Bohemia’s contribution to literature
Generally speaking the love of books extends from the scholar to the street laborer—it is universal; to have books, to cherish and treasure them is part of the religion of the Bohemians.
Having touched on poetry and fiction, it remains for me to at least mention some of the more noted scientific writers, the list of whom is well nigh inexhaustible. Suffice it here to mention a few representing each line of endeavor.
After Palacký, the most noted historians, most of them still living, are Goll, Novotný, Rezek, Dvořák, Pekař, and Niederle. Their work is marked by tireless labor, exceptional conscientiousness and most praiseworthy thoroughness. The literary critics are represented by Hostinský, Krejčí, and Šalda. The world-famous authorities on political science are Dr. Alvín, Bráf, Dr. Kaizl, and Dr. Karel Kramář, the last made famous during the war by the designs of the Austrian terror upon his life. Kramář suffered a most cruel martyrdom in the Austrian prisons, though he was during his whole life a most loyal Austrian who foresaw the calamity into which the Austrian government plunged following the leadership of Prussia whose victim she had become.
Pedagogy and philosophy are represented by Dr. Krejčí, Dr. J. Drtina, Lindner, and others.
Of the explorers, the best known is E. St. Vráz; others of importance are Jos. Kořenský and Emil Holub, particularly well known in England.
By far the most powerful figure in both the scientific and political group of writers is Tomáš G. Masaryk, a Moravian Slovak, a philosopher, a statesman, the foremost leader of the Bohemian nation today, the martyr for the cause he believes in. He is without a doubt the greatest Bohemian living, and surely the most respected at home and abroad. Spiritually, he is the lineal descendant o Jan Hus and Comenius, and the illustrious martyrs of truth who followed. He was the conscience of the Bohemian nation before the war, he is its soul now.
