438 BUNSEN ing from that kernel of the nation, the culti- vated and cultivating class of society. He was the only child of his father by his second mar- riage with a former governess in the family of the countess of Waldeck. He attended the gymnasium from 1806 to 1808, afterward stud- ied theology at Marburg, and in 1809 entered the university of Gottingen. Here Heyne show- ed him great attention., and recommended him as a German teacher to young William B. As- tor of New York, whose travelling companion he afterward became. In 1811 he went with Arthur Schopenhauer to Gotha, Jena, and Wei- mar. In April, 1812, he became teacher of Hebrew and Greek in Gottingen. The univer- sity awarded a prize to his first literary at- tempt in Latin, l)e Jure AtJieniensium Heredi- tario. In 1813 he received the diploma of doc- tor of philosophy from the university of Jena. Subsequently he travelled extensively with Mr. Astor in Germany and Italy. At Vienna he met Friedrich von Schlegel; at Munich, Schelling and Thiersch ; and he joined the lat- ter in studying Persian, and read law with Feuerbach. On his return to Gottingen, he and his friends formed the nucleus of a philological and philosophical society, and he pursued a vast system of kindred studies, including Semitic and Sanskrit philology, and perfecting his knowl- edge of the Scandinavian languages on a visit to Denmark and Sweden. He spent the win- ter of 1815 and the year 1816 in Berlin, where the preaching of Schleiermacher greatly impressed him, and where he conceived a pro- found admiration for Niebnhr. He continued his studies of Persian and Arabic in Paris un- der Sylvestre de Sacy, joined Mr. Astor at Florence, and after the return of the latter to the United States became the French teacher of Mr. Cathcart, an English gentleman. On July 1, 1817, he married at Rome Fanny Wad- dington, the daughter of an English clergyman, and the plan of an improved German transla- tion of the Bible was first suggested to him by his young wife. Cornelius, Overbeck, Brandis, and Plainer were the inseparable companions of the Bunsens, and their modest lodgings in the palazzo Caffarelli on the Capitoline hill, where they lived 22 years, became a resort of many distinguished persons. When Brandis, Prussian secretary of legation, fell ill, Bunsen replaced him, and in August, 1818, was official- ly appointed to that post. From this time his influence began to be felt alike in the scientific and literary world, and in the political atfairs of his time. Frederick William III. of Prussia, visiting Rome in 1822, was pleased with the sec- retary, and to Bunsen's influence are ascribed several reforms in the state church of Prussia which were decreed by the king during his stay at Rome. Bunsen held that there could be no real church without a liturgy, and no liturgy without a church ; and he prepared a Protes- tant liturgy for public worship, which was ap- proved by the king. In 1824, on Niebuhr's resignation, Bunsen was made charge d'affaires, and in 1827 minister. When the European powers endeavored to settle the atfairs of the Papal States, he elaborated for the conferences the so-called memorandum del Maggio. He had obtained from Pope Leo XII. the cele- brated brief regulating mixed marriages; but when Gregory XVI. succeeded Leo, a different view of the subject was taken at the Vatican ; and then began in Germany, Poland, and all semi-Catholic and semi-Protestant countries, a series of dissensions between the state and the clergy, which ended in the imprisonment of several bishops. Bunsen, failing in his efforts to change the opinion of the pope, withdrew in 1837, and in 1839 became minister to Switzer- land. In 1841 he was sent by Frederick Wil- liam IV. to England to take measures for the establishment of a Protestant bishopric in Je- rusalem, and soon after- was made ambassador at the court of St. James's. From England he sev- eral tunes visited Berlin ; and in 1844, at the re- quest of the king, he presented several memoirs and projects concerning the introduction into Prussia of a representative form of government, modelled as far as possible on the English stan- dard. In 1845 he was made privy council- lor, with the title of excellency. After the out- break in 1848 Bunsen strongly advocated the cause of Schleswig-Holstein against Denmark, and published a pamphlet in English, under the title, " Memoir on the Constitutional Rights of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, pre- sented to Viscount Palmerston April 8, 1848." His influence was on the side of the efforts made by the diet in Frankfort for the union of Germany under the king of Prussia as empe- ror, and he supported this movement in several pamphlets. In 1849 he participated in the conferences in London relative to the Schles- wig-Holstein question, and in 1850 protested against the London protocol which resulted from them as contrary to the interests of Ger- many. At the beginning of the Crimean war Bunsen's sympathies were with the allies, con- trary to those of the Pmssian cabinet. This, and his opposition to the pietistic tendencies of the Prussian court and government, weakened the favor which for more than 20 years he had enjoyed with Frederick William IV. In Eng- land he had endeared himself to the royal fam- ily and to many eminent persons, among whom was Dr. Arnold, upon whose death he wrote a memorial which was in 1852 translated into English by Anna Gurney. Bnnsen's resigna- tion of the embassy was accepted in April, 1854, after which he resided at Charlottenberg, near Heidelberg. He was made a baron and peer in 1857, spent the winters of 1858-'9 and 1859-'60 at Cannes, visited Paris in 1859, and in the spring of 1860 went to Bonn. During his residence in Rome, in conjunction with Niebuhr, he studied Roman antiquities, and made various historical researches upon the phi- losophy of language and religion, and their in- fluence in the world's history. Among the fruits of these studies was Die christliche Ba-
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