Page - 329 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

329Disruption of Old Structures Soon enough, the “moral strength and dignity” identified in the Huns by Bessenyei is associated with the fundamental character of the Hungarians: The Hungarian nation has always lived by prudence; it has always been governed under freedom, and was full of princely men. For such were the captains. The fight, war, triumph, has been its nourishment and domestic art since time immemorial. Its moral talent is not surpassed by any na- tion in the world. If it applies itself to science, art, or gallantry, it excels. And if it lags behind the English, the German, and the French to a certain extent, this is not because of its feebleness, but because it does not pos- sess the proper ways and means. It has already been established, that un- til elevating its own language, no nation in the world will be learned, nor any has ever been.53 In what appears an amazing flight of fancy, Bessenyei proceeds from a eulogy of Scythian–Hun–Hungarian military prowess through the supposedly con- comitant adherence to the values of liberty and the resulting proneness to ex- cel in learning as well, to the urging of the establishment of a Hungarian acad- emy of sciences, dedicated to the cultivation of the mother tongue as a tool of raising the nation to the status it deserves among modern European nations. However, in view of Bessenyei’s overall intellectual project, and his program for social and cultural reform in Hungary, this is not at all surprising. Hailing the Hun–Scythian ancestry of Hungarians was intimately connected with stand- ing up for a notion of national dignity understood in terms of ancient constitu- tional liberties that were being undermined by a purportedly enlightened but increasingly autocratic regime. Where does this inevitably selective sketch of strands of the Enlightenment in the Habsburg monarchy leave us with regard to the purpose it serves, an as- sessment of the prospects Maximilian Hell had shortly after his return from the northern expedition to Vienna? The changes brought about in his personal circumstances amid these broader processes of transformation compelled him to re-situate himself on the Central European map of learning. Previously, it was relatively easy for Hell to reconcile his loyalties to the Habsburg dynasty and the ruler, to the Catholic Church and the Jesuit order, to the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Kingdom of Hungary, and to the international Republic of Letters (together with the Latinate culture that marked each of the latter three). His position as imperial and royal astronomer (thus, a state servant) proved to be unassailable, nor did he ever cease to issue his Ephemerides. However, 53 Bessenyei, Magyarországnak törvényes állása, 234.