not deserve it." Then he continues, "My wife com- | into which he was introduced in many respects agreeplains that I find fault with Barthold unnecessarily. able. Writing home to his parents in the month of I did not mean to do so. He is an extraordinary good little fellow, but he must be managed in an extraordinary way, and I pray God to give me wisdom and patience to educate him properly." The Boje mentioned in this letter was the editor of a literary periodical in Germany, who lived on terms of intimacy with the Niebuhrs. An anecdote related by this gentleman will serve to show the boy's early susceptibility to poetical impressions. Writing in 1783, he says, "A short time back I was reading Macbeth' aloud to his parents without taking any notice of him, till I saw what an impression it made upon him. Then I tried to render it all intelligible to him, and even explained to him how the witches were only poetical beings. When I was gone he sat down, (he is not yet seven years old,) and wrote it all out on seven sheets of paper, without omitting one important point, and certainly without any expectation of receiving praise for it, for when his father asked to see what he had written, and showed it to me, he cried for fear he had not done it well. Since then he writes down everything of importance that he hears from his father or me. We seldom praise him, but just quietly tell him where he has made any mistake, and he avoids the fault for the future." For the first twelve years of his life Niebuhr was educated entirely at home, but his father, feeling at length that the desultory instruction he had hitherto received was insufficient for him, determined on placing him in the Gymnasium, or public school, at Meldorf; a step which appears to have been in accordance with the boy's personal inclinations. He was entered at Easter, 1789, and "found himself at once by far the youngest, and considerably the most advanced in his class." Notwithstanding this, he grew in great favour with his schoolfellows, but he only remained in the school until the Michaelmas of the ensuing year, owing to the circumstance that most of the senior pupils were withdrawn about that time, and he was too far advanced to mix with the younger set of boys who were then admitted into the highest class. The Principal, however, offered to give him an hour's private teaching daily, and this appears to have been continued until Easter, 1791. For a short time he had been sent to a celebrated school at Hamburg, but, growing restless and dissatisfied with the place, he was permitted to return home to Meldorf. Here he remained until the year just mentioned, assisting his father in his official duties, and amassing knowledge with great diligence and rapidity. By this time he had become acquainted with several modern languages, along with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and, taking into account his enormous medley of information in regard to other matters, it was justly concluded that he was sufficiently prepared to enter the University of Kiel. Here, accordingly, in 1794, Niebuhr commenced his studies. A somewhat shy, rather awkward, retiring young man; he nevertheless found the society May, he says:-"When I remember the anxiety and sorrow we felt at parting, my gloomy ideas of this place, my melancholy at being transplanted from my quiet, peaceful occupations in the midst of you all, to this noisy town, and the deep silence of my solitary room, how glad and thankful I am to have found everything better than my expectations! I would give a great deal-yes, what I prize most of all, some days of my future stay with you-if you could know a little sooner how happy I am-if you could know it at this moment, while I am writing." Then he goes on to tell of his various visits to Professors; among whom he mentions with especial emphasis and respect a certain distinguished Dr. Hensler. This learned notability had been pleased to take an unusual degree of interest in the young student and his pursuits. "My ideas about the origin of the Greek tribes," says Niebuhr, "the history of the colonization of the Greek cities, and my notions in general about the earliest migration from west to east, are new to him, and he thinks it probable that they may be correct. He exhorts me to work them out, and bring them into as clear a form as I can." Hensler likewise prepared a plan of study for him, and seems to have given him a sort of general invitation to his house. There it was his fortune to become acquainted with one or two intellectual and cultivated women, in whose society it soon became his wont to "cheer himself," when he happened to be getting “gloomy' from a too great severity of study. He very much complains, however, of his painful timidity and bashfulness before ladies generally. "However much I may improve," said he, "in other society, I am sure I must get worse and worse every day in their eyes; and so, out of downright shyness, I scarcely dare speak to a lady; and as I know, once for all, that I must be insupportable to them, their presence becomes disagreeable to me. Yesterday, notwithstanding, I screwed up my courage, and began to talk to Miss Behrens and young Mrs. Hensler." It would appear that he did not acquit himself much to his satisfaction in the conversation; but, as practice in most things gives expertness, he gradually became less diffident, and more gallant in his deportment; and we find him in the course of time, confessing to a tender attachment for Miss Behrens. Her sister, Mrs. Hensler, (widow of a son of Dr. Hensler's,) soon perceived his secret, and with the kindest consideration in the world, spoke to him distinctly on the subject, and brought him to a definite declaration. It was not until he had quitted college, however, and subsequently paid a visit to the Henslers, that the basliful student formally made a confession of his feelings. Then, in the month of August, 1797, he wrote to Madame Hensler in these terms:-"At every moment that I have had to myself for reflection, I have pondered on the idea, and asked myself whether the reality would be as happy as the prospect was entrancing. I found the question very simple, Niebuhr resided in Copenhagen for the next six years, during which period the city was bombarded, and the Danish fleet destroyed by Nelson. and the answer was, 'Were I to obtain the blessing | presence and conversation keep my heart at rest and of which I am not yet worthy, I should have more my mind healthy. Thus I am gradually recovering than I ever ventured to desire, and my happiness from the impression made upon me in past times by could only be disturbed by my own fault.' It is the delusions and contradictions of the world." not necessary to know your Amelia long. Can one help believing in her at first sight? Why should I repeat what you know already, that her presence gave me such unspeakable, heartfelt delight! The first speaking glance of her clear beautiful eyes, her richly cultivated mind, that reveals itself so simply and unassumingly, almost timidly; her purity, her tenderness, shine out in all her words and motions, and would be evident to one less susceptible than I am. I see no shadow, not even a cloud, to dim this sunshine." But before their marriage can take place, Niebuhr has to win for himself a name and a position in the world. His college days, indeed, are ended, and he is now holding the situation of private Secretary to Count Schimmelman, Minister of Finance at Copenhagen, and also the post of Secretary to the Royal Library; but his personal tastes incline him to aspire after a professorship in Kiel, as the readiest means of leading the quiet and studious life most suited to his disposition; and it is now accordingly his aim to qualify himself in all respects for the duties of such an office. By way of preparation for the work he had assigned himself, it was decided that Niebuhr should make a journey to Great Britain, that he might have some of the advantages of foreign travel, prosecute and extend his studies, brace up and strengthen his mental and bodily energies, and acquire, as far as possible, a comprehensive view of the relations of the external world. Of his residence here we have no record, save what is presented in a series of letters to his betrothed, extending over a space of nearly eighteen months-from June 1798, to November 1799. These letters are almost entirely of a personal character. Ultimately, however, hostilities were suspended, peace followed, and Niebuhr was left to pursue his official avocations, and the historical investigations in which he now began to be engaged, without further interruption. In these employments, he was occupied until the autumn of 1806; when, growing dissatisfied with his position in connexion with the ministry, he embraced an opportunity which was now afforded him of relinquishing the Danish service, and of entering upon an important office under the Prussian Government. He removed to Berlin on the 5th of October, a few days before the battles of Jena and Auerstädt, when the Prussian army was defeated, and the French advanced upon the capital. For Niebuhr and his associates there was, of course, no quarter to be expected; most of them accordingly took to flight, and after various shiftings, Niebuhr and his wife, with whom alone we are here concerned, took up their residence at Memel, where they appear to have stayed until the following April. Niebuhr then took office in the finance department under Count Hardenberg, and subsequently under Stein, with whom he laboured for some time in an attempt to reorganize and regenerate the kingdom. Having returned to Berlin in December, 1807, he was met by the intelligence of his mother's death; and at this loss his grief was heightened, inasmuch as he was obliged to go upon a financial mission to Holland, instead of proceeding straightway to Meldorf, to visit and console his father. He remained at Amsterdam for upwards of a year, and can scarcely be said to have succeeded in his negotiation; but, nevertheless, he was afterwards nominated a privy councillor of state, and received a superior appointment connected with the administration of the funds. He was more or less engaged in various public duties until 1810, when, distrusting Hardenberg, who was now again installed as Prime Minister, and offended at the opposition given to some of his financial plans, he sought to be released from further service under government, and finally exchanged his situation for an historical professorship, in the new university just opened in Berlin. In November, 1799, Niebuhr returned to Holstein, and in May of the following year he was married to Amelia Behrens. He had just been appointed Assessor at the Board of Trade for the East India Department, and Secretary of the Standing Commission of the Affairs of Barbary. In June, he took his wife to Copenhagen, and entered on his official duties. The young couple were in the highest degree happy in each other. Niebuhr writes thus to Madame Hensler in the month of August :—“ Amelia's heavenly disposition, and more than earthly love, raise me above this world, and, as it appears, separate me from this life. Now it was that Niebuhr, for the first time, had A life of full employment, combined with serenity of ample leisure for those studies to which he had long mind, which we shall secure by rigidly maintaining been secretly attached, and now, accordingly, was pubour seclusion, protects and heightens the capacity for lished his first literary production-A Treatise on the happiness. Happiness is a poor word: find a better! Amphictyons-written in the summer of 1810. At Even the toils and sacrifices of business contribute to the opening of the University, he delivered those the calm self-approval, which to me is the essential lectures on Roman history which formed the foundacondition of enduring happiness. Amelia's cheerful- tion of the great historical work, by which his name ness, her contentment with her lot, untroubled by has been rendered famous. The lecture-room was any wish for something beyond it, afford me as heart- attended by a numerous and distinguished audience of felt joy as the contrary would give me pain. Her students, professors, and even statesmen. And so now he had lost all that was most dear to him in the world, and the weight of his loneliness fell on him as darkness falls over the earth when it is night. The depth of his affection was proportioned to the happiness he had enjoyed, and he passed many solitary months in a state of extreme depression. Still it was not long before he recognised the duty of resignation and endurance. The dark calamity that bound him down, was indeed but an inevitable incident in the common lot. Every day this grave shadow intercepts the sunshine in its passage through some casement. So, with as much patience as was possible, he addressed himself to his wonted tasks, and strove to live in the endeavour and in the prospect of being useful to his fellow men. He could not, indeed, return to his Roman History, as it revived too many painful recollections; but he employed himself in various incidental studies, and, upon the whole, contrived to turn his hours to account. What Niebuhr proposed to himself, and eventually | regarded its fulfilment as a sacred duty, though years accomplished, may be gathered (as far as it can be elapsed before he was able to resume his work." indicated by a few disconnected paragraphs) from the following remarks, taken from Professor Loebell's Essay on his character as an historian. "In his History of Rome," says the Professor, "Niebuhr commenced the erection of an edifice, in the construction of which he would not employ the very smallest stone until he had carefully examined its fitness. Furnished with a comprehensive and profound acquaintance with the languages and literature of antiquity, he was fully qualified to apply the principles of the new tendency in philological criticism on a far wider scale, by the most acute examination and analysis of the original sources of history. What had hitherto (with a few exceptions which attracted no attention) been termed historical criticism, consisted partly in a reckless scepticism, which rejected entirely the remains of whole periods,- -as Hume says, "The Lrst page of Thucydides is in my opinion the commencement of real history,"-partly in testing contradictory statements in the accounts of the narrators of isolated events, by their greater or less probability. Another step had been taken shortly before Niebuhr's time. Instead of credulously receiving, or absolutely rejecting the whole, an effort was made to pick out the kernel of historical truth, from the midst of the mythical elements with which it was mixed up in tradition. Niebuhr retained his professorship until the year 1813, publishing in the meantime the first and second volumes of his Roman History, and making liberal preparation for future works. In that year, however, the recurrence of war between France and Prussia called him once more away from the prosecution of his literary pursuits, and obliged him to take an active part in political affairs. He was now employed in various negotiations with foreign states, and was for some time in attendance at the head-quarters of the Allied Army at Prague, and other places. Returning to Berlin in October 1814, he wrote a pamphlet on "The Rights of Prussia against the Court of Saxony," which excited great attention, and for which he received the formal thanks of the Prussian Government. Whilst he was still occupied with public affairs, he received, in April 1815, tidings of the death of his father. About the same time, his wife's health, which had long been failing, had now become decidedly broken down, and it was evident to him that, in her case also, the end was nigh at hand.. His apprehensions, indeed, were very shortly verified, On the 21st of June she died in her husband's arms. "He had never spoken to her of her approaching death, much as he longed to receive her parting wishes, because the physician forbade all excitement. Once only, a few days before her death, as he was holding her in his arms, he asked her if there was no pleasure that he could give her,-nothing that he could do for her sake; she replied, with a look of tenderness, 'You shall finish your History whether I live or die.' This request, was ever present to his mind, and he In the spring of 1816, he prevailed upon Madame Hensler and her niece, Margaret Hensler, to come and live with him; and by their presence he was gradually brought back to a comparatively cheerful state of mind. Shortly, it became apparent to Niebuhr that this young Margaret was a very graceful and interesting girl; she soothed him with pleasant attentions, and delighted him by her singing; and in the end it came to pass that he won her young affections, and married her. On the conclusion of peace, after the event of Waterloo, Niebuhr was rewarded for his services by the appropriate appointment of Prussian Minister at the Court of Rome. Thither, accordingly, he set out with his young wife in July, 1816, and there he remained for the space of seven years. In Rome and its neighbourhood he had the most favourable opportunities for working out his historical investigations. The object of his mission being attained, Niebuhr quitted Rome in the summer of 1823, and after a brief stay in the Prussian capital, decided on taking up his residence at Bonn. While in Italy, his wife had borne him four children, the youngest of whom died in the spring of 1824. This event distressed him greatly. He was, at the time, away on a visit to Berlin, and on writing to console his wife, he says, "I have learnt to appreciate you, and your whole worth thoroughly, my Gretchen, and this misfortune has brought us nearer to each other, and perfected my love for you more than any happiness could have done. . . I am buying little presents for the children, but with what a weight at my heart! I feel as though I had lost all security that they were still mine." Nevertheless, with the commencement of his residence at Bonn, began the quietest, and, as far as concerns posterity, the most important portion of his life. His freedom from other occupations and cares, enabled him at last seriously to undertake the 64 accomplishment of the promise given to his Amelia, and continue his Roman History. He returned to the vocation, which had in his youth floated before him as the true ideal of his life, namely, the position of a public instructor; and found ample opportunity to redeem the vow he had made in his early years, to extend guidance and assistance to any young men who might hereafter encounter the intellectual difficulties through which he had had to work his own way." Though holding no official appointment at the university, he yet frequently delivered lectures there-lectures on the History of Greece, Roman | Antiquities, Ancient History, Ethnography, and Geography-making in the whole several distinct courses, which were continued up to the year 1830. For a year or two, he also assisted his friends Brandis and Hasse in the editorship of a philosophic journal; for the rest, he lived in pleasant intercourse with various literary and distinguished persons. But he did not confine himself solely to learned circles. "In all the civil affairs of the town and neighbourhood, he took an active interest from principle as well as inclination, for he considered a man as no good citizen who refused to take his share of the public business of the neighbourhood in which he lived; and the loss which left so great a blank in the world of letters, was also deeply regretted by his fellow-townsmen of Bonn.” Niebuhr's mode of life, in these latter years, was very regular, and all his habits simple. "He hated show and unnecessary luxury in domestic life. He loved art in her proper place, but could not bear to see her degraded into the mere minister of outward ease. His life in his own family showed the erroneousness of the assertion, that a thorough devotion to learning is inconsistent with the claims of family affection. He liked to hear of all the little household occurrences, and his sympathy was as ready for the little sorrows of his children as for the misfortunes of a nation. He was in the habit of rising at seven in the morning, and retiring at eleven. At the simple one o'clock dinner, he generally conversed cheerfully upon the contents of the newspaper which he had just looked through. The conversation was usually continued during the walk which he took immediately afterwards. The building of a house, or the planting of a garden, had always an attraction for him, and he used to watch the measuring of a wall, or the breaking open of an entrance, with the same species of interest with which he observed the development of a political organization. The family drank tea at eight o'clock, when any of his acquaintance were always welcome. But during the hours spent in his library, his whole being was absorbed in his studies, and hence he got through an immense amount of work in an incredibly short time." In this way the years span round, until the end which awaits every one, came in his case also. His life was at last shortened by a concurrence of calamities. On the 6th of February, 1830, his new house, in the arrangement of which he had been greatly interested, was accidentally burnt down; and before order and comfort could be created afresh from the ruins of his domestic existence, the news arrived of the second French Revolution-the notable Three Days of July. With respect to the fire, he said, with sad composure, "If only the manuscript of the second volume of my Roman History is found again, I can get over everything else, and, at the worst, I feel I have still power enough left to replace my History, and will set to work again, with God's help, in a few days." The manuscript was found, and was greeted with great joy; but it is said, that the news of the Three Days utterly confounded him, and from that time he was saddened and distracted by what seemed to him the re-commencement of revolutionary outrage. When the trial of the ministers of Charles the Tenth took place, he was much excited by the reports in the French journals; and on the evening of Christmas day, after spending a considerable time in reading in the public news-rooms, without taking off his cloak, he caught a severe cold as, heated in mind and body, he was returning home through the frosty night air. His illness lasted a week, and was pronounced, on the fourth day, to be a decided attack of inflammation on the lungs. His faithful wife, who exerted herself beyond her strength in nursing him, fell ill, and was obliged to be carried from him. Then, with a painful presentiment, he turned his face to the wall, murmuring, "Hapless house! to lose father and mother at once." And to the children he said, "Pray to God, children; He alone can help us!" And his attendants saw that he himself was seeking comfort and strength in silent prayer. Finally, on the afternoon of the 1st of January, 1831, he sank into a dreamy slumber; once awakening, he said that pleasant images floated before him in his sleep; in his dreams he now and then spoke French; and as the night gathered, consciousness faded quite away, and the Great Darkness extinguished the light of his eyes for ever! Nine days afterwards, his wife followed him to the same grave. The third volume of the Roman History, which Niebuhr had left in an unfinished state, was prepared for the press by Professor Classen. Of this performance we do not feel called upon to speak further in this place; and with respect to the extensive correspondence now before us, we can only say, that it contains the record of his whole literary and political life, and abounds with passages remarkable for sense and wisdom. Want of space has hindered us from making large quotations, but we can confidently recommend the book to the attention of all studious and thoughtful readers. It is full of sound knowledge and practical information: if "Biography" be “history teaching by example," few histories are more pregnant with lessons than this; it shows us what industry can do when combined with talent; and it shows us, also, that which some persons are occasionally inclined to dispute, -that "industry and talent" may be associated, may work together, and together produce the fruits of labour for the benefit of mankind. A DANGEROUS CHARACTER! BY MRS. S. C. HALL. from his Quiz dictionary, for all things-for funerals as well as feasts; and delighted in parodies, which he sung with singular emphasis and expression. He never omitted quizzing "the parson;" and thought it the triumph of his art to have sent four doctors and two undertakers down a dirty lane, to call on an old maid and an old bachelor, who had just quitted their single blessedness for the bonds and bands of matrimony. Whenever a bell-handle or a knocker was missed, Mr. Mallay was accused of the theft-and bad as he certainly was-mean and incomprehensive as were his ideas of that brilliant sparkling wit, which is the very jewel of society-low as was his understanding of the reciprocal duties of the salon, where there is neither a butt nor a butter, where each contributes to the pleasure of the whole, and that from the upspringing of a gracious desire to make others happy-incapable as the "Quiz ever is of justice or generosity-prone as he must be to manmonkeyism, in its most mischievous moods-yet I have sometimes thought he was blamed more severely than he deserved to be. It was entirely for want of moral courage to cut him deliberately and at once that he continued lingering about our pretty neighbourhood-the very genius of mischief and idle talk-peeping in on our working evenings with little fag-ends of suppositions, and the very tatters of scandal-quizzing us all round, and managing to amuse us in the unhealthiest of all ways, by quizzing our neighbours; and while we were innocently sewing muslin, he was sowing mischief ONE of the most tormenting persons who ever came into a neighbourhood is, "a great Quiz," a man who, having little or nothing to do, has, nevertheless, an active imagination and not a great deal of mind; who is perpetually injuring your taste by bad puns, insulting your honesty by gross untruths, turning your friends and your feelings into ridicule, and getting up practical jokes in a way that tempts you to call him out, or, if you are able, meditate "a thrashing" in defiance of the law. But your genuine, your perplexing and most dangerous "Quiz" has a provoking good temper; you get angry with him, and are ashamed thereat, for he will not get angry with you. He is full of mirth and mischief, and leaves the malice to you whom he aggrieves and laughs at; and then, if he offends you, and you resent it, your neighbour smiles as you pass, and if your neighbour is displeased, you smile as he passes, and, forgetting altogether how "glum" you looked yesterday, you wonder how it is possible he should look so glum to-day, when he knows of old that Mr. Mallay is "such a Quiz," and means "no harm." I am sure, while writhing beneath a joke, you could forgive him much more quickly if he intended harm than if he did not, for a desire to injure could be more easily forgotten than a desire to turn you into ridicule. We all like to laugh with, but cannot endure to be laughed at. Mr. Mallay never cared what we liked or dis-libelling our visiting-societies, casting shadows upon liked, so long as he had his laugh, and could quiz, or arrest attention by recounting a capital quiz" he played off on " that dear kind fellow who would never get over it." A man requires no capital of either wit or understanding to set up for "a Quiz." A certain degree of unrefined humour, and a fertile invention, were Mr. Mallay's stock-in-trade. He made lucky hits sometimes; got hold of a good story or a good -listener, or a person whose nature was so truthful that he anticipated no untruth in others, and was loth to believe that any one could be so degraded as to make fun out of falsehood. He had a quick, sly, winking eye, that never looked you straight in the face; an uncertain, undefined mouth, that twisted, and set, and unset itself, in many different ways, sometimes puckering at one corner, and smiling at the other a mouth, in fact, that looked as if it were born with a lie upon its lips. His carriage was ungentlemanly for a gentleman must be erect and self-possessed, and your "great Quiz" is never the one or the other. Mr. Mallay exaggerated all things, and was as well read in appearances and omens as a fortune-teller. If a gentleman danced twice with the same lady, he was violently in love;" if a widow changed her weeds, " she was going to be married," and both must be " quizzed;" if a poor girl got into ill health, and from being a rose, faded into a lily, the Quiz always inquired "if she was suffering from an affection of the heart." Then he had slang terms, our old maids, and discord among our young ones, "The |