As this letter does not enter into the history of Niebuhr’s later studies, I inquired of his friend, the Chevalier Bunsen, whether he had continued to cultivate the faculty thus early developed. I received from him the following interesting statement:—“Niebuhr,” he says, “ought not to be ranked among _Linguists_, in contradistinction with _Philologers_. Language had no special interest for him, beyond what it affords in connection with history and literature. His proficiency in languages was, however, very great, in consequence of his early and constant application to history, and his _matchless memory_. I have spoken of both in my _Memoir on Niebuhr_, in the German and English edition of Niebuhr’s Letters and Life; it is appended to the 2nd volume of both editions. I think it is somewhere stated how many languages he knew at an early age. What I know is, that besides _Greek_ and _Latin_, he learned early to read and write _Arabic_; _Hebrew_ he had also learned, but neglected afterwards; _Russian_ and _Slavonic_ he learned (to read only,) in the years 1808, 1810. He wrote well _English_, _French_, and _Italian_; and read _Spanish_, and _Portuguese_. _Danish_ he wrote as well as his mother tongue, _German_, and he understood _Swedish_. In short, he would learn with the greatest ease _any language_ which led him to the knowledge of historical truth, when occupied with the subject; but language, as such, had no charm for him.” Among the scholars who assisted Adelung and Vater in the compilation of the _Mithridates_, by far the most distinguished was the illustrious Charles William von Humboldt. He was born at Potsdam, in 1767, and received his preliminary education at Berlin. His university studies were made partly at Göttingen, partly at Jena, where he formed the acquaintance and friendship of Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, and, above all, of Herder, from whose well-known tastes it is highly probable that Humboldt’s mind received the strong philological bias which it exhibited during his life. Unlike most of the scholars who preceded him in this career, however, Humboldt’s life was spent amid the bustle and intrigue of diplomatical pursuits. He was sent to Rome as Prussian Minister in 1802, and, from that period until 1819, he was almost uniformly employed in this and similar public services. From his return to Berlin, in 1819, he lived almost entirely for science, till his death, which occurred at Tegel, near Berlin, in 1835. Humboldt is, in truth, the author of that portion of the third volume of the _Mithridates_ which treats of the languages of the two continents of America; and, although a great part of its materials were derived from the labours of others—from the memoirs, published and unpublished, of the missionaries, from the works and MSS. of Padre Hervaz, and other similar sources—yet no one can read any single article in the volume without perceiving that Humboldt had