t
burial-ground, in which not even the loud wail of sorrow was heard, the
genius of Silesia, as the representative of Germany, entered on the
only domain in which advance was possible. Whilst they were still
exchanging blows with the Imperial soldiers, they took pleasure in
poetry and songs. Already the delicate and polished writings of the
vapid Opitz gave pleasure amidst the coarse language of the camp; but
truly refreshing to the heart was the short; humorous laugh of Logau,
at a period when nothing was to be seen save sad or angry faces. The
whole of the educated Silesians were eager to sympathize with Opitz,
Logau, Gryphius, and Guenther, and to vie with them in making heroic
verses. Their songs have few charms for us, but we must always feel
thankful to them that they had the power of giving expression to the
ideal feelings of Germany. It was a great thing to be able to show at
such a time, when the coarse and the commonplace overlaid the German
life, that there was still something beautiful on earth, and a more
intellectual enjoyment than could be found in dissolute revelry, and
also that behind the grey and colourless sky which overspread the land,
there was another world, full of brilliant colours, and of nobler and
more refined feelings.

But whilst the songs of the Silesian "Swans and Nightingales" were held
in honour by the other German races, and the fame of the Silesian poets
rose high, the worldly position of the Silesians themselves was
lamentable. The Thirty years' war was followed by a century of
persecution and oppression, which so diminished their energies, that at
last it appeared as if they would fall into the same condition as that
in which they had found the Sclaves,--a death-like apathy, and a future
without hope. The Silesians never became utterly downcast, for they
took every opportunity of enjoying themselves, but it was only in
feasting and revelry. When, however, the misery of the country was at
the highest, the Prussian drum sounded on the frontier from Muencheberg,
and the trumpets of the Ziethen hussars pealed along the same roads on
which five hundred years before the first song of the German colonists
had resounded with the good words, "We come in God's name."

The Germanizing of the country was not thoroughly accomplished till it
was conquered by Prussia; it is only since that time that the Silesians
have become conscious of being an integral part of the German nation.
What was begu