Page:Bohemia under Hapsburg misrule (1915).pdf/157

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

V

PLACE OF BOHEMIA IN THE CREATIVE ARTS

By Will S. Monroe, Professoor State Normal School, Montclair, N. J., Author of “Bohemia and the Čechs,” “Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform,” etc.[1]

IT remains to call attention to the place of Bohemia in letters, art, music, education, social and religious reform. In this connection it may be pointed out that the civilization of the Bohemians is distinctly older than that of the German-Austrians, and that it developed wholly independent of the Teutonic art movements in Germany and Austria.

In the matter of literature, Bohemia occupies a place of distinction and priority. The development of the vulgar tongue took place at a comparatively early period. Some of the most ancient of the poetic documents date back to very early times. Indeed, the prose literature of Bohemia, after the

  1. Professor Monroe has made numerous pilgrimages to Bohemia and his knowledge of Bohemians is intimate and thorough. He is a “Bohemian by adoption.”

153