Twice only was Bunsen tempted away from his Heidelberg retreat to show himself at Berlin,—once, at the king's desire and as his guest, in September 1857, to attend the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, in the main objects of which he sympathized as warmly as King Frederick William IV. On that occasion, and after much confidential intercourse, the two friends parted never to meet again on this side of the grave. One of the last papers signed by the king before his mind gave way in October of that year was that which raised Bunsen to the rank of baron, and conferred upon him a life peerage. In 1858 the Regent (now Emperor) William having addressed a special request to Baron Bunsen not to fail him at the opening of his first parliament, he took his seat in the Upper House, and supported actively during a brief autumn session, but without ever making a speech, the regent's new cabinet, of which several of Bunsen's political and personal friends were members.
Literary work was, however, the centre of his life throughout that time. Two discoveries of ancient MSS. which occurred during his stay in London, containing, the one a shorter text of the Epistles of St Ignatius, and the other an unknown work On all the Heresies, by Bishop Hippolytus, had already given him an opportunity for enlarging upon the history of the first centuries of the Christian Church. He now concentrated all his efforts upon producing a Bible translation with commentaries that would open the sacred volumes afresh to the understanding and the hearts of a generation gradually estranged from them. Whilst this “Bible-work” was in preparation, and to pave the way for its reception, he printed a book considered by many to contain his most matured thoughts, under the title of God in History. The progress of mankind, he contends, marches parallel to the conception of God formed within each nation by the highest exponents of its thought. At the same time he carried through the press, ably assisted by Mr Birch the Egyptologist, the concluding volumes of his work (published in English as well as in German) Egypt's Place in Universal History—containing a reconstruction of Egyptian chronology, together with an attempt to determine the relation in which the language and the religion of that country stands to the development of each among the more ancient non-Aryan and Aryan races, between which its curious civilization seems to have formed a kind of connecting link. Those who desire to know Bunsen's ideas on this subject may find them most fully developed in two volumes published in London before he quitted England—Outlines of the Philosophy of Universal History as applied to Language and Religion. It will be seen even from this brief outline that his “first love” had never lost its hold upon him, and that the desire “to trace the firm path of God through the stream of ages” continued his purpose for life.[1]
But asthma and all other concomitants of a malady that had announced itself for years now began to disturb, not the mental alacrity or the spirits of Bunsen himself, but the hopes of his family and those among his friends who had imagined that he would be allowed to complete the works undertaken. Ordered to spend his winters in a more genial climate, he repaired to Cannes in 1858 and 1859, not without a lengthened visit to Paris, where he revelled, as in younger days, in the contact with men of learning. In May 1860 he purchased a house in Bonn, hoping against hope, pushing forward the publication of his Bibel-Werk, and even preparing lectures for students upon those subjects which he had most at heart. But the hand of death was upon him. He thanked God daily for teaching him how to support pain at the close of a life so eminently exempt from bodily suffering. And whenever, in the closing weeks of his existence on earth, a relaxation of asthma ensued, fervent prayer flowed from his lips, powerful attestation of his religious belief, loving exhortation to those from whom he was soon to be removed. Baron Bunsen died on November 28, 1860, and lies buried in the churchyard of Bonn, not far from the grave of his early friend and benefactor Niebuhr.
“Let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isa. ii. 5) is the text which Baroness Bunsen placed on his tomb. One of his last requests having been that she would write down recollections of their common life, she published his Memoirs in 1868, which contain much of his private correspondence. The German translation of these Memoirs has added extracts from unpublished documents, throwing a new light upon the political events in which he played a part. Baron Humboldt's letters to Bunsen were printed in 1869, and Ranke published in 1873 a large portion of the correspondence that passed between King Frederick William IV. and Bunsen.
common English name of the bird called by Linnaeus Emberiza miliaria, but now used in a general sense for all members of the family Emberizidce, which are closely allied to the Finches (Frinyillidte), though, in Professor Parker s opinion, to be easily distinguished therefrom the Emberizidce possessing what none of the Fringillidce do, an additional pair of palatal bones, " palato-maxillaries." It will probably follow from this diagnosis that some forms of birds, particularly those of the New World, which have hitherto been commonly assigned to the latter, really belong to the former, and among them the genera Cardinal-is and Phrygilus. The additional palatal bones just named are also found in several other peculiarly American families, namely, Tanayridce, Icteridce, and Mniotiltidce whence it may be perhaps inferred that the Emberizidce are of Transatlantic origin. The Buntings generally may be also outwardly distinguished from the Finches by their angular gape, the posterior portion of which is greatly deflected ; and most of the Old-World forms, together with some- of those of the New World, have a bony knob on the palate a swollen out growth of the dentary edges of the bill. Correlated with this peculiarity the maxilla usually has the tomia sinuated, and is generally concave, and smaller and narrower than the mandible, which is also concave to receive the palatal knob. In most other respects the Buntings greatly resemble the Finches, but their eggs are generally distinguishable by the irregular hair-like markings on the shell. In the British Islands by far the commonest species of Bunting is the Yellow Hammer (E. citrinella], but the true Bunting (or Corn-Bunting, or Bunting-Lark, as it is called in some districts) is a very well-known bird, while the Reed-Bunting (E. schcenidus) frequents marshy soils almost to the exclusion of the two former. In certain localities in the south of England the Cirl-Bunting (E. cirlus) is also a resident ; and in winter vast flocks of the Snow-Bunting (Plectrophanes nivalis), at once recognizable by its pointed wings and elongated hind-claws, resort to our shores and open grounds. This last is believed to breed sparingly on the highest mountains of Scotland, but the majority of the examples which visit us come from
northern regions, for it is a species which in summer- ↑ It may be mentioned that Bunsen contributed the article Luther, one of the finest biographies of the great Reformer, to the eighth edition of the present work, 1857.
