centuries may yet be repaired by time." The fame of Kollar's introduction is so great that I have translated a considerable part of it, and I am therefore yet more limited in my quotations from the sonnets themselves. Those of the first canto, where the love-motive is still strong and enters into a quaint rivalry with the author's Slav enthusiasm, are the earliest and most valuable fruits of Kollar's muse. Čelakovský[156] was undoubtedly right in stating that the poetic genius of Kollar left him with his younger years. In the twelfth sonnet of the first book Kollar describes his hesitation between the two subjects that inspired him. There is an easily noticeable echo of Anacreon in the song. The poet writes:-- "_I wished to sing of the thrones of the Bohemian kings, of the_ _arrival of the brothers, of Vlasta and Libussa,[157] of Attila, the scourge of God, and how he taught his Huns to use the crossbow._ "_I wished to sing of the golden Carpathians, the wines of Tokay,_ _the splendour of the moon; but when I touched the strings of my_ _lyre, 'Mina,' and again 'Mina,' alone resounded in my ears._ "_In simple style I wished to write of fables, flowers, kingdoms,_ _but my pen, self-willed, traces other characters than those that I intended._ "_My speech also does not obey my will, and what when in company_ _my heart carefully conceals my rash tongue reveals._" The singular mixture of love and national enthusiasm already noted appears quaintly--it would be severe to say grotesquely--in another sonnet of the first book. Kollar writes:-- "_Once when a heavy sleep closed her weary little eyelids, I for_ _half an hour practised kissing her as a true Slav should._ "_My kisses were not such as Roman, Greek, or German describes--sensual buffooneries. They were pure, proper kisses, such as the customs of our Russian brothers allow._ "_Thus then did I kiss my love: from the forehead downward to_ _the chin, then in the shape of a cross from one little ear to the other._ "_On this voyage twice I reached the little rose-garden of her lips, through which my soul enters into hers._" Of the sonnets of the second canto I shall quote one in which Kollar's enthusiasm for "Slavia," the Slav world, which he distinguishes from the goddess "Sláva," appears most clearly. He writes:-- "_Slavia, Slavia! Thou name of sweet sound but of bitter memory; hundred times divided and destroyed, but yet more honoured than ever._ "_From the Ural Mountains to the summit of the Carpathians, from the deserts near the equator to the lands of the setting sun, thy_ _kingdom extends._ "_Much hast thou suffered, but ever hast thou survived the evil_ _deeds of thy enemies, the evil ingratitude also of thy sons._ "_While others have built on soft ground, thou hast established_ _thy throne on the ruins of many centuries._"