, nor yet the third can continue darkened or extinguished. The native heart of Bohemia will assert itself; and the generosity of soldierhood will exhibit manliness under heroes of Bohemian race, after the present sudden violence shall have allowed time to Bohemian manhood to recover. A wider sphere of influence shall center in Bohemia; and men shall again look to it as the inspirer of mind and hope.

“Last of all, the free intelligence and right of investigation, of research, and of judgment will reassert its native force, and Bohemian thought shall lead the van in the reformation of the world. I see this by necessary inference from the past; for you can not change the essentials of national inherent qualities.

“Permit me to suggest that we proceed as a depu-