NIEBUHR, Bertholdt-George, son of Carsten Niebuhr the celebrated Arabian traveller, was born at Copenhagen on the 27th of April 1776. The father, on his return from his travels in the East, had married the daughter of the celebrated physician Blumenberg, and would probably have established himself in the Danish capital; but the disgrace of the minister Bernstorf, his protector, had inspired him with a great dislike for that city. Denmark, to which the traveller now belonged, desired to employ him in the corps of military engineers; in fact, the government of that country intended to avail itself of his knowledge for determining some geographical positions in Norway. Niebuhr, however, preferred a civil appointment, that of Land- [7:16:210]schrieb er, ^[1. Secretary of justice or registrar would be an incomplete translation of this word. The Landschricbcr also exercised administra, tive and financial functions. That the place of Niebuhr the father was superior to that of a simple registrar, is evinced by the circumstance that he joined to it the title of counsellor of state. ] γ at Mildorf in Holstein.^[2. “Au bord de 1’Océan Septentrional,” says Μ. de Golbéry, “non loin de l’embouchure de l’Elbe, est une contrée qui, sous le nom de Hadeln, a fait partie de la ligue Frisonne, et qui renferme la paroisse de Lüdingworth, composée de cultivateurs libres. Le duché de Saxe-Lauenbourg, le Hanovre, la France, ont successivement étendu leurs limites jusqu’à ces rivages, mais peu de personnes connaissent ce petit pays. Désormais il sera célèbre, car il a donné à la science un nom deux fois illustré. Niebuhr le père a su conquérir pour la géographie l’Arabie, l’Iude, la Mer Rouge, régions dont les longitudes n’étaient pas déterminées, dont les cartes étaient imparfaites; Niebuhr le fils a fait reluire des clartés de son génie les antiques débris des institutions de Rome, et d’un regard assure il a reconnu, malgré l’obscurité des siècles, la source du grand peuple, et les affluens qui lui ont apporté le tribut de leurs generations.’ {Notice Historique sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de B. G. Nxebuiir, conseiller d’état, membre de l' Académie des Sciences de Berlin.} ] If he had retained his taste for distant enterprise and adventure, the East was the theatre upon which alone he would have sought to indulge such a predilection; but the attachment which he had conceived for his wife, and the birth of two children, presented insuperable obstacles to the execution of any project of this kind. He therefore remained in the bosom of his family, occupied with the preparation of his travels, and intent only upon giving to his children useful lessons, enforced by a virtuous example.

The original intention of the Arabian traveller was to open to his son the route to the East. With this view the early studies of the youth were arranged; he was taught English, a language almost indispensable to the navigator, and Arabic, which he might one day have to speak in the native country of Mahommed; whilst geography and the mathematics were destined to form the basis of his education. But genius is a bough which it is vain to bend in a direction not given to it by nature. Niebuhr the father had traversed space, Niebuhr the son longed to overleap time; he saw his object distinctly marked beyond past ages, and, free from all trammels, it was towards antiquity that his meditations constantly aspired. He has himself told us, with a laudable frankness, that his father often lost patience with him on account of his desultory pursuits; yet it was during this time that he employed all his leisure in studying Sophocles. When liis father chanced to give him a lesson in geography, or to pronounce the name of D’Anville, for which he entertained the most profound veneration, young Niebuhr saw before him nothing but the Gaul of Caesar; he read again and again the commentaries of that great captain, and only derived from the learned French geographer archeological notions calculated to illustrate the progress of the Roman conqueror, or to restore some ancient city of Gaul.

Nevertheless, these exercises were merely preparatory. The celebrated philologist Jager, editor of the Latin panegyrists, was the first master of Niebuhr; and it was under this renowned scholar that he became initiated into the mechanism of languages. His father, indeed, regarded languages only as the means of attaining science; he never stopped to examine the details; provided he understood the import, he was satisfied. The lessons of Jager took deep root in the analytical mind of his pupil, who already began to display that vigorous stamp of genius which promises to make more discoveries in the obscure recesses of a library than the most robust traveller can hope to achieve on distant coasts, or on islands regarded as inaccessible to the navigator. Already had the idea of exposing him to the dangers of such an adventurous career been abandoned. The mother, whose solicitude was pushed to an imprudent excess, had at first created obstacles to the accomplishment of the views of Carsten Niebuhr respecting his son. In fact, the too assiduous cares which she lavished upon him so weakened his constitution that his health always continued precarious, and the irritability of his nerves sometimes re-acted upon his character, which, without ever ceasing to be noble and generous, was not always exempt from whim and caprice.

But whatever may have been the motives or considerations which changed the resolution of the father, young Niebuhr was sent to Hamburg, where he studied the science of commerce, as well in the prelections given on this subject by Professor Büsch, as in the most respectable mercantile houses of that rich city. But the illustrious Vossius was the friend of his father, and Klopstock likewise resided in Hamburg. How then could he resist the impulse of his genius, or escape being inspired with new ardour in favour of antiquity? When Vossius spoke of the Greeks and Romans, it might have been supposed that he had just quitted their society. Niebuhr was certainly no poet; but his genius felt itself warmed by the conversation of these great men. To Vossius he was indebted for those views, so distinct and precise, which he afterwards developed respecting the people of antiquity; whilst Klopstock taught him to interpret the language of tradition, when it speaks in its own natural voice, and describes, with equal grandeur and simplicity, the Ruminal fig-tree, the augury of the birds of destiny, the birth of Servius, or the truly Homeric battle of the Lake Regillus. “On dirait,” says Μ. de Golbéry, “que dans ces pages admirables son style, tantôt naïf et tantôt majesteux, veut ranimer l’esprit du lecteur, et la dédommager de la sécheresse inséparable de la dissertation, comme les accens d’une musique religieuse délassent, par intervalles, one âme fatiguée de trop longues méditations.”

But, not to anticipate, Niebuhr, having entered the university of Kiel, applied himself zealously to the study of jurisprudence, and was distinguished by the philosopher Jacobi, whom he ever afterwards esteemed, and also by Hentzler the physician, whose grand-daughter he subsequently married. From Kiel the young student proceeded to Edinburgh. The object of his father in prescribing this voyage was to combine with his other studies that of the natural sciences. Nor were his views in this particular disappointed. Niebuhr distinguished himself especially in chemistry, and became so enamoured of his experiments that little was wanting to direct his attention definitively to that subject, and fix his views on discovering some new substances rather than on re-awakening old and forgotten notions. Throughout the whole of his after life he delighted to recall his residence in Edinburgh. An old ship-captain of the Jacobite family of the Scotts had thirty years before received on board his vessel Niebuhr the traveller, and still prided himself on the circumstance. The honest seaman received the son of his old friend with affectionate cordiality, and the young German student lived in the greatest intimacy with the members of his family, “à laquelle,” says Μ. de Golbéry, “appartient le célèbre romancier.”

The studies of Niebuhr were now completed. A residence of eighteen months in Scotland had enabled him to study the institutions of that country; but as he wished to become still more intimately acquainted with the nation which his father estimated so highly, he devoted six months to travelling through different parts of Great Britain. During this period he took the greatest pains to inform himself respecting the manners, the usages, and the customs of the people, and in particular directed his attention[7:16:211] to the system of British legislation; nor do we knowany instance of a foreigner who, in the same space of time, acquired so extensive a knowledge of the public law and policy of this country. Niebuhr, in fact, loved that inertia, amounting even to obstinacy, which resists amelioration, and which sacrifices progressive improvement to the desire of repose. This sentiment was with him pushed to excess, and hencehe felt distrustful of every ministry which appeared to favour reform. In a word, he had imbibed the essential spirit of Toryism, the distinctive characteristic of which is resistance to change. Dazzled by the greatness which this country had attained, he hastily concluded that all was directly owing to its peculiar institutions; and thinking that these were as perfect as human wisdom could render them, he conceived that nothing remained but to place them beyond the reach of innovation.

¾Niebuhr commenced his administrative career at Copenhagen, where he was at first appointed secretary to Schimmelmann, the minister of finance; and about the same time we also find him acting as secretary to a commission instructed to arrange some affairs with the Barbary powers. At the period of the bombardment of the Danish capital by the English, the precautions taken by Niebuhr contributed materially to save from the common disaster the library of which he had for some time been assistant-keeper. The knowledge which he had acquired in matters of finance soon became of practical utility to its possessor, and he was appointed one of the directors of the Danish bank. Distinguished alike for his ability and his desire to do good, Niebuhr did not confine his labours to the cabinet, but published several memoirs on the public administration, and on political economy. In the year 1804 he married the daughter of the landυoght of the district of Heydt. This union proved happy, and opened to him the prospect of enjoying in the bosom of his family the repose necessary for enabling him to discharge with credit his administrative labours. A career at once honourable and affluent seemed calculated to satisfy his ambition, whilst it afforded him leisure for the study of letters; it appeared, indeed, that Germany must for ever abandon to Denmark both Niebuhr the traveller and Niebuhr the future historian of Rome; and to the brilliant position which the latter owed to his father’s celebrity and his own merit, it might have been supposed that he would content himself with adding the honourable reputation which, in official situations, always follows talent and probity. But fortune had ordered it otherwise.

The French were now waiting upon the shores of the Channel until winds less contrary should fill their sails, and waft them across to the white cliffs of Albion; their ensigns, it was hoped, were destined to wave over another Hastings, and, by a new conquest, to efface the remembrance of the warlike Normans. But England, alarmed at the prospect of a struggle for existence on her own soil, called Austria to her aid. France, however, was not taken unprepared. The legions arrayed for the invasion of England rushed like a torrent into the heart of Germany; in three months the Austrian monarchy was humbled in the dust; and the Russians, then so much dreaded, were driven into the lakes of Moravia. If less prejudiced, Niebuhr would perhaps have admired the prodigies performed by the modern Romans; and these few months, which concentrated more glory than might have sufficed to illustrate an age, would have appeared to him a fragment of the annals of a great people. But early impressions are almost never effaced. From his infancy, he had, in the paternal mansion, imbibed the most bitter prejudices against France. On the one hand, he had been accustomed to hear only of the degenerate men or the effeminate courtiers of the old monarchy; and on the other, he had been horrified with pictures of the revolutionists, their scaffolds, and their crimes. In vain did the French army throw its victorious sword into the balance. The father of Niebuhr remained unmoved by its achievements, or rather became more exasperated in consequence of its successes; for if Denmark was the country of his adoption, he was a Hanoverian by birth, and each battle gained by the French afflicted the ancient subject of England, and wounded the sentiment of German independence. Even the expedition to Egypt, with all its romantic incidents and exploits, found no favour in the eyes of the old traveller. That the French neither could nor would do good, was with him a settled maxim.^[3. It would be unjust not to add, however, that Carsten Niebuhr afterwards saw reason to modify his prejudices, in as far at least as concerns the sciences. ]

It is not to be wondered, then, if his son remained insensible to the astonishing achievements of Napoleon. His soul, it is true, was formed to be moved with all noble and generous sentiments, to admire all courageous and heroic actions; but in the warriors of France he saw only the slaves of a military despot, and the instruments employed by him to overwhelm Germany. The fidelity of Denmark to France was, according to him, nothing but a base and cowardly compliance. That state, he conceived, was sacrificing its interests to its predilections; and when Prussia imagined that she had merely evoked the shade of the Great Frederick, in order to find nothing but Sou-bises in the armies of France, Niebuhr associated himself with this fatal delusion, and was one of the first writers to raise the cry of war. However, as the servant of a friendly power, he did not venture upon a direct attack. He borrowed the thunder of Demosthenes, translated the first Philippic, added to it notes filled with allusions to actual circumstances, and, lastly, dedicated the work, the first fruit of his classical acquisitions, to the Emperor Alexander. But he forgot that Napoleon was not Philip king of Macedonia, nor his warriors the barbarous oppressors of Athens; and he also neglected to observe that civilization was not likely to come to us from the north in virtue of an imperial ukaz. Prussia, however, understood this language; she called Niebuhr to her service, and he was named director of the commerce of the Baltic. But he did not long enjoy his new dignity. Scarcely had he arrived at Berlin, when the storm which burst at Iena and Auerstadt reduced the Prussian monarchy to dust; it became necessary to fly, and abandon to the homage of the conqueror the remains of the great Frederick. From Königsberg to Memel, from Memel to Riga, the court skulked from asylum to asylum. The French cannon pursued it everywhere, and amidst the snows and mud of Eylau, as well as on the plains of Friedland, the imperial eagles rushed to victory.

Nevertheless, Prince Hardenberg invited Niebuhr to assist in all the councils which were held during this crisis. The rectitude and constancy of his character never yielded or flinched; the same love of country, the same aversion for foreign domination, always distinguished him. During his stay at Riga, he employed what leisure business allowed him in studying the literature of Russia; but it appeared to him poor and barren, nor do we find that his occupations in this way had much influence upon his future labours. It may be supposed, however, that these pursuits inspired him with a predilection for the Russians, and an aversion for Poland, which it is difficult to reconcile with the generosity of his character. After the conferences of Tilsitt, he returned to Berlin; and recent [7:16:212]events having made him advantageously known, he was employed on a mission of high importance, namely, to negotiate with the agents of Great Britain in Holland some affairs of finance. 1he latter country was then governed by King Louis, or rather it was administrated in spite of him, and in the interest of his brother. If this prince had been master of his states, tradition would preserve, for generations to come, the memory of one good king more. He understood perfectly all that was necessary to insure the prosperity of his new subjects; he was enlightened, loyal, and generous. Of this it was not long ere Niebuhr obtained a satisfactory proof. The police of the empire had covered the kingdom of Holland with its agents, and he had become an,object of their attention. The king hastened to apprise him of the dangers to which he was exposed, and even to assist him in effecting his escape. The day came when this good king found himself proscribed and persecuted, even in the capital of the Christian world; all the thrones raised by his brother had been overthrown; but the noble use which he had made of his power lived in the recollection of the ambassador of Prussia, for that ambassador was Niebuhr; and Louis was respected at Rome for having been beneficent at the Hague.

When Niebuhr returned to his own country, the hour of her deliverance had not yet come. Prussia was then endeavouring to console herself for her misfortunes by a wise and liberal administration, and the ministry of Berlin was occupied in founding useful establishments. Niebuhr, who had just been named counsellor of state, had profoundly studied the agrarian law of the Romans; and Prussia at this period followed a system of improvement and colonization of waste lands, on which he furnished to the government some very remarkable memoirs. Roman History was thus in some measure applied to the soil, whilst the utility of the exact sciences, the progress of which exercises an influence on agriculture and the arts, was at the same time exemplified. In every point Niebuhr powerfully seconded the able and generous views of Μ. de Stein.

About the same period, Berlin was distinguished for a scientific activity almost without example. The university was created, and the Academy of Sciences re-organized. The recent labours of Niebuhr had secured him a place amongst the most eminent men of the kingdom; he belonged to the university, and was likewise a member of the academy. Buttmann, Heindorf, Spalding, and Savigny, arrived in succession. With these celebrated men he lived in terms of the greatest intimacy. In him also they recognised their equal, and, penetrating the depth of his views, notwithstanding the distrust which he felt of his own powers, they conducted him to that chair of Roman history, which he hesitated to occupy; “comme s’il pressentait qu’après en avoir franchi les degrés, il ne lui serait plus donné de s’arrêter; comme s’il était effrayé de la rapidité avec laquelle ils l’élèveraient jusqu’à l’immortalité.”

The eulogium contained in these words of Golbéry may be thought exaggerated; but in reality it is not so. Those who see nothing in history but a sequence of annals, and of facts crowded on facts, are pre-occupied with the thought that contemporary authors have bequeathed to us all antiquity, and cannot conceive that the moderns should employ themselves otherwise than in compiling and arranging ancient texts. It appears to such persons that to restore the beautiful edifice raised by Titus Livius, we must take fragments from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Sallust, and Polybius; or glean here and there, in the grammarians and rhetoricians, some scattered indications which the current of ages would have swept into oblivion, if they had not scattered their erudition athwart its course. To act in this way is no doubt useful. By doing so one may acquire the reputation of Trenshomius, make supplements to Titus Livius, and repair the mutilated monument of his history in much the same fashion as if a pillar of brick were substituted instead of a column of the Parthenon. Modern writers have only one advantage over these Latin compilers; that of preserving an uniform style in their compositions, and never betraying in their sickly restorations the imposing vicinage of the ancients. Whether they confine themselves to translation, or attempt to complete what has been left unfinished, the edifice is all trowelled with the same mortar; and if it has neither majesty nor solidity, its distribution at least may present an appearance of regularity. But if, in an access of hallucination, it should enter into the mind of a modern to abandon this coarse plastering in order to create in his turn; in short, to construct a rival monument to that of Titus Livius; his folly would be the same as that which the viceroy of Egypt might be charged withal, if he should take a fancy to raise new pyramids beside those of Djizch, or to surpass the wonderful masses which traditionally own Cheops or Cephrenes as their architects.

But such was not the conception of Niebuhr. His views on Roman history, at the moment when he undertook to teach it, were very different. If, said he, the masterpiece of Titus Livius were still entire, and presented to us a continuous history, it would be at once extravagant and presumptuous to attempt to imitate it in order to attain its perfection. Such an undertaking would be absurd, even although we could collect materials more abundant than those which he had consulted, or record traditions different from his. If Titus Livius still existed entire, the task of the moderns would, in the view of Niebuhr, be limited to disentangling poetical history from the primary facts preserved by tradition, and applying a critical and inquiring spirit to proud family legends, renowned consulates, imaginary triumphs, and those fallacious notions which have passed from panegyrics and funeral orations into histories. But of that admirable work we now possess only disjointed fragments; and if other indications enable us sometimes to divine its course, it is nevertheless with it as with those ancient aqueducts of which, we discover the general direction only because some of their ruined arches appear at various distances in the valley or the plain.

The historian of Rome must have a different object in view; an object which it would be his duty to attain, even if classical literature had still presented itself to our consideration as it did to that of the contemporaries of Augustus. It would be incumbent on him to apply his mind to the critical examination of facts, and to researches connected with institutions of which the indifference or ignorance of authors has suffered the memory to perish. Sallust conceived himself obliged to inform the Romans that their own country might, not less than Greece itself, glory in great actions. All their views were, in fact, fixed on the latter; they disdained their own language; they despised the annals of their country. In vain had the elder Cato written his Origines; in vain had some other Romans attempted to create a national history. They had no readers; and perhaps Titus Livius was the first who succeeded in avenging that long oblivion of so many great actions and noble characters. Like a majestic hymn, his narration at once filled the ear and awakened the patriotic feelings of the Roman. He struck a chord to which the hearts of his countrymen responded; and henceforward they despised the subtilties of the Greeks, who, excepting Polybius, occupied themselves with debating questions of fatality on the grandeur of Rome, and who consoled the vanity of their countrymen by announcing, in periods elaborately rounded, that destiny had made Rome the mistress of the world, and consequently that no disgrace attached to their inevitable defeat.
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But what really were the ancient institutions of Rome? Was it to these that she owed her success? Could her virtues and the devotion of her citizens fail to triumph over all obstacles? These are questions which never engaged the attention of the Greeks. Neglected by the Romans themselves, the original organization of the state had become a subject of doubt even in the time of Cicero. In regard to all that was known of old Rome, and what still remained of ancient institutions, every contemporary might form a judgment, but few persons paid any attention to the subject; and nothing respecting it was consigned to histories written for a posterity which it was not imagined could ever cease to be itself Roman. None of the authors whose works we possess, either in whole or in part, appears to have thought that it would one day be necessary to learn what every one knew in his time; and that from the division of the people into centuries until the occupation of the day of the citizen, every thing would be an object of research. Titus Livius, moreover, has given himself little or no concern about this species of exposition; anxious only to render his narrative attractive, he has rarely shown himself an archeologist, seldom formed a distinct idea either of the different peoples or states, and never consulted the old inscriptions of the Italic nations, or examined the archives of Rome. Hence it is necessary, by means of research and meditation, to penetrate the sense of detached notices comparatively few in number, and, by combining them together, to retrace the image of what the eternal city was at its birth; to recognise in its primitive population the different elements of the Italic races, and in its institutions the result of this fusion; to follow the progress of both, and, wherever the soil is covered with ruins, to seek under the rubbish for the ancient foundations by which it is still furrowed.

It was on the 26th of October 1810, that, in a masterly and vigorous introduction, Niebuhr unfolded these brilliant and profound views. Their splendour might no doubt prove too much for eyes accustomed only to view Rome through the magnifying glass employed in libraries to decipher ancient manuscripts. The school of routine, in fact, cried out scandal; but elevated minds were more enlightened than dazzled. Niebuhr was listened to; his lectures were numerously attended; and their increasing success gave birth to the first volumes, published in 1811 and 1812, which he afterwards completely recast. The apparition of these volumes was for the time a meteor the reflection of which illuminated all the literature of Germany. They gave rise to profound controversies, to ingenious systems, and to learned philological discussions. Niebuhr himself, without conceding any thing to the criticisms of others, became a severe judge of his own work. He afterwards lamented that at first he possessed only the erudition of a man who had instructed himself; and he had the modesty to compare his own proceedings to the uncertain motions of the sleep-walker, who wanders at hazard on the edge of the roof. But with more justice it may perhaps be said, that in these first essays the lights of his genius were like those brilliant coruscations with which a fiery atmosphere irradiates summer nights without a cloud, and which, so far from keeping to any determinate place, incessantly show themselves at all points of the horizon.

This period of creation and enthusiasm was also marked by other productions. Thus, in the same year in which he naturalized himself in the Rome of Servius Tullius, he navigated with Scylax, interrogated the text of his Periphis i and read to the Academy of Sciences a dissertation having for its object to determine the epoch when that work was composed, which, according to him, was the first half of the reign of Philip, or about the 105th Olympiad. A competent judge, Μ. Letronne, has declared that this dissertation was the best which had yet appeared upon the expedition of Scylax.^[4. If this assertion be no longer correct, Μ. Letronne has himself only to blame; for he has published a treatise on the ancient geographers, which is in all respects a masterpiece of erudition. Niebuhr entertained a high esteem for this great scholar, and used to observe, that he alone was worth a whole academy. ] At this time also he delivered a deliberate opinion concerning the epoch to which the second part of the inscription of Adulis belongs;^[5. See also the Researches of Μ. de Sacy, and the advantage which Μ. Champollion-Figeac has derived from these in his Annals of the Lagidae; a work crowned by the Institute in 1819, and which, notwithstanding the controversies to which it has given rise on some points of chronology, is continually cited as an authority amongst our neighbours the French. ] occupied himself with the geography of Herodotus; determined the state of science in the time of the venerable father of history; threw some light upon the annals of the Scythians, Goths, and Sarmatians; and, lastly, by an ingenious and sound criticism, effaced from the collected works of Aristotle the second book of the Economics, which had beyond all doubt been composed in Asia Minor subsequently to the time of Theophrastus.

Nevertheless, the face of the world was about to change. The finest army which had ever been assembled for the purpose of conquest had just perished amidst the snows of Russia. We have already stated what were Niebuhr’s sentiments in regard to France. At this critical moment he united with Arndt, and along with him published a journal entitled the Prussian Correspondent. This journal was promptly informed of all events. From Spain to Poland, and from Italy to England, it collected every thing calculated to rouse German valour; it announced or presaged success, published vehement manifestos, inflamed the minds of the youth, revived old resentments, and, in short, prepared a war of extermination. The cabinet of Berlin was not slow in obeying the impulsion thus given. Soon afterwards, Niebuhr, having joined the armies of the allies, assisted at the battle of Bautzen; and at that of Dennewitz he himself laboured with Schleiermacher in raising redoubts on the Creutzberg. But not long afterwards, the king of Prussia, whom he had accompanied into the field, sent him into Holland. This was about the time when the formation of the kingdom of the Netherlands began to be discussed in the diplomatic meetings. Niebuhr hesitated not to express decided disapprobation of the proposed fusion of the two states of Holland and Belgium. He spoke often against this project to the mother of the king, who had admitted him into her intimacy, because she had learned to esteem him; and, not content with this frank manifestation of his sentiments, he placed himself in direct official opposition to the calculations of the statesmen of the moment, founded as these were upon confined views and superficial estimates of national character. But on this occasion mediocrity believed itself superior to genius, and, sixteen years afterwards, Belgium reproduced its protestation written in characters of blood.

In the year 1815, Niebuhr was overwhelmed with severe domestic affliction. He lost his father on the 26th of April, and consequently took no part whatever in the events which followed the return of Napoleon from Elba. Absorbed in grief, he sought consolation in writing the life of the Arabian traveller. This biography is short, and free from declamation; and the style is simple, natural, nay often sublime. No extravagance, no useless details, none of those digressions with which the smallest commentator conceives himself bound to overload the author whom he has made the object of his care, deform this composition. It is even remarkable for its strict impartiality. Carsten [7:16:214] Niebuhr, the soo at a cultivator, died counsellor of state, kn⅛hι of the order of Dmebrog, and member of the principal learned societies of Europe; he had never accepted any other tide of nobility, which, in his estimation, would hare ooly served to impeach the humility of his virtuous progenitors-His son, the historian of Rome, was likewise connsei⅛κ∙ of state, member of the Academy of Sciences, ambassador. and be had no wish, any more than his father, to be canobled. Both judged rightly. The one had illustrated his name as far as the Indian Ocean; the other had carried it back to the a≡e of Rhea Silvia. The authority of parchments does not go so far in space, nor ascend so high in time-A few weeks after the death of his father, Niebuhr had ιo lament the loss of his wife. To her, however, the historian consecrated no biography. The gentle virtues of the female sex, concentrated around the domestic hearth, seek, no illustration, and their remembrance rarely survives even in those families the happiness of which they had most essentially contributed to promote.

The new tempest which had in the interval exhausted itself awakened all sorts of ambition, and the conquerors were disputing with avidity the division of the spoil, or, in other words, that of continental Europe. Niebuhr took a part, somewhat too active perhaps, in favour of the ambitious pretensions of Prussia, and wrote, in a vehement style, a pamphlet, entitled Pntssexs Rechte gegen den Sachischen Hoi, or Rights of Prussia against the Court of Saxony. But he at the same lime showed himself the courageous adversary©:’ Μ. de Schmaltz, and the stedfast supporter of all the patriots. So much nobleness of character was not calculated to endure long the atmosphere of courts. The virtue and the frankness of Niebuhr annoyed the ministry; and although his services had entitled him to aspire to the highest dignifies of the state, it was now resolved to remove him. His mission to the Holy See may therefore be con-ādered as only an honourable exile. But to Niebuhr the employment which removed him from Berlin to Rome was any thing rather than a subject of regret. He felt himself as it were drawn towards that intellectual fatherland which had given him erudition. In the city of the pontiffs he discerned fromafar the vestiges of the enceinte of Servius Tullius, and occupied himself with the forum and the tribune or puIpit whence harangues had been délitεred 10 the people, much more than with the chair of St Peter, with which he had to negotiate the interests of the Cιιholic subjects of Prussia. By this time his scientific activity had resumed all its vigour, and, notwithstanding the distractions inseparable from the new union which he wished to contract with the grand-daughter of Dr Hen trier, he began his relations with the celebrated Angelo Maio by publishing the fragments of Fronto, which that 'timed Italian had just discovered. Associated with him in this undertaking were Buttman and Heindorf, men of a kindred stamp, and, along with the historian of Rome, íorraing a triumvirale of which the learned in Europe will noι soon lose the remembrance. About this period, also, Niebuhr read *0 the Academy of Sciences a dissertation on some scenes audaciously interpolated into the text of Pian; us by the insipid versifiers of the middle ages.

The science of law was then in course of being enriched with the fine conceptions of Μ. de Savigny. Niebuhr felt inspired by his conversation; he venerated the jurisconsult, and cherished the friend. Μ. de Savigny engaged him to visit several libraries of Italy, conceiving that they still cer tai≈ed, or rather cor√<Red, valuable remains of the ancien: jurisprudence. N’tbuhr stopped only a few days at Μatfich, where he again saw Jacobi, one of the men whom he esteemed the most; then crossing the Brenner, the limit which he had assigned to the ancestors of the Etruscans, he traversed the Tyrol, and having arrived at Verona, almost immediately discovered the Institutions of Gajus, the prototype of those of Justinian. They were found on a palimpsest or rescribed manuscript, which had for ages remained unnoticed in the library of the chapter.

During a residence of seven years in the ancient capital of the world, Niebuhr enjoyed almost uninterrupted happiness. He cherished his young children, and her who gave them birth. His house was open to his countrymen; it was the resort of artists and learned men of all descriptions. The hour propitious to discovery had arrived; Niebuhr, attempting to glean where the celebrated Maio had reaped, published the Fragmenta Ciceronis ; and if the most entire concord did not always subsist between these learned men, it is nevertheless agreeable to find them united by the most brilliant discovery of our time. When the learned Italian had recovered the Republic of Cicero from beneath some commentaries of St Augustin,^[6. Tie <riratg snreriitips⅛ed appeared to belong to the tenth century, and contained the commentaries of St Augustin on the P ⅞r→< fracs the 119th to the 14dth inclusive. ] Niebuhr furnished notes to the first edition, discussed and restored some of the passages which had been most altered or vitiated, and by his ingenious conjectures contributed to advance the science of philology.

Niebuhr, having greatly modified his ideas in regard to France, now observed with much interest the progress of constitutional opinions. Nevertheless, being attached to all governments consecrated by time, he was desirous that the old dynastics should strike their roots deep into the soil of constitutional Europe. In his opinion, too much blood had already been mingled with that soil to run the hazard of shedding more. He had accordingly an equal aversion to revolutions on the one hand, and to the excess of power on the other; and hence the distinguished orator who declared from the French tribune that it was necessary “to plant the royal standard in the midst of the nation,” expressed the opinion of Niebuhr with all the eloquence and majesty of an ancient. The vehement and warm improvisations of Μ. de Serre; his noble and generous views, so often developed in the most brilliant harangues; obtained for him the esteem of the ambassador of Prussia. The latter saw in him a Roman of the best days; and when, like himself, repulsed by courtiers incapable of entertaining elevated conceptions, Μ. de Serre was sent to Naples, the French envoy appeared rather to arrive from another time than from another place. These men were soon connected by the ties of the closest friendship; and when a premature death had taken from France one of her noblest sons, Niebuhr formed the design of writing the history of his life, and never afterwards spoke of him without the deepest emotion.

It was in the year 1823 that Niebuhr took his departure from Rome, after having passed there seven years, the whole of which period had been devoted to the cultivation of the sciences. During this long residence, a great number of important dissertations increased the claims which Niebuhr had already acquired to the admiration of learned Europe. In 1819, we find him discussing the merit of the Chronicle of Eusebius, and endeavouring to ascertain what advantage chronology might derive from the discovery which had just been made in the Armenian convent at Venice. Not long afterwards, he determined the epoch in which Quintus Curtius lived, and that in which Petronius wrote. In elegant and easy Latin, he also explained the restitutions of which the inscriptions brought from Nubia by Μ. Gau appeared to him to be susceptible, and read this beautiful production to the Academy of Archeology. A German[7:16:215] bookseller intending to have the topography of Lalande reprinted, Niebuhr strenuously opposed the design, and wrote on the subject a learned and luminous monography i which appeared in the Kunstblatt of Tubingen, and is also inserted in the collection of his works. Lastly, it was by his counsel and encouragement that Platner and Bunsen undertook the important work, which is still, we believe, in course of publication, and which will in all probability be the more perfect that Μ. Bunsen succeeded Niebuhr in the embassy, and consequently was placed in a situation to continue the researches of his illustrious predecessor on the topography of Rome. The demission of Niebuhr appears to have been principally occasioned by the injurious influence of the climate of Rome on the health of his wife. But it is also possible that a little jarring or asperity in his diplomatic relations may have deprived him of the favour of the court. He feared not to plead the cause of humanity, and though he had not been called to the congress of Verona, he remonstrated in favour of the Greeks, whom a policy equally ridiculous and barbarous had abandoned to the legitimacy of the Turkish sabres.

Before quitting Italy, Niebuhr proceeded to visit Naples, Pompeii, and Μ. de Serre; he collated a manuscript of the grammarian Charisius, and then set out for Germany, without any determinate project as to his future establishment. Nevertheless, he resolved not to pass by Saint-Gall, where discoveries so important had been made in the fifteenth century. In this ancient monastery he remained for some time, but only obtained by his researches a few obscure fragments of the poem of Merobaudes, which he published the same year, 1823. From Saint-Gall Niebuhr made a sort of pilgrimage to Heidelberg. The celebrated Vossius then resided in that city, and the ambassador of Prussia, the academician, and the historian of Rome, went to carry to this old friend of his father the grateful homage of the young student of Hamburg. After this act of piety almost filial, he directed his course towards the provinces of the Rhine, there to await the orders of the king, and also because he entertained an anxious wish to visit Paris, and make the acquaintance of those learned men whose communications had served to gladden the last years of his father’s life. He was also desirous to converse with Μ. Letronne, whose positive erudition corresponded to the conscientious exactness of his own, and each of whose dissertations presented all the characters of mathematical demonstration. France then inspired him with the most lively admiration. She was rich in all kinds of scientific glory; but the reading of hieroglyphics (which, however, does not belong to France as a discovery, but to England and Dr Young) was, in the estimation of Niebuhr, the most splendid achievement of the erudition of our time.

Detained at Bonn by fortuitous circumstances, he immediately set about continuing his Roman History, the preparation of which had suffered considerable interruption. His residence at Rome did not admit of that assiduous labour, or that accurate examination of books, required by the publication of a history; he was only occupied in receiving impressions, and in studying monuments. On the other hand, he still hoped one day to rekindle those inspirations with which his mind had been originally filled and delighted by the conversation of Savigny. The third volume of the History of Rome was prepared during the winter of 1824, and Niebuhr was about to publish it, when he was recalled to Berlin, where he took part in the deliberations of the council of state, and where, also, he was honoured with the favour of the prince-royal. He had perceived, however, that the publication of fix? third τo⅛cse would require that the two preceding ones thoc¾í be cacs-pletely recast. This he accordingly undertook ≡a and the gratuitous courses of lectures which he deSrn≡red facilitated his task. Pyrrhus said to his Epūöŭe:·- “"ïot are my wings.” The zealous professor was aaÊnatsd wκ⅛ the same feeling towards pupils whom he k>red, asaxd ι⅛ listened with their whole souls to his discourses-W‰≡t distinguished his prelections was not precisely εδσcraesat≡, to which he made no pretensions. It was a «.act <⅛' r tsç»- ration; it was the richness and abundance of matter: cτt. in fine, the air and tone of earnest coevict⅛π τ a ¢miBty which never fails to make a deep impression, though u aβ≡τ sometimes be pushed too far. Whenever he had aper∙e-hended and made himself master of a subjectis ochbukjcj became to him like an article of faith; his persuu⅛3αu∣ wjs complete.^[7. J? 0r ' e of the J n °s t esteemed of the French savans, who, on a particular occasion, stated various objections to his secute c∙∏te. λιebuhr replied, that it was with him a matter of conscience. ] It may easily be supposed, therefore-that attacks directed against his fundamental ideas made very little impression on him. During the twelve years w⅛i⅛ had elapsed since his work first appeared, it had givers occasion to a great deal of discussion. Μ. de SehJes¢l. Ēa particular, had, in his Annals of Heidelberg, <⅛π≡sed ⅛r Greece the honour of having given birth to the bu fewfΛι- τοi but the article in which Niebuhr examined. t-⅛c⅛e ’ national songs and traditions which surround the craκZe αf Rome with a flickering and uncertain atmosphere appeared to him a work of extraordinary merit. Three year’s afterwards, Professor Wachsmuth, a man of positive· and severe erudition, wrote a history of the Roman State. α which he constantly advances alongside of his adversiry, attacks him without intermission, re-establishes ≡tet ≥e had overturned, and pulls down what he had built cρ~ In none of the editions of his first volumes which he aster-wards published, did Niebuhr make any mentiom off these formidable antagonists. On the contrary, he affected silence in regard to them, notwiths tanding he had engaged in a warm controversy with Stemacker, Francies. and E,≡≡ τ on the celebrated passage in the republic of Cicerj*. captaining details respecting the comitia. Seme years beshre his death, Golbéry asked him, if, in his second edh⅛c, fee would not reply to Schlegel and Wachsocuth. At ch¢s question his countenance became clouded with on expression of dissatisfaction, and he answered droy that he wo∙⅛i name no one.

The man who believes in the knowledge he possesses as the Moslemin confides in the Koran, cannot tail to be exc⅛∙- sive. Unfortunately this was the great defect of N⅛⅛≡ter. He kept too much aloof from other men of Ieam>⅛-r, ta∑y, even from those whose labours do honour to the⅛r coc≡≈εrv. whenever the shock of opinions, or a different system. ml- terposed to wound his orthodoxy. It wøoBd be e≡fl⅛ss to enumerate all his antipathies, or to name the d⅛t-ncm+- ed professors with whom he was at feud-It ū more satefactory to state, that his aversions were not of lou,τ dnκt-tion, and that, if prone to take offence, he was eqτ≡ιdy readrr to forgive. In his correspondence with Go&éry, wbācfe. on one occasion, had assumed a tone of vfvacitv. if f mc a controversial character, Niebuhr observes, weh equal _s- tice and discrimination, “It often happens in lterary ⅜fi⅛ - cussions, that a moment of passion, or a transiente ⅛tΛj□l- lity, leads us to give pain to a man who is otherwise the reject of our esteem. Of this there have beea ntssseroes instances, from the stormy contentions of the For□ua ta∙ L√ ,κe , of the Chamber of Deputies, and, in philology, fira≡s the time of Laurentius Valla to that of HermannI experience the regret which accompanies these f⅛wtrm<κe displays of vivacity; I feel satisfaction in seeing the reuse≡- [7:16:216]brance of them completely effaced; and my gratitude to him who seeks to re-establish what appeared to me destroyed, enhances the feeling of respect with which his good qualities had otherwise inspired me.” Few men possess the candour and the magnanimity thus to acknowledge their failings. On more than one occasion Niebuhr essentially obliged those persons of whom he conceived that he had most reason to complain. With regard to that class of critics who have no other authority than what they derive from their bookseller, Germany, more perhaps than any other country, is a prey to their impudent presumption. For this class of writers Niebuhr had such thorough contempt that he rarely looked into the periodical publications, and almost never read those analyses which are denominated reviews.

In publishing his second and third editions, Niebuhr was far from extending this just disdain to the estimable men who had contested some of his discoveries; he only pretended that what they had attacked in their criticisms was not the weak side of his work. Hence he did not think it enough to persist in the greater part of his results; he had new proofs to produce, and new solutions to give. At the same time, he freely abandoned a fundamental idea of his original essay. In his eyes Rome was no longer Etruscan, but formed by an union of the Etruscan element with the Sabines and the Latins. His residence in the ancient capital of the world had enabled him to illustrate some points which were formerly obscure; and since the commencement of his researches, three new and abundant sources of information had been opened by the publication of Lydus, of Gajus, and of the fragments of the Republic of Cicero; whereas, previously, ages had passed away without adding any thing to the means of extending our knowledge. But it is only by study that his book can be understood. The perusal of it is difficult, nay, even painful; nor can the meaning of the author be discovered or appreciated, except by those who have thoroughly mastered the ancient texts. The quaint archaism of the phraseology also serves as an additional obstacle to its intelligibility. To him may justly be applied what Cicero said of the first orators of Attica; in them we remark noble expressions, a great abundance of ideas, many things in few words, and withal a little obscurity.^[8. Brutus, De Claris Oratoribus. ] The inspiration which is most familiar to the author often blends itself with this obscurity, and Niebuhr then appears to give out oracles. But if in the expression there be any want of finish or precision, or any thing which subjects the mind to a labour of divination, such deficiency is compensated by the elevation of the thought, and by a penetration hitherto without example. The defects of his style are still more sensibly felt in the French translation, because the language of our neighbours, always clear and precise, does not naturally admit of vague and uncertain forms of expression; and because, in requiring an author to make an entire disclosure of his thought, it had to undergo no small violence in order to accommodate the expression to the standard of the German original. This inconvenience it was almost impossible to avoid, without injury to the peculiar character of the work. Niebuhr, whose mind was in other respects so elevated, was not less the proprietor of his words than of his ideas, and without accepting the one we could not be enriched with the other. France, however, required a translation, and one almost interlineary was produced, resembling somewhat the versions of Homer which are put into the hands of scholars. The book, in short, was intended for science, not for literature; although this circumstance, which is distinctly stated in the preface, has been lost sight of by some who have criticised it. The English translation is of a different character, and executed on an opposite system, with singular ability and success. It exhibits the History of Rome in a cognate idiom, admitting the transfusion of much of the peculiar spirit of the original; and it contains as full and complete a reproduction of its characteristic qualities and excellencies as it is perhaps possible for any translation to do. As to the original itself, it is undoubtedly a masterpiece; “a foundation for all ages,” but, unhappily, “without a superstructure.” If Montesquieu takes the flight of the eagle, Niebuhr has the eagle’s eye. We may contest some of his opinions, or apply his method to science in order to make new conquests; but, to use the expression of a learned critic, “on passera sur sa trace, sans jamais l’effacer.”^[9. M. Lerminier, in Le Globe . ]

Niebuhr made immense sacrifices for the prosperity of the university of Bonn. He gave public courses of lectures, although he did not occupy a chair in that seminary; and from his appointments as counsellor of state he founded prizes on different questions of history and philology, which he proposed for competition to the students. As soon as he perceived in the latter indications of merit, his purse was open to them; in him they found at once a patron, a director, and a friend. He only quitted his new residence twice; once to undertake a journey to Berlin, of which we have already spoken; and some years afterwards to conduct his wife into Holstein, and there to seek the repose rendered necessary by the excessive labour he had undergone. It has been remarked as a proof of his modesty, that, in passing through Göttingen, he inscribed his name on the register of the library, with the addition of Private Teacher at Bonn.

The last period of his life was not the least laborious, inasmuch as he then conceived and executed the project of reprinting the authors of the Byzantine Collection. The most celebrated philologists in Germany were associated in this enterprise, and the learned Μ. Hase was enabled to restore to erudition his Leo Diaconus, the first edition of which had been lost by shipwreck. Niebuhr himself commenced the collection by the publication of Agathias; he superintended the impression of many other authors; he enriched with prefaces a number of the volumes; and by his counsels he directed the labours of his young friends Schopen and Classen. Niebuhr had also established the Museum of the Rhine, a periodical publication, which he enriched with most learned dissertations. He there demonstrated that Lycophron was only contemporary with Philip the son of Demetrius; and that he had been erroneously confounded with the tragedian of Alexandria. Availing himself of a passage of Tzetzes and of a scholium, he discovered an important fact in Italic history. In another dissertation,^[10. Both these dissertations were, in 182G, translated into French by Μ. dT(Sry. G ] he compared some fragments of Teles with an obscure passage of Athenaeus, and determined the precise war which the latter calls Chremonidian. As to Chremonides, who gave it his name, Niebuhr makes him a general in the service of the king of Egypt, and refers the events in question to a period close upon the 127th Olympiad. Lastly, the Abatte Maio having discovered a fragment of Dion Cassius, Niebuhr, notwithstanding multiplied lacimae, restored the text with singular success, and demonstrated its importance to Roman history, particularly in reference to the quarrels of the tribunes with the senate on the subject of the abolition of debts, the capture of the Janiculum, and the Lex Hortensia.

Amidst these multiplied occupations, the second volume of his Roman history was in its turn recast, and the manuscript had already been prepared for the press, when, on [7:16:217]the tth of February 1830, a night of disaster destroyed the fruit of so much labour. A violent conflagration consumed the upper floors of the house which Niebuhr had destined to be the asylum of his old age. This severe calamity obliged him to recommence his volume entirely, and he passed several months in this painful occupation. His faculties were even affected by the toil which it imposed: “I advance,” said he, “by means of efforts which I may venture to call excessive; my memory is impaired to such a degree that I can no longer deceive myself as to the cause of this decay.” We have already stated that Niebuhr was of a very feeble constitution. He was of small stature, with a quick and keen eye; his countenance was agreeable, and of a mild expression. The family affections constituted his whole happiness; and the most profound studies never prevented him from smiling on his infant children, or calling to his arms his little Marcus, whose interesting figure, happy disposition, and amiable character, struck every person who saw him beside his good father, a man as deserving of the domestic happiness he enjoyed, as of the great reputation he had acquired. “Twice during my residence at Bonn,” says M.deGolbéry, “I went to see him; and of both visits I retain recollections that can never be effaced. The conversation of men such as Niebuhr is an advantage rarely enjoyed; the hours passed in listening to him have left in my mind an impression at once delightful and solemn; he appeared to me simple and good. During my first visit he related to me the history of his whole life; several of the facts and judgments contained in my notice of bim I owe to that conversation; but, in my sketch, they are presented without that charm of expression, and that elevation of thought, which caused me to forget the flight of time; and the approach of night alone apprised me that one of the longest days of summer was drawing to a close.”

Niebuhr had not yet recovered from the effects of the excessive labour to which the destruction of his house had condemned him, “when,” to use the expression in the preface to his second volume, “the madness of the court of France broke the talisman which kept enchained the demon of revolutions.” The news of the ordonnances of July had filled him with indignation; and in his public course he made a vehement address to his pupils, iri which he spoke of the perversity of a ministry that sacrificed to despotic and sacerdotal notions the happiness of a nation and the imprescriptible freedom of thought.^[11. Aeibuhr had conceived high expectations of the administration of Al. de Martignac, who appeared to him the only man destined to realise the conception of Μ. de Serre, and to rally all Frenchmen round a dynasty which it was the duty of all good men loyally to support as long as it remained faithful to its oaths. He accused of bad faith, both those who opposed to this ministry old obstinacy and the prejudices of the court, and also those who prevailed on the chamber to refuse its support to the discussion of the departmental law. He had unbounded esteem for the fine talents and noble character of this statesman, and was more proud of the approbation which Μ. de Martignac had expressed of his Roman History, than of any other testimony in its favour. ] The sagacity of Niebuhr did not, however, enable him to foresee the true results of that unparalleled act of audacity and folly. He was strangely surprised when, three days later, he received intelligence of the events which had occurred in Paris. Niebuhr regarded the rights of nations as sacred as those of kings, and, as a vindication of the former, he applauded the principle of the Revolution of July; a principle, we may add, which was speedily disregarded by the government which that great popular commotion installed on the ruins of the oldest dynasty in Europe.

So much agitation, disquietude, and labour, rendered it impossible for him to receive very strong impressions without danger; any thing, however slight, which affected his health, might become fatal. Niebuhr often went out to read the journals. On Christmas day he returned with a severe cold from a reading-room, where he had perused with deep attention the pleadings of Μ. Martignac and Μ. de Sauzet, which strongly affected him. A slight degree of fever accompanied this cold; but, from the 30th of December, his medical attendant recognized the symptoms of a mortal inflammation. The pain, however, diminished inversely as the danger increased. He preserved to the last moment his reason entire, saw the term of his existence approach without discomposure, and surrounded himself with the objects of his affections. At length, on the 2d of January, at two in the morning, this truly great man breathed his last, and “l’âme du juste alla se confondre dans la divinité, dont elle était une faible mais pure émanation.” Madame Niebuhr, weakened by protracted suffering from an affection of the chest, sunk under her sorrow in a few days afterwards; and four orphan children, confided to the care of Μ. de Classen, were subsequently sent to some relations by the father’s side in Holstein.

Niebuhr left but few manuscripts. The third volume of his Roman History, which had escaped destruction when his house was burned, has since been printed; and there exist also some fragments of the fourth volume, but in small number. Much may be expected from Μ. de Savigny, who was thoroughly cognisant of all the great conceptions of his friend; and from Μ. de Classen, who, for a long period, had not quitted his house. In his last letter to Μ. de Golbéry, Niebuhr had offered him additions to the first volume of the Roman History; but it is uncertain whether these were found amongst his papers, or whether he had written the life of Μ. de Serre, which he had certainly the intention of publishing. There may also be found amongst his papers a project relative to Goethe; it was addressed to Μ. Schweighoeuser, whom he had requested to obtain from the priest of Sessenheim a portrait of Goethe such as he was when his residence at Sessenheim rendered that place celebrated. When this was sent to him, little did either Μ. Schweighoeuser or his friend Μ. de Golbéry foresee that Niebuhr, who was still in the vigour of his age, would reach the term of his career before the patriarch of German literature, whose likeness he was so anxious to procure. A short time before his death, the Prussian government had engaged him to return to Berlin; but he declared to Μ. de Golbéry that he preferred the quiet of his retreat, and pursuit of his peaceful labours, to the tumult of the capital and the cares of public business, (a.)