Perhaps this programme will prove too historical and too unpractical for the present day. The small commercial and industrial Csech nation is too far removed from the age of Jan Huss, and the Csech reformation has lost its significance for them. But deep down in the soul of the Csech people there still dwells a spark of the Hussite spirit. Of course, the battle-cry is nationalist, the phrasing that of the twentieth century, but the underlying spirit differs in no way from the righteous indignation of Huss, when he preached against high-handed oppression and violence. The physical inferior is never anxious to see his affairs settled by physical force. For this reason it is not a matter of indifference to the Csechs, whether they fight for a higher principle or merely for material advantage. At present they are principally fighting for their language, for the right to speak their own tongue—they are fighting against Germanization. Their strongest weapon in this fight is their striving for economic prosperity—a physical power through which they may hope to obtain a spiritual victory. The principal trait in the Csech character is _initiative_. The very name points to this, for “Csech” is derived from the old-Slav word “Chenti,” meaning “to will” or “to begin.” History finds the Csechs in the vanguard of all the Slav tribes in their wanderings westward. Their legendary leader was Csech, one of three brothers, and his tribe penetrated the farthest. In the Middle Ages the Csechs were the first to challenge the power of Rome, and to this day they send numbers of enterprising emigrants to all parts of the world. But the Csechs have one great fault—they are fickle. Their enthusiasm flashes up quickly and then as quickly dies down. This is the reason of the failure of the Hussite Reformation. The Germans finished what the Csechs began—Luther was the successor of Huss and completed his work. The Csechs are not by nature a commercial and industrial people. Their business capacity is born of necessity—it is a weapon, not a means of gain. It is kept going by an unwearied agitation on the part of the national leaders, and if the Csech national ideal should suffer shipwreck, then Csech finance, ambition, and industry will likewise perish.