THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF BARTHOLD GEORGE NIEBUHR. ESSAYS ON HIS CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE, BY THE CHEVALIER BUNSEN, AND PROFESSORS BRANDIS AND LORBELL. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 329 & 331 PEARL STREET, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1852. PREFACE. No justification could be needed for offering to the English public a life of Niebuhr, but it seems necessary to explain how far the present work can claim to be considered as such. It is founded upon one entitled "Lebensnachrichten über Barthold Georg Niebuhr," which is chiefly composed of extracts from Niebuhr's letters; though a short narrative, intended to explain these, and fill up the chasms they leave in his history, is prefixed to each of the periods into which it is divided. The principal editor of "Lebensnachrichten" was Madame Hensler, Niebuhr's sister-inlaw, to whom most of the letters are addressed, and who thus states the views with which she performed her task: "The reader will not need to be reminded that the extracts from the letters form the most important part of the work. "As I have already observed, these are not to be judged from the point of view which would be taken by an editor of Niebuhr's learned or general correspondence: such a one would have made a very different and a much more copious selection, and would probably, too, have followed critical rules which were beside the aim of the present work. This aim is simply biographical; to communicate whatever can throw light upon his natural capacities and dispositions, his mental development, his studies, his mode of thought, his views of life, the State, art, and literature; his relations as a citizen, a friend, and a member of the domestic circle; his large and profound sympathies; his keen sense of the noble and beautiful; his zeal for justice and truth; and, not less, his faults and weaknesses, for these too, neither ought nor needed to be glossed over. Niebuhr was not so poor in great and amiable qualities, as to require an artificial light, in order to retain the esteem of those whose esteem he would have valued; and while his letters contain many beautiful traits which a regard to others forbids us to publish, they contain nothing which could have brought our friendship for him and our love of truth into collision. "Whether some of the letters retained might not have been omitted, and others inserted with advantage, is a point on which judgments will naturally differ. . . "The greatest possible care has been taken to avoid any thing like indiscretion toward the living, or a profanation of feeling, which Niebuhr would have regarded as belonging to the inner sanctuary of the heart. Perhaps, in some cases, this scruple has been carried too far (for instance in omitting expressions of affection in the letters to his betrothed), and possibly too, some things may unawares have been retained, in which one better acquainted with the circumstances may perceive allusions that escaped the selecter." I believe none who have paid attention to the subject, will deny, that the editor has, in the main, accomplished her purpose, and presented a picture of Niebuhr as a man, and in his private relations, which, in point of completeness and fairness, is excelled by few biographies; but it |