Page:Poetry of the Magyars.djvu/87

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MAGYAR BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
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ists, Lutherans, and Unitarians. Ever labouring for the advance of his country's literature, he laid the foundations of a society of Belles Lettres on an extended scale, which has been sanctioned and recommended by many of the authorities, but has not yet obtained the patronage of the King. In 1825, he was made commissary of the Buda district, and there is his place of abode. He is one of the most zealous, one of the most enlightened and fascinating of the Magyar writers. He is the author of the article in the Leipzig Conversations Lexicon on the literature of his country, and his name will be found associated with honourable titles to distinction and affection over the whole field of Magyar intelligence.

The odium theologicum, which may be translated malevolence in its worst shape, sometimes breaks very offensively through the writings of Hungarian divines. Yet I have heard from Döbrentei a story so honourable to all concerned, that I record it here with exceeding satisfaction. Döbrentei is a Protestant, and one who, to my knowledge, has made sacrifices to his religious convictions. In 1822, when he returned from Transylvania, he visited, in Tét, the well-known Catholic Priest, Horvát Endre, who lived in his Pázmándi Magány, (Pazmandian Solitude,)

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