an of good birth and of independent fortune, should give his daughter to
this poor young German at Rome. Yet this was the very thing which a kind
Providence, that Providence in which Bunsen trusted amid all his troubles
and difficulties, brought to pass. Bunsen became acquainted with Mr.
Waddington, and was allowed to read German with his daughters. In the most
honorable manner he broke off his visits when he became aware of his
feelings for Miss Waddington. He writes to his sister:--

"Having, at first, believed myself quite safe (the more so as I
cannot think of marrying without impairing my whole scheme of
mental development, and, least of all, could I think of pretending
to a girl of fortune), I thought there was no danger."

A little later he writes to Mrs. Waddington to explain to her the reason
for his discontinuing his visits. But the mother--and, to judge from her
letters, a high-minded mother she must have been--accepted Bunsen on trust;
he was allowed to return to the house, and on the 1st of July, 1817, the
young German student, then twenty-five years of age, was married at Rome
to Miss Waddington. What a truly important event this was for Bunsen, even
those who had not the privilege of knowing the partner of his life may
learn from the work before us. Though little is said in these memoirs of
his wife, the mother of his children, the partner of his joys and sorrows,
it is easy to see how Bunsen's whole mode of life became possible only by
the unceasing devotion of an ardent soul and a clear head consecrated to
one object,--to love and to cherish, for better for worse, for richer for
poorer, in sickness and in health, till death us do part,--aye, and even
after death! With such a wife, the soul of Bunsen could soar on its wings,
the small cares of life were removed, an independence was secured, and,
though the Indian plans had to be surrendered, the highest ambition of
Bunsen's life, a professorship in a German university, seemed now easy of
attainment. We should have liked a few more pages describing the joyous
life of the young couple in the heyday of their life; we could have wished
that he had not declined the wish of his mother-in-law, to have his bust
made by Thorwaldsen, at a time when he must have been a model of manly
beauty. But if we know less than we could wish of what Bunsen then was in
the eyes of the world, we are allowed an insight into that heavenly life
which underlay all