The Life and Letters of Barthold Georg Niebuhr (Volume 2); With Essays on His Character and Influence (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1852. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... NIEBUHR AS A DIPLOMATIST IN ROME BY THE CHEVALIER BUNSEN. To sketch a picture of Niebuhr's life in Italy, is a task as attractive as it is difficult to the friend in whose inmost soul this picture reposes like a jewel among the treasures of a happy and eventful past. Whether it can ever he attempted to present something not quite unworthy of this picture and this past, must, like so many other things, be left to futurity and fate. That it can not be done now, is as certain as, that if it could be done, this is not the place for it. In the Introduction prefixed to this section of the letters, by the friendly hand that accompanied this great mind with faithfulness and affection through this changeful outward and inward life, a delineation has been given equally dignified and simple, which will suffice for a general understanding of his history during the embassy in Rome. Enough lies before us, in this collection of letters, which is perhaps the most valuable presented to the world, in this country or in any period: lastly, any one who has lived in the present age, which forms the setting to this remarkable and venerable picture, may know enough of it to enable him, with the assistance here afforded, to trace the outlines without further aid, and from them to derive a fresh insight into, and a deeper knowledge of himself and his times. But it is beyond the province of any one section of his biography to fill up these outlines into a complete picture, to give an account of every single feature, of every accidental circumstance, of every apparent contradiction--to exhibit the facts in connection with each other, and with the present age. Niebuhr's intellect and inmost life were moulded at one cast, and the profoundest explanations of each portion lie in the who...