THE LANGUAGE REFORM 105 of the city. " Is this," thought he, u the fate of so glorious a nation ? " And th en he vowed that he would sacrifice ali he possessed in order to raise his country, to inspire it with hope and confidence, and to lead it towards a prosperous future, even though he had to do it alone. A wooderfui resolve, but yet more wooderfui is it that the traveller fuifilled his promise. This young man's name was Stephen Széch enyi, the fou nder of modern Hungary. Hungarian Iiteraturc rea ched its high est level in the forties of the nineteenth century. The enthusiasm of the Ieaders gradually took possessi on of aU men's minds, and in the middle of the century a n ew ideal-th e demoeratic -s uddenly appeared. Those two ideals, patriotism and democracy, seized and dominated the minds of leaders and people alike. The voice of the lcaders rang out and awake ned an ever-widening circle of echoes. Literatore was the first to respond ; then the Press, which was just heginning to be a power in the lan d, awoke. Great orators helped in the work of stirring the hearts of the people. No wooder if, from th is hot, teeming soil, poetry suddenly sprang up, like a tropical flower of rapid gro wth and fascinating beauty. Su ch a fcrtilé soil was needfui for the develop ment of the national poetry, which, in its highest phase, is repcesented by Vörösmarty, Petőfi and Arany. The second great ideal was that of demo cracy, wh ich captivated the mind of Europe. The peasan t class carne into fashion in politics, as weil as in art and literature. The poetry of Arany and Petőfi had its origin in the popular tales and ballads, and it seems almost as if their poetry were but the ennobiing of these. u It is of no use denying it," writes Petőfi to Arany.
