y implies a mental rather than a
racial qualification. Of the old original Teutons, the Germans of yore,
there are few representatives left over--you may find some in Frisia and
about the Porta Westphalica, on the east coast of Yorkshire, too,
perhaps; the all-Germans, the _Allemanni_, as I believe they called
themselves at one time, have seldom, if ever, formed a clearly defined
political entity. The Franks in the early days of the Merovingians, by
no means an estimable people, were probably purely Teuton; they
separated more and more from their less civilized race-kindred, and by
the time the Frankish Empire had reached its zenith its people had
absorbed a good deal of other blood, which mixture crystallized into the
French nation and soon broke away from any racial relations with the
Teutons. Then the arch-enemies of the Franks, the Saxons, mixed freely
with Slavonic races which extended well into the Hanover country and all
over Mecklenburg at one time, so that those who are now called Saxons
are, next to the Prussians, more thoroughly mixed with Slavs than any
other Germans. The Bavarians, again, must have in them a good deal of
the persistent Celtic element which they inherited from the Boievari who
at one time left Bohemia for Bavaria. The amusing thing is that those
who most loudly declaim on the subject of _Deutschland ueber Alles_ are
the most thoroughly mixed of the lot. It is idle to speculate on what
would have become of German imperial conceits if the German race and its
admixtures, like that of our islands, had been isolated from its
neighbours by water instead of being constantly exposed to inroads from
all sides, and consequently moved to follow up any success at arms into
a neighbour's country. It seems as if a permanent Germanic
Empire--material, not only sentimental--were never destined to a long
and prosperous existence. These speculations, however, are best left to
the historian, and we will return to the city of Prague.

We have seen John of Luxemburg and his wife Elizabeth happily crowned on
the Hrad[vs]any at Prague and the city relieved by this event from the
prospect of prolonged internal disorder. Henry of Carinthia, who
succeeded Rudolph, had not proved satisfactory. He also had taken the
precaution of marrying a P[vr]emysl, was in fact John's brother-in-law,
but he failed to maintain the popularity which he enjoyed when called to
the throne, and was eventually chased out of Bohemia to make r