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INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
the circumstances, the aspirations, and the prospects of the Czechs, the Slavonic race inhabiting Bohemia[1].
‘Scarcely any country upon the surface of the globe has with so small an extent of territory been the scene of such great, memorable, and important transactions, as Bohemia; scarcely any nation, at least in modern history, has with such limited numbers stood forth so gloriously and mightily, as the Bohemian. There were times, when the princes of Bohemia ruled from the Baltic to the Adriatic; times, when all surrounding nations trembled at the sound of the Bohemian arms, and times, when the Bohemian mind was beaming with the brightness of
- ↑ I must here remark, that among the Bohemians, and probably the other Slavonians, it is not easy to become ‘admissus circum præcordia,’ and that the only road to the Czeskish heart is through the Czeskish language. When therefore I find even an ‘own correspondent’ from Prague in the Times speaking of ‘the Mädchen chattering most incomprehensible Slavonic at the pump,’ I at once see that his information upon certain points is questionable, and cease to notice more than the mere historical facts contained in his letter. I venture also to assert, for the sake of those interested in the study and comparison of languages, as such, that the different Slavonic dialects, as languages—I do not speak of their literature, which is still in course of development—are far more beautiful and philosophical than the German, or other modern languages at present considered necessary to a complete education.
