238 ADDRESS DELIVERED AT 



learnt German by listening to Bunsen, and as my 

 knowledge of the language increased the lectures grew 

 more and more fascinating. But my interest was alive 

 from the first, for Bunsen was a master of the language 

 of experiment, thus reaching the mind through the 

 eye as well as through the ear. The lectures were 

 full of matter. Notes of them are still in my possession 

 which prove to me how full they were, and how com- 

 pletely they were kept abreast of the most advanced 

 knowledge of the day. This is a use and a sense of the 

 word ' advanced ' which may be safely commended to 

 your sympathetic attention. In many directions it is 

 easy enough to become advanced, but not in this one. 

 Bunsen was a man of fine presence, tall, handsome, 

 courteous, and without a trace of affectation or pedantry. 

 He merged himself in his subject : his exposition was 

 lucid, and his language pure ; he spoke with the clear 

 Hanoverian accent which is so pleasant to English ears ; 

 he was every inch a gentleman. After some experience 

 of my own, I still look back on Bunsen as the nearest 

 approach to my ideal of a university teacher. He 

 sometimes seemed absent-minded, and, as he gazed 

 through the window at the massive Elizabethen Kirche, 

 appeared to be thinking of it rather than of his lecture. 

 But there was no interruption, no halting or stammer- 

 ing to indicate that he had been for a single moment 

 forgetful. He lectured every day in winter, and twice 

 a day in summer, beginning his course on organic 

 chemistry at seven in the morning. After the lectures, 

 laboratory work continued till noon. During this time 

 no smoking was allowed in the laboratory, but at noon 

 liberty as regards the pipe began, and was continued 

 through the day. Bunsen himself was an industrious 

 emoker. Cigars of a special kind were then sold in 

 Marburg, called ' Bunsen 'sche Cigarren ' ; they were 



