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the history of his country, of which the present generation in all countries is ignorant. These lectures were spoken in Polish (at that time forbidden in the schools by the Russian and Prussian governments): they were delivered on fifteen Sunday mornings during the fine weather in the The people, after leaving summer of 1880. church, gathered on the grass at the edge of the lake Goplo, near the town Gniezno1 (the cradle of Poland), and listened eagerly to the history of their ancestors related in their national tongue.

1 The town of Gniezno is in the grand-duchy of Posen, and at the division of Poland it was incorporated in the kingdom of Prussia.