and hoped now they might have quiet. Hoped, but were disappointed;
and could come to no sure bargain for the next twenty years,--not
till "the eldest brother," first author of these strifes, "died an
exile in Holstein," or was just about dying, and had agreed to take
Schlesien for all claims, and be quiet thenceforth.

His, this eldest's, three Sons did accordingly, in 1159, get
Schlesien instead of him; their uncles proving honorable. Schlesien
thereby was happy enough to get cut loose from Poland, and to
continue loose; steering a course of its own;--parting farther and
farther from Poland and its habits and fortunes. These three Sons,
of the late Polish Majesty who died in exile in Holstein, are the
"Piast Dukes," much talked of in Silesian Histories: of whose
merits I specify this only, That they so soon as possible strove to
be German. They were Progenitors of all the "Piast Dukes,"
Proprietors of Schlesien thenceforth, till the last of them died
out in 1675,--and a certain ERBVERBRUDERUNG they had entered into
could not take effect at that time. Their merits as Sovereign Dukes
seem to have been considerable; a certain piety, wisdom and
nobleness of mind not rare among them; and no doubt it was partly
their merit, if partly also their good luck, that they took to
Germany, and leant thitherward; steering looser and looser from
Poland, in their new circumstances. They themselves by degrees
became altogether German; their Countries, by silent immigration,
introduction of the arts, the composures and sobrieties, became
essentially so. On the eastern rim there is still a Polack remnant,
its territories very sandy, its condition very bad; remnant which
surely ought to cease its Polack jargon, and learn some dialect of
intelligible Teutsch, as the first condition of improvement. In all
other parts Teutsch reigns; and Schlesien is a green abundant