8o HUNGARIAN LITERATORE his reflections upon th eir babits and laws. Bessenyei wrote a novel of this kind, The Tra 'IJels of Ta rimenes. The country visited is the empire of Maria Theresa, which the author praises as the realm of happiness. In the book we m eet Maria Theresa and her enemy Frederi ck the Great, whose army is vanquished by that of the Empress. Voltaire had flattered Frederick the Great . Bessenyei exalted that monarch 's adversary, Maria Theresa. Voltaire was the first author who dealt successfully with the history of civilisation, and Bessenyei followed bim along that line also. He studied English literature as well as French, and tran slated, though crudely, Pope's Essay on Man, white his brother, Alexa nder Bessenyei, translated Milton's Paradise Lost. Alexander had also been enlisted to serve in the Lifeguards, but the gigantic and powerfully-built man had to leave the service because no horse could be found strong enough to carry bim. One of George Bessen yei's merits was his strong ad vo cacy of the fo undation of a H ungarian theatre, and of a scientific acad emy. There was a certain intellectual restlessness in Bessen yei's life, and his ideas fluctuated unaccountably. At first he determined to use his influence at Court on behalf of the H ungarian Reformatio n, then suddenly he became a Roman Catholic. This was, of course, highly appreciated by Maria Theresa, who re warded bim with a sinecure. After her death, however, she was succeeded by her son, Joseph II., an d it is one of life's littie ironies that this eminent and enlightened ruler deprived the apostle of rationalism of the post which he had gai ned more by his apo stasy than by his activity and merits. What could Bessenyei do now, disgraced by his monarch, and an object of suspicion in the eyes of his fellow
