Maine. It comprehended the districts which, in the eighteenth century,
had attained a greater military capacity; in the provinces of the old
Empire it was only partial. The new States which arose there under
French influence, discovered later, and in an indirect way, the
necessity of a closer connection with the larger portion of the nation.
For Austria, this war was an act of political prudence.

Still two years followed of high strained exertion and bloody battles;
again did the rising youth of the country, who in the first year had
been wanting in age and strength, throng with enthusiasm into the ranks
of the army. It was another war, and another victory had to be
achieved, it was, however, no longer a struggle for the existence of
Prussia and Germany, but for the ruin and life of the foreign Emperor.

The year 1813 had freed Germany from the dominion of a foreign people.
Again did the Prussian eagle float over the other side of the Rhine, on
the old gates of Cleve. It had made a bloody end to an insupportable
bondage. It had united most of the German races in brotherly ties by a
new circle of moral interests. It had produced for the first time in
German history an immense political result by a powerful development of
popular strength. It had entirely altered the position of the nation to
their Princes; for, above the interests of dynasties, and the quarrels
of rulers, it had given existence to a stronger power which they all
feared, honoured, and must win, in order to maintain themselves. It had
given a greater aim to the life of every individual, a participation in
the whole, political feeling, the highest of earthly interests, a
Fatherland, a State for which he learnt to die and by degrees to live.

The Prussians did the greater part of the work of this year, which will
never be forgotten by the rest of Germany.

It would not be becoming in us, the sons of the generation of 1813, to
disparage the glorious struggle of our fathers, because they have left
us something to do.

Almost all who passed through that great time of struggle and
self-sacrifice consider the memory of it the greatest possession of
their later life, and it encircled the heads of many with a bright
glory. And thousands felt what the warm-hearted Arndt expressed,
"We can now die at any moment, as we have seen in Germany what
is alone worth living for, that men, from a feeling of the eternal,
and imperishable, have been able to offer, with the