of the Jesuits in Church and State would rouse him suddenly
to address the German nation in his "Signs of the Times." And the prayer
of his early youth, "to be allowed to recognize and trace the firm path of
God through the stream of ages," was fulfilled in his last work, "God in
History." There were many blessings in his life at Heidelberg, and no one
could have acknowledged them more gratefully than Bunsen. "Yet," he
writes,--

"I miss John Bull, the sea, 'The Times' in the morning, and,
besides, some dozens of fellow-creatures. The learned class has
greatly sunk in Germany, more than I supposed; all behindhand....
Nothing appears of any importance; the most wretched trifles are
cried up."

Though he had bid adieu to politics, yet he could not keep entirely aloof.
The Prince of Prussia and the noble Princess of Prussia consulted him
frequently, and even from Berlin baits were held out from time to time to
catch the escaped eagle. Indeed, once again was Bunsen enticed by the
voice of the charmer, and a pressing invitation of the King brought him to
Berlin to preside at the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in September,
1857. His hopes revived once more, and his plans of a liberal policy in
Church and State were once more pressed on the King,--in vain, as every one
knew beforehand, except Bunsen alone, with his loving, trusting heart.
However, Bunsen's hopes, too, were soon to be destroyed, and he parted
from the King, the broken idol of all his youthful dreams,--not in anger,
but in love, "as I wish and pray to depart from this earth, as on the
calm, still evening of a long, beautiful summer's day." This was written
on the 1st of October; on the 3d the King's mind gave way, though his
bodily suffering lasted longer than that of Bunsen. Little more is to be
said of the last years of Bunsen's life. The difficulty of breathing, from
which he suffered, became often very distressing, and he was obliged to
seek relief by travel in Switzerland, or by spending the winter at Cannes.
He recovered from time to time, so as to be able to work hard at the
"Biblework," and even to make short excursions to Paris or Berlin. In the
last year of his life he executed the plan that had passed before his mind
as the fairest dream of his youth: he took a house at Bonn, and he was not
without hope that he might still, like Niebuhr, lecture in the university,
and give to the young men the fruits of his studies and t