STE PHEN SZÉCHENYI 153 discontent and yearnings of a man who has not fo und his proper sphere. He went abroad, and frequently visited Paris, London and Rome. Then he undertook a journey to Asia, and afterwards went to Athens, the ruins of which reminded bim painfully of his own decaying country. He was troubled by some love-sorrow too, and his restlessness and dissatisfac tion increased. Gradually a grand idea, that of saving his country, formed and ripened in his soul. Of th is resolution he wrote in after years : " Oh, how often in my childhood I have seen my poor father stricken with sorrow, so that eYen I , child as I was, could real ise vagu ely that so much sadness was not caused by family cares alone. For my father was a truly Christian man, and was imbued with the stoicism of Epictetus, and he met all his private troubles with a calm philosophic smile. I could not then understand his sorrow, but I lear ned later that the decline of our nation was the cause of his grief. The hopelessness of the situation, fore boding speedy extinction, filled bim with despair. Ever since my father, in whom shone so many of the virtucs of a citizen, sank into his grave, I have unceasingly com pared my country with other nations, to find whether there was any possibility of our resurrection. Th is was the task of my life. Other nations seemed to live in th e prese nt and to be cheerfu l and contented, while Hungary appeared to have no hope, and to think that ali her fame and greatness lay buried in the past. " O ccasionallythecloudswould break before my eyes, and my hear t was thrilled with the message : 'Those for whose welfare you yearn are not dead, and there is hope for the future. ' But ali at once the sky again became overcast and I seem ed to lie tossing on the waves
