tween us
and the Slavonic tribes; and we feel with pride that culture, industry,
and credit are on our side. Whatever the Polish proprietors around us
may now be--and there are many rich and intelligent men among
them--every dollar that they can spend, they have made, directly or
indirectly, by German intelligence. Their wild flocks are improved by
our breeds; we erect the machinery that fills their spirit-casks; the
acceptance their promissory notes and lands have hitherto obtained rests
upon German credit and German confidence. The very arms they use against
us are made in our factories or sold by our firms. It is not by a
cunning policy, but peacefully through our own industry, that we have
won our real empire over this country, and, therefore, he who stands
here as one of the conquering nation, plays a coward's part if he
forsakes his post at the present time."

"You take a very high tone on foreign ground," replied Fink; "and your
own soil is trembling under your feet."

"Who has joined this province to Germany?" asked Anton, with
outstretched hand.

"The princes of your race, I admit," said Fink.

"And who has conquered the great district in which I was born?" inquired
Anton, farther.

"One who was a man indeed."

"It was a bold agriculturist," cried Anton; "he and others of his race.
By force or cunning, by treaty or invasion, in one way or other, they
got possession of the land at a time when, in the rest of Germany,
almost every thing was effete and dead. They managed their land like
bold men and good farmers, as they were. They have combined decayed or
dispersed races into a state; they have made their home the central
point for millions, and, out of the raw material of countless
insignificant sovereignties, have created a living power."

"All that has been," said Fink; "that was the work of a past
generation."

"They labored for themselves, indeed, while creating us," agreed Anton,
"but now we have come into being, and a new German nation has arisen.
Now we demand of them that they acknowledge our young life. It will be
difficult to them to do this, just because they are accustomed to
consider their collective lands as the domain of their sword. Who can
say when the conflict between us and them will be ended? Perhaps we may
long have to curse the ugly apparitions it will evoke. But, end as it
will, I am convinced, as I am of the light of day, that the state which
they have constructed will not fall