owing to transportation difficulties. It appears that the Magyars have excellent scouting and espionage service, and their general staff in charge of the energetic Col. Stromfeld, formerly on the Austro-Hungarian general staff, is working quite smoothly. After May 10 Magyars concentrated troops released by the stopping of Roumanian advance in the Šalgo Taryan district and pushed north toward the old demarcation line at Filakov. Our army avoided battle, but the Magyars tried the favorite bolshevist method of maneuvering armored trains in front of our positions, until their preparations were so evident that we had to drive away their armored train on the track Businz-Fuszta and get ready for any emergency. That seems to have had an effect on the Magyars, and according to last reports they are again evacuating this wedge, penetrating deeply into our lines.
By the occupation of Miškovec, Nové Město, Čáp and Munkacs we have acquired a system of railroads, the lack of which we felt formerly very painfully. Trafic is now open on the lines Lučenec-Miškovce, Miskovce-Košice, Miškovce—Nové Město, Čáp-Užhorod, Čáp-Munkacs. The line between Nové Město and Čáp, and thus connection between Košice and Užhorod, is interrupted by criminal destruction of the bridges over the Bedreg. But Roumanian troops are already in Tokaj, and through friendly relations with them we shall be able to run trains from Košice to Užhorod by way of Nyiregyhaza-Čáp, as soon as necessary repairs have been accomplished. With these main lines we acquired control of six local lines. What is of inestimable importance for us is the restoration of easy communications with eastern Galicia and the Ukrainian republic.
PROLOGUE.[1]
Do not expect that I shall lead you either into the shady garden of Academus that you may listen there to the teachings of the divine Plato, or into the dark shade of the richly green laurel, where, by ambrosial night, your mind may be filled with the delights of the music of the heavenly spheres.
We shall not step into that world “where Socrates tells everybody that he knows nothing, where Diogenes, looking out of a barrel, derides all the passersby, where Timon curses everybody, Democritus laughs at it all, while, on the other hand, Heracleitus weeps, Epicurus feasts, and Anaxarchus says that all these things do not count.”
I shall not make you acquainted with philosophers “who know the truth of every thing, without whose knowledge neither heaven shows forth nor chasm hides anything;” but with philosophers in whose young bodies coursed a fiery blood, who sang, aspired, and loved; with whom girls, otherwise disdainful of the bearded, learned philosophers, gladly conversed, and, in fact, whom they even loved.
Besides the venerable, six-grade college in Litomyšl, Francis I. founded in 1802 a three-year philosophical course, which, in 1842, was changed into a two-year course. This faculty, set under the supreme oversight of the bishops of Hradec, was an independent institution, under a special dean, and was a part of the university course.
Anyone who had passed the college studies could become a “philosopher”. First he attended the lectures in “logic”, and if he successfully passed the examinations, was promoted to “physics”.
Everybody who wished to study law, or medicine, or wished to attain any higher office, was required to show a diploma testifying completion of his philosophical studies. Therefore it often happened that even older men who already held some small office, came back to the philosophical studies; thus, beside the youths sat mature men, listening to the lectures of the Piarist fathers.
How lively was it, then, on the Jewish Hill, which formerly, in the Brethren’s time, was called Olivet! In the nearby renaissance castle lived his lordship with a numerous retinue of servants, and in the Piarist college lived many brethern of the order and regular clerics; and when in the morning the student bell pealed forth from the college tower, the hill swarmed all around with students and auditors, of whom there were registered as many as three hundred in logic, and some seventy in physics.
Thus, having finished my prologue, I hasten to raise the curtain.
CHAPTER I.
It was in the year 1847, toward the end of April.
The spring was coming early and pleasantly. The trees of the small park around the Litomyšl castle were already budding, and many a thicket was covered with a gentle dress of green. In the
- ↑ The title of this novel in Bohemian is “Philosopher’s Story”, and the prologue is intended to explain the title.
