especially Brandenburg by itself, uncut by any apanage: this,
I observe, was the received practice. But Johann George, wise
Kurfurst as he was, wished now to make it surer; and did so by a
famed Deed, called the Gera Bond (GERAISCHE VERTRAG), dated 1598,
[Michaelis, i. 345.] the last year of Johann George's life.

Hereby, in a Family Conclave held at that Gera, a little town in
Thuringen, it was settled and indissolubly fixed, That their
Electorate, unlike all others in Germany, shall continue
indivisible; Law of Primogeniture, here if nowhere else, is to be
in full force; and only the Culmbach Territory (if otherwise
unoccupied) can be split off for younger sons. Culmbach can be
split off; and this again withal can be split, if need be, into
two (Baireuth and Anspach); but not in any case farther.
Which Household-Law was strictly obeyed henceforth. Date of it
1598; principal author, Johann George, Seventh Elector. This "Gera
Bond" the reader can note for himself as an excellent piece of
Hohenzollern thrift, and important in the Brandenburg annals.
On the whole, Brandenburg keeps continually growing under these
Twelve Hohenzollerns, we perceive; slower or faster, just as the
Burggrafdom had done, and by similar methods. A lucky outlay of
money (as in the case of Friedrich Ironteeth in the Neumark)
brings them one Province, lucky inheritance another:--good
management is always there, which is the mother of good luck.

And so there goes on again, from Johann George downwards, a new
stream of Culmbach Princes, called the Younger or New Line,--
properly two contemporary Lines, of Baireuthers and Anspachers;--
always in close affinity to Brandenburg, and with ultimate
reversion to Brandenburg, should both Lines fail; but with mutual