# Bohemia's case for independence/The National Spirit of the Czecho-Slovaks

VII
THE NATIONAL SPIRIT OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS
Thus we had three inveterate enemies who continually opposed the accomplishment of the task so enthusiastically undertaken by us.
By our energy and sheer force of will we succeeded in contributing our share to the progress of civilisation. In the Middle Ages our literature was highly developed, and our country gave birth to such men as Hus, Chelčický, and Comenius. We have given the world an example of a people who placed liberty of conscience and a lofty idealism above all else; we were the pioneers of the modern philosophy of individualism, and, thanks to the devotion of a small handful of courageous men, we have succeeded in regenerating our country, in bringing it back to new life, after a martyrdom unparalleled in history.
Our national "awakeners," inspired by our ancient moral and religious ideals, now spread them broadcast. Dobrovský, Kollár, Šafařík, Palacký, are the men who rendered unforgettable services to the Slav world. Dobrovský and Šafařík are famous for their linguistic and ​archæological studies; Kollár was first to conceive the idea of Slav solidarity; Palacký is one of the most remarkable historians of Europe, and the importance of his work far surpasses the narrow boundaries of the history of a small Slav nation.
​We have our national painters, sculptors, musicians, and our Slovak peasant art and industries. Their work compares favourably with that of more developed nations.
And we have succeeded in accomplishing all this by our own endeavours, for the Austrian Government has ever taken every means to strangle our development. After paying Vienna vast sums in rates and taxes, we were able by making great sacrifices to save such little sums as were required to keep up our education, to assist our artists and architects, and to aid our writers and societies with private subscriptions.
Moreover, we have remained faithful to our traditions of a lofty idealism. We have no such philosophers as Nietzsche; no historians like Mommsen and Treitschke, nor politicians like Bismarck; but the humanitarian and idealist thought of Hus, Chelčický, the Moravian Brothers, Dobrovský, Kollár, Palacký, is to be tound in the work of the writers already mentioned, Mácha, Vrchlický, Čech, Machar, and Březina, and in the minds of men like the publicist Havlíček, the statesman Rieger, and the politician and philosopher Masaryk. We might have followed the German method of violence, and, by calling to our rescue the millions of Eastern Slavs, have thrown off our yoke. But we have always refused to follow this policy. It is in this humanitarian and ​idealist character, reflected in our history, and represented in each of our great men, that we most resemble our brother Slavs, the Russians. If we remain profoundly Czech, we are also profoundly Slavs.
It would be possible also to deduce this national characteristic of the Czecho-Slovaks from their relations with France. The efforts of John Hus, Chelčický, the Moravian Brethren, and Comenius for freedom of conscience had a direct bearing on the individualistic philosophic movement in France which led to the French Revolution, and which created the France of to-day.
The Czech nation, down-trodden, and almost annihilated by centuries of persecution, found in the French Revolution the philosophy which brought them new life, and enabled them to resist the Teutonic pressure. This national revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was the work of writers and publicists, the majority of whom were nourished by the idealist doctrines of the French philosophers. The Czech spirit, profoundly idealist and humanitarian, could not but find something akin to itself in French philosophy, full of noble ideals as it is.
It is also well known that in 1848 Palacký, when starting the struggle against the Germans, Austria, and the Magyars, took for his own the great motto of the French Revolution, "Liberty, Equality, ​Fraternity," basing on it all his efforts for the liberation of his country.
Later on, in 1869, Rieger addressed a manifesto to France, in which he referred to the sympathy existing between the two nations, and showed, too, that it was to the interest of French policy to aid the Czechs in their struggle against their common foe, the Germans.
In conclusion, we may recall the protest of the Czech nation in 1870. Amused to indignation against the Prussian aggressors, and following with immense concern the trend of military events, they vehemently protested, through the medium of the Bohemian Diet, against the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. The following passage may be quoted from this memorable document:—
"The Czech nation cannot but express its most ardent sympathy with noble and glorious France, which to-day is defending its independence and national soil, which has accomplished so much for the advancement of civilisation and the principles of humanity and liberty.
"The Czech nation is convinced that such a humiliation as the tearing of a strip of territory from a nation so illustrious and heroic, so full of just national pride, would become a source of unending wars, and therefore of unending injuries to humanity and civilisation.
"The Czechs are a small people, but their spirit ​and their courage are not small. They would be ashamed by their silence to let the world believe that they approve of this injustice, or that they dare not make their protest against it because of its underlying power.
"Their name must go down to history untarnished. They must and will remain faithful to the spirit of their ancestors, who were the first in Europe to proclaim the principle of freedom of conscience, and who in the face of an enemy superior in numbers, have fought to the point of exhaustion."