we have
mentioned, to establish another and a better order of things, a great
share of praise and gratitude should never be denied.

The mines of Hartz were discovered in the time of Otho I. and diffused
so much wealth over Saxony, and afterwards over all Germany, as gave the
reign of that emperor the appellation of "the age of gold." Before this
time, Nicephorus Phocas had called Saxony, from the dress, or rather the
coverings of its inhabitants, "the land of skins." But all the wealth of
the country still continued to be concentrated among the great
landowners.

III. 1.

_Boundaries and State of Germany during the Franconian Dynasty._

1024-1138.

Under Henry III. the second prince of this line, the German empire had
its greatest extent. It comprised Germany, Italy, Burgundy and Lorraine.
Poland, and other parts of the Sclavonian territories, were subject to
it. Denmark and Hungary acknowledged themselves its vassals.

The emperors affected to consider all kingdoms as forming a royal
republic, of which the emperor was chief. For their right to this
splendid prerogative, they always found advocates in their own
dominions: they reckon, among these, the illustrious Leibniz. Out of
Germany, nothing of the claim, beyond precedence in rank, has ever been
allowed. This, no sovereign in Europe has contested with the emperors:
it is observable, that, as the French monarchs insisted on the
Carlovingian extraction of Hugh Capet, they affected to consider Henry
the Fowler the first prince of the Saxon dynasty, and all his successors
in the empire as usurpers. Lewis XIV. expresses himself in this manner
in some memoirs recently attributed to him.

III. 2.

_State of German Literature during the Franconian Dynasty._

[Sidenote: 1024-1138.]

Throughout this period, commerce was always upon the increase; and
literature, science and art, increased with it. The monuments of the
antient grandeur of the eternal city, began about this time to engage
the attention of the inhabitants of Germany, and to attract to Rome many
literary pilgrims. They returned home impressed with admiration of what
they had seen, and related the wonders to their countrymen. "The gods
themselves (they told their hearers) behold their images in Rome with
admiration, and wish to resemble them. Nature herself does not raise
forms as beautiful as those, which the artist creates. One is tempted to
say that they breathe; and to