, Cosmas and Vincentius, born towards the middle
of the eleventh century, wrote both of them in Latin. The chronicle of
the first is still extant.

During the fourteenth century the German influence increased so much,
that the jealousy and impatience of a great part of the nation was
powerfully excited. The king kept a German body guard; German fashions
in dress and manners prevailed at the court; and even in the year
1341, when the privileges of the city of Prague were first solemnly
committed to writing, it was done in the German language. Under the
reign of Charles I, or the emperor Charles IV, for he united the two
crowns on his head, Bohemia, as we have said, reached the highest
point of its splendour. He wisely limited the privileges of the
Germans in his own kingdom; and reconciled the minds of the Bohemians
by granting to them similar privileges in the German empire. He
honoured the Bohemian language so much as to recommend expressly, in
the golden bull, to the sons of the Electors to learn it. His capital,
Prague, was like the apple of his eye; and he did all he could to add
to its embellishments and magnificence. Here he founded in the year
1348 the first Slavic university, on the plan of those of Paris and
Bologna. The influence of this institution, not merely on Bohemia, but
on Germany and indeed all Europe, was decided. From the time of its
foundation until 1410, it was the general resort for students from
among the Poles, Hungarians, Swedes, and Germans. It was doubtless the
wish to give it this very kind of universality, which induced Charles
IV, in the statutes of the institution, to allow to the Bohemians only
one suffrage in the senate, and the three others to foreigners. We
shall show in the sequel, with what jealousy this apparent preference
was received by the natives, and what a violent reaction it caused in
the Bohemian national feelings.

Experience every where teaches, that schools and academies never
enkindle the spark of genuine poetry; nay, that the erection of formal
scientific institutions is even not favourable to the free
developement of that high gift. In Bohemia, too, the fourteenth
century was indeed very productive in rhymed works; but most of them
were utterly deficient in real poetry. On the other hand, as the
natural result of a more strictly logical and clearer mode of
thinking, by reason of a scientific education, the style of the
prose writings became more cultivated, concise,