Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/584

522 or that degree of public usefulness to which in an hour of genuine enthusiasm they one and all vowed to aspire. &ldquo;Right royal in all his ways,&rdquo; as a has fitly described him, he sympathized with the favourite pursuits of each, wrestled with all, made them to love each other, and held high among them the ideals of youth and of. It was quite a day of rejoicing in when Bunsen had won the prize  of the year 1812 by a  on the   of , and again a few months later when the  of  granted him, unsolicited, the honorary  of  of. The time had now come for Mr Astor to travel. Bunsen had seen little of the world before then. Only one journey had he made, but that one was to, and in company with, one of his acquaintances, a man of genius, whose fate it has been to live unknown and to become after death not famous only, but the founder of a numerous and turbulent school of. Bunsen was introduced to, and bore away the impress of the society that assembled around the great. In 1813, a journey was undertaken to South, during which Mr Astor was well pleased to see his friend revelling in the company of choice spirits at each centre of intellect, and shared in his exultation over the crushing blow that had fallen upon at. Some months later they separated at, Astor to return to , with an understanding that they would meet for further travel two years later, and Bunsen to resume his studies which had lost nothing of their vast range. It seemed to Bunsen a purpose not exceeding the limits of a man's life to comprehend the of all  s in, s, , and. That was the heroic age of comparative ; and thus we see Bunsen, who had read when a boy, plunging into  at,  at , and  at , as opportunities offered for each. At the close of 1815 Bunsen found his way to, to lay before the historian what was then already a many years plan of learned inquiry. This step led to important consequences in the life of Bunsen. not only approved of the Titanic scheme, and hoped that, in which all the hope of then began to be centred, would in time find money for assisting it, but so powerful an impression did he receive on that occasion, that when they met again two years later, , having meanwhile become n  to the , exerted all his influence to draw Bunsen into official life. Of the two intervening years it will suffice to relate that they had been spent by Bunsen in assiduous labour among the and collections of  and, whither the hope of meeting his former pupil, Mr Astor, had led him; and that he contracted during his stay in  of  a love for the peculiar graces of  genius which never left him through life. Fascinated by the condescending friendship of, by the glories of, and also by the charms of society, Bunsen continued his stay in that city. In 1817 he married Miss Waddington, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Mr B. Waddington of,. Even then his purposes in life remained purely scientific. Little did he dream that was to become his home for twenty-one years, or that one of the most difficult problems of an  would there be entrusted to his hands. When obtained the consent of for the appointment of Bunsen as  of the,  were being actively carried on between  and  for a new establishment of the  in the. This had become necessary, since 1815, by the addition of several millions of to the population of that mainly  country, of which they now formed no less than two-fifths. An agreement was the fruit of these labours, by which the king of allowed the publication within his dominions of a  (called De salute animarum), circumscribing the  s, and determining the position of the  hierarchy. During this period of initiation into the mysteries of, Bunsen had occasion to learn that the  began, under the fostering care of the , to revive from the inanition into which the  and its effects had thrown it. So universal and so strong was the wave of reaction in those days throughout, that and  rulers agreed in the conviction that of all conservatism the apex and supreme exponent must be the , as representing &ldquo;the most ancient succession of sovereigns,&rdquo; as &ldquo;upholder of things as they are.&rdquo; Considering themselves the 's born allies, they closed their eyes to that stealthy encroachment of absolute  power into the s within their territory with which the present generation is becoming acquainted in  as well as in. Bunsen was among those who first discerned the coming danger. To direct official attention towards it, to ward it off by fairness and impartiality towards his fellow-subjects, to preserve religious peace in his country, thence forward became the main object of his official labours. At first his success was great. In the king and his, and at each successive  and his , bestowed upon him every mark of confidence and even of affection. had made his acquaintance as early as 1822 during a brief stay at, and had taken unwonted pleasure not only in his conversation generally, but even in the outspoken but elegant frankness with which Bunsen defended his views when at variance with one or two of his sovereign's favourite theories. He evinced his appreciation of the youthful diplomatist by desiring him to undertake the legation after 's retirement from his office. In the, also, Bunsen's honest endeavours to preserve a good understanding were readily acknowledged, and formed the basis for one of the rarest life friendships, and yet a most real one, with Monsignor Capaccini, the confidential adviser of successive s in foreign affairs, who never swerved from his principle of both receiving and meeting every communication of the n with equal trust and truthfulness. A few words will explain the causes which eventually led to a failure of Bunsen's pacific efforts. Marriages between and s (or so-called mixed marriages) had formerly been of rare occurrence in. Before the iron will of, the naïve demands of the hierarchy of —the chief of which is a promise on oath that all children shall be brought up as —had dwindled into a passive attitude on their part. After the accession of and  to the n monarchy had added to the frequency of such marriages, it was truly fortunate that a prelate of moderate views in matters ecclesiastical and a good patriot— —held the   of  (1825). With him, who forbade processions of his own accord as leading to immorality, and who favoured a more enlightened education of candidates for holy orders, an arrangement which would leave the consciences of spouses and s unviolated was practicable. It was easily obtained by Bunsen's personal negotiation with the archbishop. The other n s also consented; but such was the slothfulness of the absolute king's, that the death of that wise archbishop (1835) occurred before its ratification, and such their blindness to reality that they