122 HUNGARIAN LITERATORE death is th e breath by which it is extinguished. Immor talily is like the scent of a flower ; when the flower dies its perfume outlasts it for a short time only. We ought not, therefore, to attribute any importance to fate, life, virtue or knowledge. Be firm as a rock, and whatever aspcet fortone may wear for you, know that ali is vain." As in his contemporary, Alfred de Vigny, so in Kölcsey, this rigid stoicism was the result of hyper-sensitiveness. The severity and rigid ity of Kölcsey' s ideal ism showed thernselves also in his criticism. He passed the same judgment upon Csokonai, the author of Dorothy, that Schiller passed upon Bürger, namely, that his style savoured too much of the popular poetry. He also wrote a criticism on Berzsenyi in which he reproached that great poet for using dialect, inflated metaph ors, and complicated metres. Severe criticism was unusual at that time and Berzsenyi was very much hurt ; in fact, Kölcsey's strictures cast a shadow over his whole life. After Berzsenyi's death, Kölcsey sought in his fun eral oration at the Academy to make peace with the dead. " Spirit of the departed," he said, 11 I utter above thy tomb these propitiatory words. But a littie while, and I shall follow thee. We were both but human and why should we be ashamed of it ? The paths of life cross one another, but the tomb is the abode of peace ; our petty interests do not pass its threshold. The man has left us, but the poet is ours for ever." The best known poem of Kölcsey is the Hy mnus. This, and Vörösmarty's A.ppeal became the two Hungarian national anthems. Both poems owed their character to the political situation of the country. Both are full of sadness, yet they both express the h ope that after so much suffer ing Hungary's lot must change for the better. The
