74

A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE

define the personality of God and His attributes accordFaith ing to the system of mediaeval scholasticism. is assumed as (Vfra) here, as in all Stitny's works, existent, and only incidentally is an attempt made to

The science of course reconcile religion with science. is that of the fourteenth century, which scarcely knew the words with " Greek endings, each the little passing bell That signifies some faith's about to die."

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Stitny's book, treating of abstract matters such as had never before been dealt with in Bohemian, is yet written in a clear, lucid, and forcible manner, and it is perhaps doubtful whether any other modern language had at that period arrived at a sufficient degree of development to produce a similar work on subjects which mediaeval In this respect custom reserved to the Latin language. Stitny was a true precursor of Hus, and Palacky has rightly said that a nation which produced and understood such a writer as Stitny could not henceforth be called rude and uncultivated. The portion of this work which has principally attracted the attention of Bohemian scholars is that dealing with Krasa (beauty), or rather, " the wisdom of God, as as Stitny words shown to us in the beauty and splendour of creation." impossible to quote detached passages from this treatise, as contained in chapters ix, may be called, which to xii. of Stitny's book, nor are these chapters perhaps specially characteristic of the general purpose of Stitny's work. Some of the ideas expressed in these chapters are considerably in advance of the times, and his theories sometimes recall the views of modern German writers on aesthetics.