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INTRODUCTION
19

the Slavic peoples a century hence. He foretells the recognition and use of the Czech and other Slavic tongues at mighty courts and in palaces where the Slav speech shall no longer be a Cinderella as in times past. The distinguished feats of his countrymen on many battlefields in the Great World War and the attainment of the independence of the Czechoslovaks as a result, would seem to show Kollár was a true prophet as well as a great poet.

František Palácký stands foremost among the historians of Bohemia, his work “Dějiny Národu Českého” (History of the Czech Nation) being accepted as absolutely authoritative and quoted as such by scholars of all nations. Palacký’s previous writings show his wide range of culture and knowledge. He founded and edited the Journal of the Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia, as well as several other publications significant of the spirit of the awakening in Bohemia. His scholarly work “The Beginnings of Czech Poetry Especially of Prosody” mark his early Slavonic inclination. Many philosophic and critical essays deal mainly with esthetic development. His political writings, particularly his discussions of “Centralization and National Equality in Austria” and “The Idea of the Austrian State,” have been widely quoted. It was Palácký who in 1848 asserted with the vision of a seer “We existed before Austria and we shall exist after there will be no Austria.”

The Slovak writer, Pavel Josef Šafařik, is second only to Kollár in the affection of his countrymen. He began