Thousands of warriors have given up their lives for their country, yet the commandment of Tyrš „to insure the defence of our nation“ was abandoned for a still higher aim: to insure our freedom.
In July 1860 Miroslav Tyrš was proclaimed doctor of philosophy at the University of Prague. 28 years old (he was born at Děčín on September 17th 1832), he was, up to this time, hardly known in Prague society; yet, soon afterwards, he began to intervene in the awakening of national life. Having been refused admittance as a lecturer at the University of Prague, he decided to become a writer.
On February 16th 1862 he founded the Sokol-Union in Prague. Together with Jindřich Fügner, a humanitarian of high intellectual culture and his best friend, he began to propagate democratic ideas and to work. restlessly on their realisation. Having founded a gymnastic club – seemingly but a trifling enterprise – Tyrš knew already at that time that he was preparing a work which would take deep roots in the whole country.
He had no predecessor. Ideas and organisation, from the beginning to the end, was his own work. He had studied history and knew how important a part health plays in the evolution of a people. Darwin, „the immortal Briton“, had persuaded him of the necessity of the „struggle for life“, a fight in which health is the best arm. Bodily health and strength are the first conditions of courage, perseverance and readiness for action: they are therefore indispensable for the preservation of the species. In order to suppress brutality and violence, strength must be mastered by discipline.
„Voluntary discipline ennobles the heart, educates firm characters, and disposes us to self-denial and self-sacrifice, when common interest demands it.“
Tyrš was deeply convinced of the connexion between morality and physical health. If Karel Slavoj Amerling has said, „every Czech must be twice as diligent than foreigners are“ (Tyrš has a similar sentence: „Between all nations of the world, the Czech nation needs it most to concentrate its strength on self-defence.“); if Purkyně has shown us the importance of independent scientifical and artistic culture, Tyrš has been the first not only in our country to teach that morality is of the highest value for the future evolution of a nation. Being convinced of the connexion between health and morality (the history of Hussitism had given him proofs of if), he wished not only to prepare his nation for the brutal and material struggle for life, but he also desired to
