514 SLAVIC LITERATURE 



led to an interest in Bohemian affairs, which persisted in Great 

 Britain and also in America until the middle of the seventeenth 

 century. Thus the pedagogical work of Komensl%y was appreciated 

 to such an extent in America that in 1642 Winthrop, the former 

 governor of Massachusetts, who met Komensky in Holland, proposed 

 to him that he should proceed to America and take the rectorship of 

 Harvard College. Nothing came of it, but it is a remarkable fact that 

 the American pictorial school-book, which was first suggested by 

 Komensky, has slowly become the standard of most of the readers of 

 the world. Xo influence can be directly traced that proceeded from 

 America to Bohemia, though with the large Bohemian immigration 

 into the United States it must be assumed that American ideas are 

 largely responsible for the woman question and other related ideas, 

 which are so prominent there. In literature the direct influence has 

 proceeded from France rather than from the United States, though 

 the poet Sladek has translated Longfellow, and Vrchlicky shows 

 that he has been impressed by Longfellow, with whom he has much 

 in common. 



Similarly, none but indirect literary influences may be discovered 

 in the smaller groups of the Slavic languages, the Serbo-Croatian. 

 Slovenian, and Ruthenian; but the Slovak, which has for half a 

 century been separated from the Bohemian, has of late come pecul- 

 iarly under the influence of America. The emigration from the 

 Slovak districts of the Carpathians to the United States has become 

 so great that the literary activity is now centred in Xe\v York, 

 rather than in Turocz St. Marton, and even the literary men at home 

 write mainly for the American market. For this reason the American 

 influence upon Slovak is now quite perceptible. The Polish language. 

 in spite of the traditional relation between Poland and America 

 through Kosciuszko. has never come very much under American 

 influence, though many of the American prose writers and poets 

 exist in a Polish translation. It is, however, a noteworthy fact that 

 Sienkiewicz, soon after his literary career had begun, came to 

 America to join Madame Modjcska in her colony in California. 

 Here his American sketches were written, and the foundation was 

 laid for those larger works upon which his reputation mainly rests. 



The two countries which owe most to America are Bulgaria and 

 Russia. Bulgaria, in fact, though now in every way independent of 

 any direct influence, is a foster child of the United States, ^'hen 

 Flias liiirirs. the American missionary for Greece, found it impossible 

 to continue his work after King Otlio prohibited any but Orthodox 

 schools, lie repaired to Smyrna in 1S3S. and here among other things 

 devoted his. attention to the printing of Bulgarian tracts and parts of 

 the Bible. Though there existed probably a dozen short tracts in 

 a mixed Bulgarian and Church Slavic dialect, this was the first time 



