SAFAf^IK
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his vast erudition and unusual ability as a philologist. His works deal principally with the early origins of the Slav language and race, and of the early literature of Bohemia. The latter works were very valuable at a time when the Bohemian language was again acquiring the dignity of a written language. Like Jungmann, Safafik also endeavoured to forward the advancement of his language by means of translations from more cultivated languages, and in his youth he also wrote poetry. But it is on his philological and archseological works on the Slav race that his fame is principally founded. Equal to Dobrovsky, and perhaps superior to Jungmann in erudition, some of his writings on these subjects are still standard works. Paul Joseph SafaSik (1795-1861), like KoUar, was a native of the Slav district of Northern Hungary. As the son of a Protestant clergyman he received his first education in his own country, and from his early youth gave proof of his enthusiasm for the Slavic race, which inspired him during his whole life. In 1815 he visited the then far-famed University of Jena in Germany, and on his return to Hungary accepted a situation as private He here became acquainted with tutor at Pressburg. Palackj^?, and the friendship that sprang up between them continued during the whole of their lives. In 1819 Safafik was appointed director of the gymnasium at Nov^ Sad His life here was (Neusatz), in Southern Hungary. embittered by constant persecution on the part of the Hungarian authorities, whose aversion to the Slav aspirations was as great as that of the German officials in Austria. Safaf ik's writings had meanwhile attracted attention at Prague, and some of the Bohemian patriots, though by
