renaissance were Slovaks. Towards the middle of the last century, certain Slovak patriots conceived the idea that in order to stir up the mass of the people to fight the Magyars, it would be advisable to abandon the Czech literary language, and adopt the local Slovak dialect. This separatist movement was accentuated by the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian dualism in 1867, which made the Slovaks members of another State, and completely separated them from the Czechs. This division of the two branches of the Czecho-Slovak nation has therefore existed only since the second half of the nineteenth century and has produced quite insignificant differences. By reason of their geographical position, the lot of the Slovaks has differed slightly from that of the Czechs; many of the sufferings which were inflicted on the Czechs were spared them, but on the other hand they sustained others which only indirectly affected the Czechs.
Briefly, the history of the Czecho-Slovaks may be summed up as follows:—
The Czech nation, inspired by a lofty idealism, has ever aimed throughout its history to attain to a high moral and religious conception of existence. Its activity has been concentrated on the search for moral and philosophical truths, and the realisation of ideals of justice and humanity. To this end the people of this nation have wished to live
