TO THE STORK. This veteran for the regal house thinks life a forfeit due, 265 Andrew descends forevermore into the chilly tomb; Before again returning to politics, we shall insert one other poem "The Stork," which, as will be seen from its contents, was written after the end of the late war, and which became known in the country by means of secret circulation in manuscript. Lower Hungary, as some of the readers will perhaps be aware, is the favourite abode of the storks, who build their nests on the low thatched cottages, which they leave on the approach of winter, and which they never miss in finding when they return with gay spring. Of this poem, which exhibits a noble unaffected pathos, we are enabled to present a close but graceful rendering. TO THE STORK. The winter time is over and the fields are growing green, To build thy nest again where it before hath been, By the sunbeams glittering quiver, Away! spring comes not to the spot, Life is benumbed and frozen up for ever. Oh walk not through the fields, there is nothing there but graves! Oh roam not by the lake side! blood-crimsoned are its waves; Oh fly not to the house tops! all there that thou shalt find Are but the reeking embers that ruin left behind. 266 SPECIMENS OF MAGYAR POETRY Leave my house, nor tarry here- To build again thy nest, where, oh where! Hangs God's curse, and thou shalt hear From below. Fly away to the south where the sun waits for thee, Fly away! good bird, away! If thou meetest in thy flying With our wanderers in the south, to them say, We are dying— We are scattered far and wide Like a sheaf by storm untied- Some in the prison's gloom; Others wander in their sadness, dumb with woe- Terror gleaming in their eyes, To seek another fatherland beyond the Atlantic's flow. For the one to her so dear; Shame ne'er to be uprooted Like the oak tree at whose heart Cling the worms that devour it. Ever trying to betray, And kinsman against kinsman Speaketh lying words alway. FORMATION OF ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 267 Away, good bird away, give this message to the keeping Of thy silence lest the traitor should hear it and betray. Tell it not to those who wandering for fatherland are weeping, Lest their sorrow turn to loathing of the glad home far away. We turn now from poetry to science. The scientific department of literature was chiefly represented by the Academy of Science, called into life in 1830. As regards the organization of this institution, its labours were divided into the following departments, philology, philosophy, jurisprudence, natural science and history. But as general politics were excluded from their discussions by order of government, the reader may imagine that in jurisprudence and history, especially modern, the researches existed only in the imagination. The merits of this academy in reference to the culture of the Hungarian language are justly entitled to praise, though more was done in that line by the individual efforts of Fagarossy, Vajda, Block, and Szvoreny. One of the great errors committed by this body was its wasting much time in the discussion of abstract scientific questions, clearly expounded in the literature of the more civilized nations, and in works which might have been introduced with little trouble and expense. In fact, there was an apparent want of practical sense in the proceedings of this academy; for, instead of furnishing the nation with some valuable contributions to the earlier periods of Hungarian history, a task which would not have been much subjected to the mutilations of the censor, these savants often squandered their energies on farfetched speculations appertaining to the animal kingdom, or on such subjects as the ancient costume of the Magyars, efforts not the best fitted to raise the national 268 LITERATURE REPRESENTED BY ACADEMY. intellect.1 Of greater practical utility was the Kisfaludi Society, which issued many works of a character at once more popular and more useful. In spite of many defects inherent in a rising literature, the activity and zeal with which the cultivation of the native language and letters was carried on promised a rich future. Many who had already gained a name in the field of German literature, or were entirely engaged with it, began to apply themselves to the study and culture of the Hungarian; a fact too important to be here omitted. An unmistakeable sign of the spread of the Hungarian language among the 1 In philology and antiquarian research, in which branches the academy was best represented, particular mention must be made of Stephen Harvat ; of Fejer, who lately published a book on the origin of the Cumans; of Koller, the minister of the Protestant Sclave community at Pesth; and of Schedius. In philosophy, the name of Purgstaller stands foremost. It would, however, be unjust to pass by here without mention Dr Toldi, the secretary to the academy. Toldi, besides doing much to make the Hungarian known among the Germans, greatly contributed to the culture of the national idiom in Hungary; his energy not slackening even now in most unpropitious circumstances. The task this learned man has proposed to himself is the publication of a complete national library, comprising the three last centuries. His latest work is a history of Hungarian literature (Magyar Irodalom Története), which, however, though amply proving the author's research, is scarcely more than an index of unknown books and manuscripts. Under the head Hun Poetry, for example, all we are told is, that Priscus Rhetor saw how Attila used to be entertained at his court by a maiden chorus singing various Scythian lays; and that it is highly to be regretted that the said Priscus did not record some of these songs. What is wanted in Hungary is something in the style of Sismondi, Gervinus, or the recent brief History of English Literature by Spalding. QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 269 different races of the country was the successive issue of grammars and Hungarian-German dictionaries, both by the Academy and private authors, and which, though passing through several editions, were scarcely sufficient to supply the demand. And now to resume our political history— The time for the new Diet approached, and the questions which chiefly took hold of the public mind, were the complete emancipation of the serfs, and the participation by the nobles of a share in the burdens of the state. It may, however, here be remarked, that the principle of general taxation involved the question of a guarantee for a due and constitutional administration of finance; that is to say of publicity and responsibility. The public revenue of Hungary, it must be stated, amounted to thirty million of florins, a sum small indeed compared with the extent of the country, but too much for the treasury of Vienna; as the expenses attending the internal administration of Hungary were defrayed from the cassa domestica (house-tax), not included in the above amount. Among the aristocrats, those who strongly advocated the cause of the reform party, and identified themselves with it, were the Counts Louis and Casimir Batthyany, Ladislaus Teleki, and Baron Eötvös, the head of the centralists, and Baron Bela Venkheim; Szecheny keeping aloof alike from conservatives and reformers. This nobleman, having about this time abandoned all political questions to their fate, gave himself up with all his energies to the farther carrying out of practical improvements. Much connected as his name is with the introduction of steam communication on the Danube, and the erection of the magnificent suspension |