Lepsius and his wife were deeply distressed by the death of Alexander v. Humboldt, on May sixth, 1859, but in the following months they encountered other losses by death which were still harder to bear. Soon after their return home Jonas, the faithful, large-hearted pastor of the household, died, and his departure filled the family with grief. Among those who knew him, and his truly admirable, profound and infinitely lovable character, his memory must long be cherished for the candor and courage with which, by words and actions, he defended the freedom of religious conviction during the darkest days of church life in Prussia. But yet another and more painful loss was ordained for the family, for on the twenty-eighth of November, 1860, died Bunsen, the man to whom Lepsius was most deeply indebted, and to whom he had clung with the love of a son. Also on the third of January, 1861, Frederick William IV. died, and the reverential words respecting him with which the wife filled many pages of her diary, are to be considered as an echo of the feelings with which the husband regarded this king, whose weaknesses he could not overlook but whose great qualities he was glad to exalt in order to give them grateful praise. Among the old friends of the family were the Pinders and Partheys, Erbkam, the Grimms, Trendelenburgs, Brandis, Olshausens, v. Sybel, Beselers, Geffken, Duncker, v. Tiele, who was afterwards Assistant Secretary of State, George v. Bunsen, the Wilmowskis, Count Usedom, and the witty Strauss, who had traveled through Palestine, Wichern, Meyer von Rinteln, the amiable Mrs. Curtis, with whom we ourselves were well acquainted, the publisher Hertz, Count Schlieffen, Weidenbach, the Homeyers, the Balans and Salpius, the Wieses, the two married couples of Peters and Drakes, the traveler Robinson, Weiss, and so on. To these was added Droysen, who had received an appointment at Berlin in 1859. But the highest place among them all was held by “Uncle Abeken.” There is some ludicrous association with this able man, on account of the passages regarding him which appear in Busch’s interesting book on “Count Bismarck and His People.” But Frau Elizabeth’s diary shows us that he had a deep and faithful nature, that his quick intelligence apprehended and appreciated the poetical aspect of every incident in life, that he was a good adviser and ready in that capacity to render every service, and also an indefatigable worker. Where duty demanded it he knew how to keep silence as few men do, though he was of a communicative disposition, and had made himself so at home in every department of science that Lepsius counted him one of the most learned men of his time. If he was questioned about political affairs, such as the restoration of the constitution of 1831 in Hesse, the preparation of which had devolved upon him, his only answer was: “I have not read the papers to-day.” He had been no less faithful to the Bunsens than to the