The insurrection of 1863 was a blow to Szujski's hopes for Poland's future, and he resolved to devote his whole life to seeking the causes of his country's misfortunes, with a view to her regeneration. At the time that he was publishing the poems: "The Servant of the Tombs", "The Defence of Czestochowa", and the dramas, "George Lubomirski" and "Wallas", he placed himself in the front rank of Polish historians by his work "Some Truths of our History" (1865). "No nation", he said, "can fall save through her own fault, nor rise again, save by her own intelligent labour and spiritual activity". He founded the "Polish Review" (1866), and the next year brought out "Hedwige" and "Twardowski", both dramas.