WESTERN SLAVI.
CHAPTER I.
CZEKHO-SLOVAKIAN BRANCH.
SECTION I
HISTORY OF THE CZEKHISH OR BOHEMIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.
Of all the Slavic languages, the Bohemian dialect with its literature
is the only one, which, in the mind of the protestant reader, can
escite a more than general interest. Not so much indeed by its own
nature, in which it differs little from the other Slavic languages;
but from those remarkable circumstances, which, in the night of a
degenerate Romanism, made the Bohemian tongue, with the exception of
the voice of Wickliffe, the first organ of truth. Wickliffe's
influence, however great and decided it may have been, was
nevertheless limited to the theologians and literati of the age; his
voice did not find that responding echo among the common people, which
alone is able to give life to abstract doctrines. It was in Bohemia,
that the spark first blazed up into a lively flame, which a century
later spread an enlightening fire over all Europe. The names of Huss
and Jerome of Prague can never perish; although less success has made
them less current than those of Luther and Melancthon. In no language
of the world has the Bible been studied with more zeal and devotion;
no nation has ever been more willing to seal their claims upon the
Word of God with their blood.
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