The Bookman

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 57, 4 September 1926, Page 21

The Bookman

JOHN HUSS

A MEDIEVAL TORCH.

" "John Huss and His Followers." By j. , ; Jan Herben. London: Geoffreyi Bles. I Cjv'UTo mairy-.the narae of Czech-Slovakia ! \ is but a reminder of the Great' War— ; the -name of one of the new States that J sprang' into existence as a result of I _„: . tJjitt upheaval. But the statement of j history sees in the emergence ; il': ipf-' Czecho-Slovakia from a welter, of * nations the culmination of a ? Vtimbvement which may be said to have ',■ iS:-ii«iguu when in 1415' John Huss suffered ° aV'^eath at the stake for his heresy. Tins' ;'.7.tii:the . fourteenth centur;- the, Czechs ; Sywd.. no history of their own, but from ; ' then.on a Czech nation did emerge—a ■ ' lifttion with a'full consciousneEC of its '. Czech and Slavonic nationality and I with; a typical national character. And I it was John Huss who . directed. and '. moulded nation into a line of acf -,"iia£ and thought, more especially the 1 ,'' latter, from which it has never swerv- ;, wed. -He lighted a torch in the darkness ■^"'■^tif^Burope's Middle Ages, and although • the light has,time and again been nearly extinguished it has always smouldered sufficiently to burst again into flame when the time was ripe. Now only may it be said has John Huss come into .'JiiL.a'wn. The new Republic ha^ about fourteen millions of people within its it is practically self-support-:i»g; the people are highly cultured, and ;'it:;may be said that here once moire is ;"a people without a sword." Theirs •is a-policy of peace and universal brotherhood, and they ow« it all to Huss, : Eomensky, and Masarzk. But ' Bohemia has really .but one hero—Huss, and-'Huss stil lives and will continue to-live so long, as there are Czechs to ilovi" his memory, and to practise his undying principles of. right and truth. ■.Huss strove to bring into life something -tyeautful, pure, and " desirable —human '■Jove'in the spirit of Christ's teachings —in. order to rid the world of evil, or at" least that the evil be lessened. In this he persisted, even to .* ,shameful .—-death at the stake; for that also stand his followers-at the present day. What ■•"•'■ the lest of Europe owes to John Huss is a question over which historians dif-~--fCT, but all accoTd to him a place with KSL t j, oge wno formulated and died for ■ , high ideals. In "John Huss and His Followers," Mr. Jan Herben writes with . enthusiasm about his own national hero. No was ever free from bias, so :*•?•• the-author m&y be forgiven if he at times seems to read too much into the life of his hero. He has produced abook which makes fascinating reading. It is no, dry. history that he records, -but a vivid narrative of the hopes and „„. aspirations o f a; people who never lost faith in the hours of darkest ;'- j"trijtl. And it is. with roseate colours .(t'.'that he paints the future of the new and of the nation whch at —thlorig last has been given a chance to find its destiny and to live out the life " the war-weary world is now seeking— the life of a universal brotherhood. "We^Bohemians are not a large State ; J4llA ;»n.d. numerically too -we are a rather ".*■", "ejaiall nation. But there were still i/tp'jef.s.of the Hussites and Brethren in the .•"CJpurteenth century, yet they contrived -AVtofgive light to Europe. Such are our .aspirations for the future." Thus ends a book of great interest, not only : "to':the student of the history of medieval Europe, but also to those who seek, ,-• ■ enlightenment on the future of modern Europe. ' • • ■ ■