Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/194

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180 HUN GARIAN LITERATURE Anll if, my tlur ltntl, I r1tum lo thu, Throughout thy bountls may thy sons blSsétl b1. Eőtvős was entitled to say of bimself that his life was spent in endeavouring to realise his ideas. In his poem, !Ily Will, h e says : "If my name is to survive, may. it be made memorable by no marble monument, but by the triumph of my ideas." But it is to be feared that the reverse has happened ; he has obtained a statue on the banks of the Danube , but his idealistic and humanitarian ideas have n o t yet triumphed. SIGISMUND KEMÉNY (1814-I 877) was a contemporary of Eőtvős, and only one year youn ger than he, but he commenced his activity as a writer several years later. He too was a novel ist, an advocate of the parliamen tary system, and one of Deák's fellaw workers. There was something ponderau s and camplex in his whole pers on ­ cllity, but he had the great and promisi ng quality of always going to first principles. He, like Nicholas Jósika, was horn in Transylvan ia. It is a curious fact that although hedidnotintend to became a doctor, but determined to be a writer, he took up the s t udy of medicine. He wished to know both the bodies and minds of men. He carne in time to play an i mportant political part, and edited Deák' s organ, the Pesti Napló. Towa rds the end of his life his mind became somewhat unhinged. He did not always recognise his frinds, and would sometimes sit m otionless for hours, murm uring to bimself the sad truth : 11 H ungarian politics are a difficult business. " Kemény's best works arc his historical novels. The chief feature of his activity as a writer was that he first amongst Hungarians e mployed the analytical method