396

A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN

LITERATURE

burg, Palacky published a translation of some of the poems of Ossian, which was enthusiastically welcomed by his friends. It was at Prague only that he decided on writing his History of Bohemia, which made him the foremost man of his nation, and which he has himself described as " especially the work of my whole life." Palack^'s preliminary labours in the archives of his own country and then in those of Germany and Italy have already been noticed. Of the immense difficulties which Palack^'s historical work encountered he has himself given an interesting account. All printed writings were then in Austria and Bohemia under the control of the " censureoffice," to which I have already referred. The Government, there is no doubt, was in principle opposed to the publication of a history of Bohemia founded on the best available documents, that is to say, of a work really deserving the name of a history. They were too ignorant to know to how great an extent such a work would contradict the short accounts of the past of Bohemia — written with a strongly Romanist and antiBohemian tendency, and founded on Hajek's chronicle — that were then in general use ; but they somehow felt that this would be the case. " The Austrian Government was convinced," Palack^^ writes, "that its past conduct as regards Bohemia would not obtain praise from the tribunal of history. What occurred during the Thirty Years' War and since that period in the interior of Bohemia is still one of history's secrets ; it makes the few who have attempted slightly to lift the veil under which these events are hidden shudder." In 1836 the first volume of Palacky's History of BoheIt was published in German, as were all mia appeared.