forms from the lower Elbe. A similar phenomenon is to be observed in
our own country. We Americans, taken as a nation, speak a more correct
English--i.e., an English freer from dialectic peculiarities--than the
English themselves. We have but one conventional form of expression
from Maine to California, and whatever lies outside of this may be bad
grammar or slang, but is certainly not dialect.

[Footnote 1: The word "Middle" is used here as a geographical term.
German philologists arrange the dialects into two main groups--High
(South) and Low (North), and prefix to each the terms Old, _Middle_
and New to distinguish epochs in the growth of each. According to this
nomenclature, Old = Early, _Middle_ = Late-Mediaeval, New = Modern.
The word _Middle_ is unfortunate, as it may designate either age or
locality. It designates both locality and age in the text above--i.e.,
the late-mediaeval form of Middle Germany. In full, it should be
"Middle-Middle." The Meissen dialect, it may be added, was the one
adopted by Luther, and is the basis of all modern book-German. (See
Rueckert's _Gesch. der neuhochd. Sprache_, pp. 168-178.)]

The most important event in the history of the twin municipalities,
Coeln-Berlin, was a change of dynasty. In 1415-18, Frederick of
Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, was invested with the margravate
of Brandenburg and the electoral dignity. The Hohenzollerns, a few
exceptions aside, have been a thrifty, energetic and successful
family. Slowly, but with the precision of destiny, their motto, "From
rock to sea"--once apparently an idle boast--has realized itself to
the full, until they now stand foremost in Europe. It would pertain
rather to a history of the Prussian monarchy than to a sketch like
the present to trace, even in outline, the steps by which Brandenburg
annexed one after another the Prussian duchies of the Teutonic order,
Pomerania, Silesia, the province of Saxony, Westphalia, and in our own
days Hanover and Hesse-Cassel. So far as Berlin is concerned, it will
suffice to state that its history is not rich in episode or in marked
characters. It long remained the obscure capital of a dynasty which
the Guelfs and Habsburgs were pleased to look down upon as parvenu.
During the Thirty Years' war, in which Brandenburg played such a
pitiable part, Berlin was on the verge of extinction. By 1640 its
population had been reduced to 6000. Even the great elector, passing
his life in warfare, could do