Strossmayer’s activity was pursued with ruthless enmity in Vienna and Budapest, and, even as he was the best-loved man among his own people, he was the best-hated enemy of the Germans and the Magyars. They tried by every possible means to minimize his power, and agitated in the Vatican for his recall to Rome. But Leo XIII. was not only the personal friend of Strossmayer, but also the friend of the Slavs, and Viennese diplomacy failed in its object. Then followed disgraceful intrigues, and endeavours to represent Strossmayer as a traitor. Among other accusations, it was alleged that he had exchanged incriminating telegrams with the Tsar, in which he was said to have advocated the detachment of the Southern Slav provinces from Austria. Strossmayer’s reply to these insinuations was truly characteristic. Several years after this alleged exchange of telegrams the Emperor Francis Joseph came to Croatia for the grand manœuvres, and Bishop Strossmayer was one of the guests at the great reception in Belovar, where the Emperor had his headquarters. The Emperor took the opportunity to sharply reprimand the Bishop for his conduct. Strossmayer retorted with equal sharpness “My conscience is clear, your Majesty,” then brusquely turned his back and ostentatiously walked out of the hall. Circumstances made it impossible to celebrate Strossmayer’s courage, but the people rejoiced in this new proof that their champion feared no risk when it was a case of defending the freedom and interests of his people.

Strossmayer was no dreamer, but above all things a practical statesman. He knew that whoever hopes to win a final success must first carefully prepare the ground. Any attempt to detach the Southern Slav Kingdoms from the Monarchy by force would have been unadvisable, and moreover, a dangerous and futile enterprise. Therefore, the political party of which Strossmayer was the leader made it their business to see that the stipulations of the Agreement were scrupulously observed, knowing well that a strict observance of the Agreement—if only for a time—would give the nation the much-needed chance of economic improvement, and thus pave the way to future independence. In this policy they were supported by the entire nation, who by their very unanimity proved their political fitness. Twenty years’ martyrdom under Count Khuen-Hedervary had not enervated the nation; on the contrary, they grew strong through adversity; and, with their eyes fixed upon their spiritual guide and protector, they steadfastly went forward towards their goal. Khuen-Hedervary’s bribery, intimidation, everlasting trials for high treason, prison and the gallows, all these had only incited them to further resistance. When, bowed with age, Strossmayer finally had to resign his active part in politics, we saw the people whom his spirit had inspired suddenly turn upon their oppressors. In 1903, the whole country rose in rebellion as one man, and Khuen-Hedervary’s power was broken. Even he had to admit that his twenty years’ rule of ruthless oppression had merely defeated its own object, that it had united the people whom he had sought to weaken, and strengthened that which he had hoped to destroy.

Strossmayer lived to see Khuen’s resignation, and his last days were cheered by a gleam of light—which alas! proved only illusory—shed upon the path of his country; yet as he closed his eyes for ever, he realized that he had not given his all to Croatia in vain, and that the hour was not far off when his ideals should become realities.

He died in 1905, but his spirit lives on in his people and his memory shines among them like a guiding star to point the way.

III.

The popular rising in 1903 opened new channels for the national struggle; it was also the prelude to the hardest and bitterest time that the Southern Slav people have yet been called upon to face. Khuen’s successor was Count Theodore Pejacsević, a Croatian noble, who was no great statesman, but at least a good administrative official. He gave the distracted country a brief time of quiet, equitable government, and deserves great credit for abolishing Khuen’s system of corruption. Meantime the strongly Nationalist parties in Croatia had formed a block,—the Serbo-Croat Coalition,—and Count Pejacsević found it impossible to raise a pro-Hungarian majority in Parliament. Shortly afterwards the Hungarian Opposition also rose into conflict with the Crown, and the situation became involved both in Hungary and Croatia. The Hungarian Opposition applied to the Serbo-Croat Coalition for support in their struggle and promised that, if their party were returned, they would grant all Croatia’s demands as embodied in the Agreement of 1867. Negotiations were carried on by Francis Kossuth and Geza Polonyi on behalf of Hungary, and by Frano Supilo as delegate of the Serbo-Croat Coalition. These negotiations resulted in the Resolution of Fiume (October, 1905), which stipulated for the political co-operation between the Hungarian and Serbo-Croat parties, and secured considerable advantages to Croatia in the event of success. The Resolution of Fiume was in every way a masterpiece of policy and diplomacy, and was in all its details the achievement of Frano Supilo, who was the popular leader in Croatia at the time. In the election of 1905 the Coalition won a brilliant victory. Not one Government candidate was returned, and the small Opposition consisted of partizans of Ante Starćević’s one-time idealist, patriotic constitutionalist party, which however, since his death, had passed under the control of Jewish solicitors, and was so committed to a purely Austrian Christian-Socialist policy. As the Hungarian Opposition had likewise scored a victory, the Croatian Cabinet was composed of representatives of the Serbo-Croat Coalition, with Count Pejacsević retained in office as “ut conditio sine qua non.” Croatia enjoyed a short respite and began to look forward to better times. But her hopes were once more doomed to disappointment. The perfidious Magyars once more failed to keep their word. So long as they needed the Serbs and Croats they were full of love and brotherliness, but when they had gained their point, they discarded the mask of false friendship. Francis Kossuth, having become Handelsminister (Minister of Trade) in the Hungarian Cabinet in 1907, introduced a bill on the control of the Railways which was the most flagrant and outrageous infringement of the Agreement as yet attempted. It provided that thenceforth the language used on the railway-system, even in Croatian territory, was to be Hungarian, although it had been specially stipulated in the Agreement—which stands in the place of a fundamental constitutional law—that Croatian was to be official tongue in all joint offices within Croatian territory. The Serbo-Croat Coalition, which is represented by forty members in the Hungarian Parliament, rose in wrath against the Bill, and declared war to the knife upon the Hungarian Government. The conflict in the Hungarian Parliament is known all over Europe. The Croats and Serbs pursued a policy of obstruction, which fairly paralyzed the House and made parliamentary discussion of the Railway Bill quite impossible. To get it passed Kossuth so worded his Bill that it was contained in one paragraph, empowering the Government to deal with the Pragmatic (administrative business of the country) at their discretion as part of the Order of the Day.

The rupture with Hungary was now complete. The Serbo-Croat Coalition transferred the conflict to Croatia, and the nation began to agitate for detachment from Hungary. The Parliament was dissolved, but the Coalition was again victorious in the election. On the resignation of the Croatian Government, Alexander v. Rakodczay was appointed Ban, but failing to raise a party friendly to the Government he was forced to resign his office in two months. The next Ban to be appointed was Baron Paul Rauch, who boldly entered his capital town of Zagreb, but was received with hostile demonstrations and showers of stones. It speaks well for his courage that he was not affected by this reception, and even introduced himself to the Parliament with great pomp. His reception in Parliament was one great demonstration of hostility, so that he could not even read the Royal message. He had to fly the building with his Ministerial staff, and Parliament was officially dissolved the same day. Baron Rauch formed a Government party of venal upstarts and discredited characters, secured the support of the now thoroughly demoralized “constitutionalist party,” and ordered a new election. Everything was done to intimidate the electorate, with the result that not one of Rauch’s candidates was returned. This Parliament was dissolved without even having been summoned, and Rauch embarked on a reign of terror which can only be compared to that of Germany in the Cameroons. He organized the Jewish-constitutionalist party into bands which went by the name of the “Black Hand.” Their motto was “For the Emperor, and for Croatia,” and their weapons were murder and assault, which they were allowed to use with impunity against their opponents. At the same time an organized judicial persecution of the Serbs was set on foot. But even this tyranny could not break the national resistance.

At this juncture a new contingency arose. The Monarchy was preparing to annex Bosnia and Hercegovina, and a suitable pretext had to be found. The Government accordingly invented the “Greater Serbian agitation.” The heroic struggle of the Serbo-Croat Coalition was represented as being the outcome of a Greater Serbian agitation, and Baron Rauch was commissioned to unmask this “widespread criminal conspiracy.” In the summer of 1908, to the amazement and consternation of the people, large numbers of Serbs, chiefly priests, school-masters and business men, were arrested, and the official Press triumphantly announced that a horrible, widespread and highly treasonable propaganda had been discovered! The preliminary investigations lasted a long time, and March 3rd, 1909, saw the opening of the proceedings against the “traitors” who had conspired with Serbia for the detachment of all the Slavonic South from the Monarchy. The trial lasted till October 5th, when all the accused parties received very heavy sentences. Immediately afterwards the Austrian historian Dr. Heinrich Friedjung stated in the Viennese Neue Freie Presse, that the leaders of the Serbo-Croat Coalition were also implicated in this conspiracy, especially Frano Supilo, Grga Tuškan and Božidar Vinković, and that his accusation was founded on documentary evidence. Hereupon the whole Serbo-Croat Coalition took proceedings against Dr. Friedjung for libel. The result of this case, which was fought in Vienna, caused a European sensation. It was conclusively proved that all the documentary evidence against the Coalition, both in the Zagreb and the Viennese trials, had been forged by order of Baron Aehrenthal, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Count Forgach, the Austrian Ambassador in Belgrade. Friedjung himself confessed as much in court. The consequence of this unparalleled exposé was, that the King-Emperor had to rescind the sentences already passed in the Zagreb trial.17 Meantime, however, the desired object had been gained, and Bosnia-Hercegovina was annexed contrary to the will of all the Slavs.

But, with scandalous details incidental to the annexation, Baron Rauch’s mission had been brilliantly fulfilled. Soon afterwards Kossuth’s perfidious Government was turned out and Croatia’s old oppressor, Count Khuen Hedervary, became Premier. Khuen, however, was a personal enemy of Rauch, and occasioned his recall. In his place Nikolaus von Tomašić was appointed Ban of Croatia—a most eminent and highly-respected Croatian scholar, but politically a satellite of Khuen. He did his best to restore order, and to this end negotiated with the Serbo-Croat Coalition. Frano Supilo protested most emphatically against this. He had already had exhaustive experience of Magyar perfidy, and had no desire to see his people once again walk into the trap. But the Coalition was perhaps weary of the struggle—perhaps they still hoped for fair dealing, and accordingly entered into a compact with Tomašić which made peaceful government possible so long as the rights of the nation were respected. On the strength of this compact several Government candidates were returned at the next election; after which Tomašić promptly ignored the Coalition and governed only with his own party. Supilo’s prophecy was fulfilled, and the Coalition had once more to join the Opposition. Tomašić was overthrown but the Austro-Hungarian Government replied by sending Herr von Cuvaj, the Terrorist Commissioner, and suspending the Constitution. These were the days of bitterest misery and unscrupulous tyranny in Croatia. Cuvaj ruled with the knout, and the knout only. Police espionage flourished, and all personal, political and civil liberty was set at naught. All this time the Balkan War was raging, and woe to the Serb or Croat who dared to rejoice at his brother’s victories. But, when the Balkan Alliance was victorious, the Southern Slavs knew that from henceforth they could rely on a measure of support from their kinsmen. Vienna and Budapest were equally perspicacious and realized the advisability of changing their tactics. Cuvaj was recalled and Count Stephen Tisza, one of the most inveterate enemies of the Slavs, sent Baron Skerlecz to Croatia with instructions to conciliate the Croats. The effete Serbo-Croat Coalition was once more cajoled, and, for the third time, it entered into a disastrous compact with Hungary. This time one of the consequences was the expropriation of the Croatian sea-board in favour of Hungary. Moreover, the present crisis found the Coalition helplessly committed to the Government.

But the people had stood firm. The dire sufferings of recent years have begotten a new and healthy movement, which includes the entire youth of Croatia. The younger generation has lost faith in political parties, and begun to go its own way along the path which leads away from Hungary and away from Austria, back to union with their scattered kindred. Their aim is the establishment of a great, free and independent Southern Slav State. At the head of this younger generation stands a man of magnetic personality—Frano Supilo.

IV.

The Southern Slavs in Dalmatia, Carniola and Istria fared little better than their brothers in Croatia and Slavonia. I have already alluded to the economic neglect of Dalmatia. In politics, Germanization was practised in much the same way as Magyarization in Croatia. Dalmatia unfortunately does not enjoy independence, even on paper, and thus her oppression could wear a perfectly constitutional guise. The Dalmatian “Sabor,” like that of Istria and Carniola, is an assembly quite at the mercy of the viceroy for the time being, who would never dream of convoking it, unless he had made quite sure that no inconvenient resolutions would be passed. As a rule these “Sabors” enjoy prolonged periods of rest, and the people are only represented by their delegates in the Viennese Reichstrat. There these delegates certainly make a brave fight, but they are too few, and their voice is drowned by the huge German majority. Because of this and also through the fault of the Slovene Roman Catholic party, Carniola has become strongly Germanized, especially as regards the administration of the schools. But the Dalmatians and Istrians are a sturdy, progressive people, Slav to the backbone, and all attempts at Germanizing them have proved as futile as the beating of waves upon the shore. Beside the German danger, this people also has the Italian danger to contend with. For opportunist reasons the Austrian Government has always favoured the Italian element (4 per cent. in Istria and 2 per cent. in Dalmatia) and granted them concessions, which have given rise to the most absurd anomalies. For instance, the election law in Istria is so framed, that 96 per cent. Slovenes and Croats send fewer delegates to Vienna than 4 per cent. Italians. The same injustice prevails in the Parish Council election law, but in spite of this the Italians would never secure their majority, if special Government regulations did not compel all officials and State employees to vote Italian. If to-day Italy is apparently able to claim a sphere of interest in Istria, this is the outcome of a chance state of affairs, arbitrarily created by the Austrian Government. As an instance of this policy, I will state that shortly before the outbreak of the war the Government seriously contemplated the foundation of an Italian University for a population of 700,000 souls, while strenuously opposing the foundation of a Slovene University for 1,400,000 Slovenes and Croats in Carniola and Istria. Of course this policy made the Italians aggressive, and they continued to extend their sphere of interest until it actually included the Quarnero Islands, although these islands do not possess one single Italian inhabitant, and these very islands are the most sacred possession of the Southern Slavs. They are the only spot in Slav territory where the old Slav tongue is still spoken by the people. This fact is amply borne out by publications of the Southern Slav Academy, and also of the Russian Academy, which sends its scholars year by year to these islands to study the language. In the province of Dalmatia the populace have themselves dismissed the Italian question from the order of the day, and the local government of Zadar (Zara) is the only possession—and a very problematical one at that—which the Italians might claim, and that only because of the truly mediæval election laws. For, as soon as vote by ballot for the Parliamentary elections was introduced in the Austrian Crown lands, the Croatian candidate was returned by a majority of 7,000 votes over his Italian colleague.

The pro-Italian attitude of Austria was and is as insincere as the rest of her policy. It is simply dictated by the “divide-et-impera” principle, because an alliance between Slavs and Italians would have been fatal to the Government. One nationality was played off against the other, and the Italians proved willing tools in the hands of Austria. The influence of Italian culture, which has for centuries been received with love and admiration by the Southern Slavs, has created an Italian-speaking zone of culture in the coast-lands of the Adriatic; and the Italians, assisted by the Austrian Government, have made the most of this zone until they have actually had the audacity to include it in their sphere of national aspirations. Thus Austria created an enemy both for herself and the Slav peoples, an enemy with whom the Southern Slavs have never before had any real quarrel. Antagonism led to bitter conflicts, and if the Slav population in Dalmatia and Istria have begun to detest the Italian zone of culture it has been purely in self-defence and for fear of having to pay with their national existence for the amity and admiration of centuries. Nowadays, the Italians themselves admit that Dalmatia and Istria are indigenously pure Slav countries. Probably the present struggle has also revealed to them the true value of Austria’s favours.

In Bosnia and Hercegovina, Austria pursued the same heartless policy. Out of the three religions of one people she made three nationalities, and then fostered dissensions between them. Her policy was especially bitter against the Serbs, who are in the majority and also the more highly-educated element of the population and therefore more able to give effective support to the just claims of Serbia. Austria was not in the least interested in the prosperity of the country, and merely created an intolerable chaos by her political intrigue in a land that had already suffered beyond endurance. Her evidences of civilization exhibited before Europe were pure humbug, and the annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina one of the most flagrant acts of injustice ever perpetrated on a nation.

If the present war is decided in favour of the Allies—and this is the prayer of all the Slavs—it will become necessary to settle the Southern Slav problem once and for all. This can only be done satisfactorily by respecting the principle of nationality, and by a just delimitation of the various national zones. In disputed territories, such as Istria or the Quarnero Islands, a referendum ought to decide.

The Slavs have been tortured long enough. For centuries they have guarded European civilization against the inroads of Ottoman Islam, which has always been synonymous with bigotry, barbarism and sloth, and should never be confounded with Arab Islam, or Hindu Islam, to whom the whole world of science, art and philosophy is eternally indebted. Austria and Prussia are the natural heirs of Ottoman Islam, and the Southern Slavs have made a heroic stand against this latter-day Prussian Islam.

Civilization owes them a debt of honour, and it is only their due that Europe should give them justice.

EPILOGUE.

“BURIED TREASURES.”
BY DIMITRIJ MITRINOVIĆ.

Speaking generally, the Southern Slavs are divided into Slovenes, Serbo-Croats, and Bulgarians, but of these three branches only the Slovenes and Serbo-Croats are racially identical. In speaking of a political Southern Slav State, a state which would in the future dominate the whole of the Balkan Peninsula, it would be wrong not to include the Bulgarian nation. However, the Serbo-Croats form the principal cultural “unit” among the Southern Slavs, and after them come the Slovenes. The nucleus, the life-giving element of the Southern Slav family and its culture, is formed by the Southern Slavs of Serbia, Old Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Hercegovina, Croatia, Dalmatia and Serbian Hungary, or, to give them their collective name, by the Serbo-Croats. The Serbo-Croats, and more especially the Serbians proper (Serbians of Old Serbia and Serbia), have always led the vanguard of Serbo-Croatian political life; the two greatest cultural achievements of the Southern Slav race, to wit,179 the national poetry and the individual architecture and sculpture of Ivan Meštrović, have always been associated with the Serbians of Serbia. The fall of the Serbian Empire forms the chief theme of Meštrović’s art, no less than of Southern Slav national poetry—and thus it has become usual, if not strictly correct, to speak of all Southern Slav poetry as Serbian national poetry, and of the great Southern Slav artist as the great Serbian artist.

We speak of the Southern Slav poetry and of Ivan Meštrović, our Southern Slav Michelangelo, as “buried treasures.” In a sense, all Slav civilization may be called a buried treasure. Russian and Slav literature as a whole, is far greater than its reputation in Western Europe. Ottokar Brezina, the celebrated Csech poet, is translated and read in Slavophobe Germany, but not in allied France and England; because in these days nations are more often brought into contact by war and travel than by civilization and our common humanity.

Western Europe has been even less just to the Southern Slavs than to any other Slav nation; and they who have paid so dearly in blood and suffering for their freedom are less known and recognized than any other European nation, in spite of the great historic merit of the Serbians, and the importance of their culture;—the consideration shown by Europe to a dynasty has been greater than her justice to a portion of mankind. A universal conflagration and a breaking-up of the old order of things was necessary, ere Europe learned to value millions of human beings more highly than the principle of a bygone generation, or the pathos of old age. In the future we may hope to see a just Europe which will not look upon the Serbians as a nation of regicides, but as a people revolting against secret treaties with the Hapsburgs, and upon the Southern Slavs, not as traitors, but as a democratic people refusing to be destroyed. When the Slovenes of Istria, Carniola, Styria, and Carinthia, together with the Serbo-Croats, form a strong, prosperous and free, though small State, their culture will be developed to the full, crowning and unifying Southern Slav life.

This growing civilization of Greater Serbia, which may be called Yougoslavia, will gather up the scattered threads of the history of Serbian art in the past. We shall then no longer speak of “Slovene painting,” “Croatian drama,” “Old Serbian tapestry,” “Serbian folk-lore.” The literature of one and the same people will cease to be broken up into “Literature in Ragusa,” “Dalmatian Island and Coast Literature,” “Bosnian,” “Croatian,” and “Serbian” literature. All this, together with the national life to the State, will form the totality of the Southern Slav nation. The two zones of culture: the Western European zone of the Croats and Slovenes, and the Eastern-Byzantine zone of the Serbians; the three religions: Orthodox, Catholic and Mussulman; the two forms of script: the Latin of the Croats, and the Cyrillic of the Serbians; all these, as well as a few differences of speech, will only add to the wealth and originality of Southern Slav culture. When this Greater Serbia or Yougoslavia shall stand for the third great civilization of the Balkans (the first was Hellenic, the second Byzantine), the Southern Slavs will become a new factor in European civilization and politics, and the great art of Serbian national poetry, and the work of the Yougoslav artist, Meštrović, will no longer be buried treasures. Serbian music, literature and science, although they have existed and still exist, will only then be known and recognized.

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It has been the fate of the Southern Slavs to fulfil a mission in European history; Serbia and the Serbo-Croat race constituted a bulwark for Europe and Christianity against the invasion of Turkish barbarians and Islam. The martyrdom of the Southern Slavs lasted for centuries; it was a most humiliating thraldom to the barbarous Mongolism of the Ottoman Turks, and a hard, incessant fight for the dignity of humanity. It was a period of indescribable suffering from the barbarities of a lower race, one of the hardest struggles for existence the world has known. It was impossible to continue or to realize the plans of the great Nemanjić rulers. All attempts at union between the peoples of Croatia and Bosnia were fruitless: never in the history of Europe has a nation lived for so many centuries in such terrible political impotence and disunion as the Serbo-Croat and Slovene nation. Italy at the time of the Renaissance, and Germany before the liberation, were, in comparison with the Southern Slavs, in a well-organized and healthy condition.

Thus it has come about that we have no Serbian history of art, only various provincial histories—Old Serbian, Macedonian, Dalmatian, Bosnian, History of Serbian art in Hungary, Slovene and New Serbian.

The bitter enmity of Austria-Hungary towards Serbia, which deepened steadily, and finally became the direct cause of the European War, began with the Russophile and Southern Slav trend of Serbian policy after the series of Southern Slav Congresses, which took place in Belgrade at the time of the coronation of King Peter in 1904. Serbia’s new policy, after the suicidal and humiliating pro-Austrian policy of the Obrenović dynasty had been abolished, was a racial policy, pro-Russian, pro-Bulgarian and democratic, which restored the stability and order of the State, and led to the foundation of the Balkan Alliance in 1912. Serbia regenerated, sought to consolidate a scattered, provincial culture into one great culture of a Greater Serbia, or of all the Southern Slavs. For this reason it has only quite recently become possible to speak of the united cultural efforts of the Serbo-Croats.

The consolidation of Southern Slav history and culture are only now beginning, and the appearance of the artist-prophet Ivan Meštrović, a Dalmatian Catholic, is the central event in Southern Slav history of art. He is the prophet of the third, or Southern Slav Balkan, State, who proclaims that it is the historical task of Serbia to free the Southern Slavs and unite them, not only in a political, but in a spiritual, sense; and he has symbolized this ideal in his great art, which is the living soul of the architecture and sculpture of the Temple of Kossovo, and of all the Southern Slavs. When the Balkans are freed from Ottoman Islam and the Turks, when a strong and progressive Federation of Southern Slavs, including Bulgaria, Roumania, Greece and even Albania, is established, then we may see the triumphant rise of a mature and typically Southern Slav culture. When all nations shall receive their due, when they are allowed to develop freely, then and only then, the blood-drenched Peninsula will be at peace. A strong and prosperous Yougoslavia will interest the world both politically and economically; the opinion that the Southern Slavs are an uncivilized race will cease, and the great services rendered to art and letters by the Serbo-Croats and Slovenes will be recognized and appreciated at their true value. If we include Meštrović’s Temple of Kossovo among these achievements, we may fairly claim to have contributed to the greatest possessions of human culture for all time.

The life-work of the Serbian Monarchs of the Nemanjić dynasty, who aimed at the inclusion of Serbia within the zone of the then-civilized nations of Europe, failed of its fulfilment, owing to the fall of the Serbian Empire before the Turks. The Serbo-Byzantine architecture of the convents and churches which abound in Macedonia and Serbia, affords admirable proof of the results of this work, the most important examples being Studenitza (1198), Dečani (1331), and Gračanica (1341). A few years later culture made great strides in Dalmatia, but it was not a spontaneous, national growth, but rather the offspring of Slavicized Latin culture, and savoured more of Venice and the Renaissance than of Dalmatia and the Southern Slavs. Furthermore, the artists, scientists, philosophers and writers of Dalmatia went to Italy and were lost to their nation. The poor, down-trodden, uncivilized Southern Slav countries could not provide their artists with a livelihood. The celebrated mathematician, philosopher and astronomer, Roger Bošković, went to Rome, Paris, and London; Nikolo Tomasso, a Serbian from Sevenico, founded the Italian literary language. Julije Lovranić (Laurana), an eminent architect of his time, was a Serbian from Dalmatia, and at one time the teacher of Bramante; and Franjo Laurana, of Palermo, a kinsman of Julije, earned a high place in the history of art through his sculpture; he was especially celebrated for his beautiful female portrait busts. In like manner many Serbians found their way to other countries. For instance, Peter Križanić, a Croatian, was the first Pan-Slavist; he was exiled to Siberia for his schemes of reform and European propaganda in Russia. To this day the Dalmatian ships’ captains are not the only representatives of that country all the world over, but great scientists and inventors like Pupin and Nikola Tesla.

Whenever a part of Serbian territory became independent, or even for a short time found tolerable conditions, an intense creative culture grew up swiftly, even after the fall of the Empire and during the time of slavery. For generations the greater part of the Serbians have lived, and still live, in slavery. The Serbians under Turkish rule were liberated only two years ago, and the liberation of the Slavs of the Hapsburg Monarchy is only just beginning. In accordance with the changes in the political fate of the Southern Slavs, and as the material conditions of the people grew better or worse, the centres of Slav literature moved from place to place. This unfortunate disorganization and consequent impotence were the bane of Serbian or Southern Slav literature. Ragusan literature; the literature of the Dalmatian coast and its islands, with its original creations, and many fine translations of the Greek drama—Homer, Virgil and Horace, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Tasso, Ariosto—none of these counted in the later development of literature in Croatia, Serbian Hungary, Bosnia or Serbia. As things now stand, Slovenian literature bears no recognized relation to Serbo-Croat literature, which has to a certain extent become unified. The great Croatian poets, Peter Preradović, Ivan Mažuranić, and Silvije Kranjčević are scarcely read in Serbia, owing to bitter political disagreements and the Austrian divide-et-impera policy. For this reason, too, the Croatians scarcely know the greatest Southern Slav poets such as the Montenegrin Petar Petrović Njegoš, or the Serbian from Hungary, Lazar Kostić. The historian and philosopher Boža Knižević and the metaphysician Branislav Petronijević are scarcely known in Bosnia owing to their being Serbians from Serbia, that is to say, from anti-Austrian Serbia. Thus it is scarcely surprising that Southern Slav culture is unknown in Europe, when it is practically unknown even in Yougoslavia; when Meštrović, the immortal artist of Yougoslavia, the architect and sculptor of the Serbian Acropolis, is unknown to his own countrymen beyond the frontier.

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At present the nation is fighting for its very life. Inter arma silent musæ, and when a nation has to bear first the occupation and then the annexation of the heart of its territory; when it has to wage an incessant war, even in times of so-called peace, against an implacable neighbour like Austria-Hungary; when the strength of the nation is absorbed in the mere struggle for existence; then it is impossible to realize the possession of a great artist. The Serbian nation has waged three wars of life and death, and always against an enemy stronger than herself; first against Turkey, then against Bulgaria, and now against Austria—all within three years. At such a time it is impossible to create a great civilization, and still less possible not to appear to the world as a nation created solely for war. Diplomatic Europe is interested in Serbian politics—not from motives of humanity and justice. And to the Europe of civilization, philosophy, science, art and ethics the spirit of Yougoslavia is not even a name. Who knows that even apart from Meštrović—who, as the peer of Phidias and Michelangelo, cannot be compared with mere mortals—the finest architect of the present day is a Southern Slav—a Slovene—the son of a small nation of three million people? This great architect of modern Europe is Josip Plečnik; he was director of the Arts Academy in Prague, and a few months ago was promoted to the Vienna Academy. Downtrodden Dalmatia boasts such powerful writers, thinkers and scientists as Count Ivo Vojnović, Antun Tresić-Pavićić, the philosopher Petrić, and the historian Nodilo. At the time of Carducci and Swinburne Bosnia possessed a typical poet, Silvije Kranjčević, and at the present time Serbia has in Borislav Stankovi a novelist worthy to rank with Leonid Andreeff. In Yougoslavia there are to-day splendidly edited reviews, particularly good theatres and opera (as for instance the Opera at Zagreb), and good universities with distinguished professors and scientific men. Assuredly the Southern Slavs are not to blame if the whole world has seen this gifted and important nation through the spectacles of the Viennese Press, a nation which is worth more to the human race than the whole of the Hapsburg dynasty—or was, until the outbreak of the present war.... In all their poverty and slavery, and without the help even of Serbia, they undertook a campaign of enlightenment in the European Press, organized art exhibitions, and by concerts, lectures, and translations made known their art and literature to the world. English literature has greatly influenced Serbo-Croat literature; and not only Shakespeare, Dickens, Byron and Shelley are translated into Serbian, but Carlyle, Buckle, and Draper have also exercised great influence upon Serbian culture; and the most modern literature of Britain has found worthy translators and admirers. The poems of Rossetti, Browning, Keats, Swinburne and Walt Whitman, the novels of Wells, and the plays of Bernard Shaw have been translated into the beautiful tongue of the “Belgrade regicides.”

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To resume, it is not surprising that Western Europeans do not know Southern Slav civilization, when many rich fields of this culture still remain “buried treasures” to the Southern Slavs themselves. The Serbo-Croat and Slovene poets, such as Gundulić, Ranjina, Palmotić and Gjorgjić from Ragusa and Dalmatia, compare favourably with the exponents of Western literature, and among modern Serbo-Croat poets Petar Petrović Njegoš, Lazar Kostić and Silvije Kranjčević are great, even when compared with the greatest. Yet it is not so much the artists and their individual works, but the nation, and the collective artistic worth of the national spirit that is of priceless value. The music of the Southern Slavs, more especially the music of Old Serbia and Bosnia, possesses great melodic beauty and emotional depth, and when it finds its modern exponent it will take its proper place in the history of music. This great art of the Serbian nation however, is not only absolutely unknown to Europe and the rest of the world, but even in Serbia, although universally known, it is cultivated little or not at all. The Serbian State, which since its re-birth under Karagjorgje Petrović has waged continual war for the liberty and union of the Southern Slavs, could not devote itself to music, art and beauty; and that part of the nation which remains under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks and the Hapsburgs felt still less inclined to do so. The priceless treasures of popular song have not yet been artistically exploited. Thus their own creation is a buried treasure to the Southern Slavs; in a sense, one may even say, that there is no Serbian music. Europeans cannot value this beautiful and noble music because they do not know it; neither can they value the national textile art of Old Serbia, Dalmatia and Croatia, since it is equally unknown. For three consecutive years the Serbian Government has had to arm the State, and has had neither time nor money to turn the Southern Slav textile art into a modern industry.

What the Serbo-Croats and Slovenes, and even the Bulgarians, do cultivate, and are proud of, is the Southern-Slav or Serbian national poetry, the ballads and legends which the people have invented and sung during centuries of slavery. Goethe, the great “citizen of the universe,” and the first to predict the foundation of a modern universal literature, assigned Serbian national poetry a very high place among the literatures of the world, and many of the poems have already been translated into different languages.18

To understand Ivan Meštrović, the creator of the Temple of Kossovo, one must feel Serbian music and appreciate Serbian textile art; and above all one must learn to know this noble nation of Christians and Slavs through their national poetry. It is not arrogance on our part to call Meštrović and the Temple of Kossovo the eternal art of the present generation. Every divinely-inspired artist creates not only beauty, but life,—for the mind is the life—and this great regenerator of European art is the son of a small nation of the blood-stained Balkans, and also the son of the great race which has produced Dostoievski.

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Europe and mankind in general must accord justice to the Southern Slav spirit, and the historic merit and achievements of the Serbian nation. The knowledge of Serbian music and especially of Serbian poetry can only be a gain to the Europe of the future. For this Serbian art is a truly Slav art, wonderful and deep, equal to that of ancient Egypt and India. It was not because Miczkiewicz, the great Polish poet, was himself a Slav, that he sang the praises of this beauty so enthusiastically, but because he understood the moral of this beauty. This poetry has been for centuries a life-force of the Southern Slav nation, because morality and life are one, and because the spirit of Serbian beauty—barbaric and god-like—is a religion in poetry and a moral in art. Without fear we may say that Serbian ethics are the most wonderful in the history of humanity. If it may be said of any nation that it is great and noble, it may be said of the Southern Slavs. Europe does not realize the monstrous injustice she has done these “barbarous” peoples. They are rather a heroic and mythical than a barbaric people. It is only Austria-Hungary who regards them as a nation of anarchists and regicides.

What is the Serbian spirit? It has been twice manifested. Once through a man, Ivan Meštrović, the prophet of the Slav Balkans, and again through the whole nation, in the thousands of legends, fairy-tales, ballads and songs which have been collected by Vuk Stefanović-Karadžić.19 The occupation of Bosnia, then the national catastrophe of the annexation of Bosnia, and finally the Balkan War have already become the subjects of poetry, and our own time will see the latest and greatest war of the Southern Slavs sung in all its heroic reality.

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