In 1773 Mr. Niebuhr was married to the daughter of Blumenberg, the physician. Two children were the fruits of this union, a daughter, and B. G. Niebuhr, the eminent historian of Rome, and author of the Memoir from which this sketch is compiled. After his marriage Mr. Niebuhr took up his residence at Melford, of which district he was appointed secretary by the government (1778). He had a large house and garden, and much of his time was occupied in attending to them and educating his children; the rest to preparing his works for the press.

The first volume of his Travels appeared in 1774; the second in 1778. Both volumes were attended with loss. The political agitations of the times were unfavorable to works which, although eminently instructive, did not appeal to a large class of readers, and required much calm and serious study. The third volume was not published. Niebuhr felt the indifference of his countrymen keenly, and was, moreover, seriously inconvenienced by it in a pecuniary point of view. It was not until after his death that the great merits of this excellent traveler were fully recognized. In 1795 a sad misfortune befell him. The engraved plates, both of his published works and also for the still unpublished part, were destroyed in the great conflagration at Copenhagen. This new calamity removed the opportunity and even the inclination For the remainder of his life to supply the deficient volume.

Mr. Niebuhr devoted himself to purely domestic pursuits.

His son relates some pleasing anecdotes of the green old age of this worthy man. "I have a very lively recollection," he says, "of many stories out of my boyish years about the system of the universe, and about the East; when he used to take me upon his knee at evening before going to bed, and feed me with such food, instead of children's fables. The history of Mohammed, of the first califs, and especially of Omar and Ali, for whom he felt the profoundest veneration; that of the conquests and extension of Islamism, of the virtues of the early heroes of the new faith, the history of the Turks-all these impressed themselves early and in the most pleasing colors on my mind. The historical works which treat of these subjects were also almost the first books which came into my hands. I recollect also, about my tenth year, how at Christmas, in order to give the festival still more importance in my eyes, he brought out and read with me the manuscripts which contained the accounts collected by him

respecting Africa. These and his other manuscripts were kept in an ornamental coffer, which was venerated by the children and inmates of the house like a second ark."

In November, 1792, Mr. Niebuhr was brought near to the grave by pleurisy, and recovered only by slow degrees. In consequence of his full habit of body, his fixed and almost sedentary life for so many years had prepared the way for severe sickness and a long interruption of his health. In the following year he spat blood. He was not positively ill, but without energy, low-spirited, out of humor, breathed with difficulty, and walked only with great effort. Another complaint also increased his anxiety. Several years before, there had appeared under his right eye a small excrescence like a wart, which continued to spread slowly but constantly, and was only made worse by all the means employed to remove it. The physicians regarded it with the more solicitude because they durst not venture upon its extirpation. After many years of anxiety and trouble, a remedy was at length found in 1796 by which it was loosened and removed, roots and all. After this, on the completion of his sixty-sixth year, his health, and with it his frame of mind, took a more happy turn. Circumstances induced him to purchase some marsh lands about an hour's distance from his house, and to undertake the reclamation of them for tillage. It was refreshing to him thus to return to the employment of his youth; he sketched plans for making these lands productive, prosecuted them with youthful ardor, and promised himself the best success-planted trees, dug drains and ditches, and so purchased by degrees a great estate. The result disappointed his hopes, and a large sum was lost. Still, in this case, it is not to be regretted; for, says Mr. Niebuhr's son, "not only does much remain in a state of improvement and tillage, but the old age of my father was, without doubt, by this means prolonged and rendered more serene. He took much and active exercise, visited the newly-planned farm now on foot and now on horseback, and inspected indefatigably every spot where any thing was to be done or directions to be given. As the fields were separated by broad ditches, in order to shorten the distances he often made use of a leaping-staff, to the use of which he had been accustomed from childhood. He had now so renewed his strength that, with the aid of such a staff, Kluvstaaken, he was able, in his seventieth year, to spring over ditches ten feet wide."

Mr. Niebuhr was a man of a full-blooded, stout, and phlegmatic temperament. For a number of years he had accustomed himself to periodical bloodlettings, imagining that his health required them. Unhappily, he took it into his head that he ought to omit this on account of his great age, and could not be induced, by any warnings or representations, to give up this idea, until dizziness, apoplectic stupor, and spitting of blood had brought him into the most imminent danger. In October, 1813, he was seized with a violent hemorrhage through the nose. With no weariness of life, but yet satiated with it, he often expressed himself anxious to depart and join his wife, if God should call him. In March, 1814, his symptoms were aggravated by a fall, in which his right leg received a permanent injury. He was never able afterward to place his foot upon the ground; he could move only with pain by the help of others; he was taken out of bed only in the afternoon, and placed in a chair with rollers. A numerous and still unbroken family circle were gathered around him; and he himself, except, perhaps, when some day of particular illness occurred, was full of heartfelt joy over the change of times, and ever ready to converse. "We succeeded," says his son, "in drawing from him continued recitals of his travels, which he at this time gave us with peculiar fullness and sprightliness. Thus he once spoke for a long time and much in detail of Persepolis, and described the walls on which the inscriptions and bas-reliefs of which he spoke were found, just as one would describe a building which he had recently visited. We could not conceal our astonishment. He said to us that as he lay thus blind upon his bed, the images of all that he had seen in the East were ever present to his soul, and it was therefore no wonder that he should speak of them as of yesterday. In like manner, there was vividly reflected to him in the hours of stillness the nocturnal view of the deep Asiatic heavens, with their brilliant host of stars, which he had so often contemplated, or else their blue and lofty vault by day; and this was his greatest enjoyment."

In this condition Mr. Niebuhr lingered until April, 1815. Toward evening of the 26th he desired some one to read to him, and asked several questions with entire consciousness. He fell again into a slumber, and died without a struggle, in the eighty-third year of his age.

His funeral was attended by a multitude of people from every

part of the district. In the memory of the oldest inhabitant, no one had died there so universally lamented.

Mr. Niebuhr was a man of extremely frugal habits; until late in life he drank nothing but water and milk. He had no favorite dishes except the peasant food of his native place. It was his greatest pride that he was a child of free Friesland.

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His character was without a spot; his morals in the highest degree severe and pure. As a traveler, he was remarkable for keen observation; every thing he saw remained firmly fixed in his mind, and he remembered it with astonishing tenacity. "To this day," says his son, no traveler returns from the East without admiration and gratitude for this teacher and guide, the most distinguished of Oriental travelers. None of those who have hitherto followed him can be compared with him ;* and we may well inquire whether he will ever find a successor who will complete the description of Arabia, and be named along with him."

* This, it must be remembered, was written in 1816.

F*

THE readers of this brief memoir of one of America's greatest politicians need not expect to find an important political biography. The character, principles, and policy of the acts of Henry Clay belong to the history of the country, which can not fail to do him justice. In this and similar instances, all we shall attempt will be to trace the footsteps of our illustrious personage from the first round on the ladder of fame to the last on its giddy eminence. With the aid of patient courage, devotion, and talent (which God so often gives to the lowly), great men have thus struggled upward, and obtained the suffrage of the world. It is our pleasant task to record the instances.

Henry Clay was a native of Hanover County, Virginia, where, in a low, swampy neighborhood, called the Slashes, he was born, on the 12th of April, 1777. Henry was the fifth of a family of seven children, which, at an early age, were left to the care of a widowed mother. The limited means at the disposal of this lady did not allow her to bestow on her sons the advantages of a classical education. All the schooling that Henry enjoyed at this period