hopeful were the
aspects; "Bishopric of Schmoger" (SchMAGram, dim little Village still
discoverable on the Polish frontier, not far from the Town of Namslau);
Bishopric which, after one removal farther inward, got across the
Oder, to "WRUTISLAV," which me now call Breslau; and sticks there, as
Bishopric of Breslau, to this day. Year 966: it was in Adalbert, our
Prussian Saint and Missionary's younger time. Preaching, by zealous
Polacks, must have been going on, while Adalbert, Bright in Nobleness,
was studying at Magdeburg, and ripening for high things in the general
estimation. This was a new gift from the Polacks, this of Christianity;
an infinitely more important one than that nickname of "ZLEZIEN," or
"DAMAGitia," stuck upon the poor Country, had been.

SECOND EPOCH; GET GRADUALLY CUT LOOSE FROM POLAND: A.D. 1139-1159.
Twenty years of great trouble in Poland, which were of lasting benefit
to Schlesien. In 1139 the Polack King, a very potent Majesty whom we
could name but do not, died; and left his Dominions shared by punctual
bequest among his five sons. Punctual bequest did avail: but the eldest
Son (who was King, and had Schlesien with much else to his share) began
to encroach, to grasp; upon which the others rose upon him, flung him
out into exile; redivided; 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 mi