PALACKÝ AND CZECH CULTURE
and misunderstandings. By means of compromises, he attempted to unite feuding patriots. Many times, however, he met with no success. Palacký characterized the situation in the preface to Volume XI of the Časopis musea Království českeho in 1837. This essay is significant testimony to Palacký’s opinions with regard to questions of contemporary cultural politics. Describing the unfortunate conditions prevailing in Bohemia during the twenties, such as the disuse of the Czech language in science and public affairs, Palacký censured the division within the handful of Czech writers: “In Bohemia there have been two cultural streams. The German one, being connected with modern Europe, was broad, prosperous, and flourishing. . . . The Czech one was antiquated, narrow, poor, inadequate for the needs of our time, primitive, and based on the masses.”
Czech patriots were severely divided, and the conflicts among them had to be overcome. Conservative patriots considered the pre-White Mountain Czech language a binding and obligatory pattern, while the intellectuals, connected with European culture, endeavored to establish a modern language. Palacký understood the core of the problem, and while sympathizing with the younger generation of patriots, he refused their neologist tendencies: “We attempted to save the spirit that could revive the nation by dispensing with quarrels about letters, syllables, and words. These disputes almost killed us. Primarily, we sought literature for the educated middle classes of the Czech population, who would love it, defend it, and take care of it. We dismissed literature designed exclusively for the common people or a few select scholars. This has been the vital question of our literature.” The second decade of the nineteenth century witnessed a significant growth of Czech culture. With great success “old Bohemia was introduced into modern Europe and domesticated there.” But Palacký was convinced that the nation should aim at even higher goals. Competition in agriculture, industry, science, and culture with the developed world would not only yield benefits to the Czechs but also to the entire world. Palacký believed that “the epoch when local spiritual boundaries among the nations are disappearing has arrived. In spite of many existing languages, the free, rapid, and perpetual exchange of ideas and feelings in Europe is leading to the foundation of a higher, united European and, eventually, world literature.”
Palacký emphasized that every nation had not only its place among other nations, but also a specific mission which it was expected to complete and thereby bring a specific gift into the treasury of world culture. Filling gaps in knowledge with regard to the Slavs was the chosen task for the Czechs. Therefore, Palacký founded and edited a scientific journal for
