Jan Evangel Purkyně although best known in science as a pioneer physiologist especially for his studies of the human eye, and as the founder of the laboratory method which he formulated as professor of physiology at Vratislav and later established in the University of Prague in whose medical faculty he served as the most prominent European authority for fully twenty years, was nevertheless active in a literary way, producing many essays, some poems and valuable translations of Tasso’s “Jerusalem” and Schiller’s lyrics.
Jan Kollár, the idol of Slovak literature, after a thorough education completed by careful theological studies devoted himself to the cause of his people in the Protestant church in Budapest which he was called to serve and where he remained for thirty years despite frequent attacks from both Germans and Magyars. His chief bequest to the Czechoslovak people is his collection of poems entitled “Slávy Dcera” (The Daughter of Sláva). The word “Sláva” admits of two interpretations—“Glory” and “Slavia,” the allegorical representation of the entire Slavic group just as “Columbia” stands for America. In the poems, Kollár addressed his inspired sonnets to Slavia in whom are at once blended the conceptions of the daughter of the mythical goddess of the Slavs and of his sweetheart, Mina. In this collection, printed a hundred years ago, Kollár, in numerous songs argues for the union of all the Slav groups and predicts that vast progressive changes and wondrous achievements will be realized by each of
