MODERN LITERATDRE daughter's wedding. From the crowd which had come to see the beautifui and happy bride a poor beggar woman rushes up to the bride an d presses a kiss on her tips. She is pate and cold and dying. It is the mother who has atoned fo r her forrner deed. Among existing autbors who write on resth etics, the first in import ance is certainly ZsoLT BEÖTHY (boro in 1848). He is the author of a history of Hungarian literatore ; and also of a work analysing th e tragic element in literature. It deals with the literatures of all niltions. Now that we have come to an end of our survey of Hungilrian literatore it will be weil to cast a glance over the ground we have travelled. We have seen that H ungary's efforts for its own preservation have been the main spring of its lite rature, efforts rendered more necessary by her history, geographical situation and ethnical relations. Th erefore patriotism en ters more into Hungarian th an into other literatures. It is the instinct of national self-preservation which we see in Count Széch enyi, though tran sfigu red by the statesman's genius, and which has al ways caused politics to bulk so largely in the life of the people and has affected the form of literatore by giving it a pre-eminently rhetorical character. To determi ne the value of H ungarian literatore we must consider its history and its amount. It was a thousand years ago that the H unga rians entered Europ e and founded a state, wh ich reacl1ed i ts greatest extent and power some six centuries later, when King Matthias occu pied Vienna. Afterwards, the greater pa.rt of the country fell under the Turkish yoke, and when the Turks were fin ally driven out, Hungary had fewer i nhabitants than London has now .
