Ascent of Man" and a large number of published lectures and addresses),
1851-1897. "_There's nothing to beat that, Hugh. It is a paraphrase of
the words of Paul: 'I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him, against that
day,'_" said of the lines which Dr. Barbour had just joined with him in
singing:--
"I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
Or to defend His cause,
Maintain the glory of His cross,
And honor all His laws."
The last words of Drummond, as given above, are only the last _recorded_.
He said much afterward, but most of his words were disconnected. His
mind wandered idly from thought to thought without aim or purpose.
DWIGHT (Timothy, American clergyman and author, President of Yale
College. He wrote the beautiful hymn, "I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord"),
1752-1817. "_O, what triumphant truth!_"
EDWARD I. (of England, surnamed "Long-shanks"), 1239-1307. "_Carry my
bones before you on your march, for the rebels will not be able to
endure the sight of me, alive or dead_," to his son Edward.[18] He died
while endeavoring to subdue a revolt in Scotland.
[18] These instructions were probably ignored; for, when his tomb
was opened by the Society of Antiquaries in 1771, those present
gazed for a moment on the features of the great victor before they
sank into dust. The gold cloth was still folded round the colossal
corpse; and the cast in the eyes was distinctly noticeable. The
snow-white hair still remained. The coffin was then filled with
pitch.--_Farrar._
John Zisca, general of the insurgents who took up arms in 1419
against the Emperor Sigismund, seems to have had a like spirit with
Edward I. He would revenge the deaths of John Huss and Jerome of
Prague, who had been cruelly burned at the stake for their religious
faith. He defeated the Emperor in several pitched battles, and gave
orders that, after his death, they should make a drum out of his
skin. The order was most religiously obeyed, and those very remains
of the enthusiastic Zisca proved, for many years, fatal to the
Emperor, who, with difficulty, in the space of sixteen years,
recovered Bohemia, assisted by the forces of Germany. The insurgents
were 40,000 in number, and well disciplined.
EDWARD VI. (son of Henry VIII. and Queen Jane Seymour), 1537-1553.
"_Lord take my spirit._"
EDWARD (Prince of Wales, surnamed the Black Prince from the color of his
armor), 1330-1376. "_I give thee thanks, O God, for all thy benefits,
and with all the pains of my soul I humbly beseech thy mercy to give me
remission of those sins I have wickedly committed against thee; and of
all mortal men whom willingly or ignorantly I have offended, with all my
heart I desire forgiveness._"
EDWARDS (Jonathan, President of the College of New Jersey and one of the
greatest of metaphysicians), 1703-1757. "_Trust in God and you need not
fear_," to one who lamented his approaching death as a frown on the
college and a heavy stroke to the church.
The most awfully tremendous of all metaphysical divines is the American
ultra-Calvinist, Jonathan Edwards, whose book on "Original Sin" I
unhappily read when a very young man. It did me an irreparable
mischief.--_An English author._
EGBERT (Col. Henry Clay), 1840-1899. "_Good-bye, General; I'm done. I'm
too old_," said to Gen. Wheaton, who bending over the wounded officer,
exclaimed. "Nobly done, Egbert!" Col. Egbert was killed near Manila in
the war between the United States and the Philippines.
In all his army service he was wounded four times before he received his
death wound. He was accounted one of the most competent officers in the
army, and in action it was said of him that the army had no officer more
dashing, with the possible exception of Gen. Guy V. Henry, now in
command of the United States forces in Porto Rico. He was a little man,
not above five feet five inches, and weighed only about one hundred and
ten pounds. He had reddish hair, streaked with gray, and wore a red
mustache and imperial. In plain clothes he was most immaculate, and he
was called the best dressed officer in the army.
_N. Y. Daily Sun, March 27, 1899._
ELDON (John Scott, Earl, Lord Chancellor of England), 1750-1838. "_It
matters not where I am going whether the weather be cold or hot_," to
one who spoke to him about the weather.
He was a bigoted admirer of the law, of which he was so consummate a
master. Projects of law reform cut him to the soul, and he has been
represented as shedding tears on the abolition of the punishment of
death for stealing five shillings in a dwelling-house.--_Appleton's
Cyclopaedia of Biography._
ELIOT (Rev. John, commonly called "The Apostle to the Indians"),
1604-1690. "_O Come in glory! I have long waited for Thy coming. Let no
dark cloud rest on the work of the Indians. Let it live when I am dead.
Welcome joy!_"
ELIZABETH (Queen of England, and daughter of Henry VIII. by Anne
Boleyn), 1533-1603. "_All my possessions for one moment of time._"
Some give her last words thus: "I will have no rogue's son in my seat."
When Sir Robert Cecil declared that she must go to bed and receive
medical aid, the word roused her like a trumpet. "Must!" she exclaimed,
"is _must_ a word to be addressed to princes? Little man, little man!
thy father, were he alive, durst not have used that word." Then, as her
anger spent itself, she sank into the old dejection. "Thou art so
presumptuous," she said, "because thou knowest that I shall die." She
rallied once more when the ministers beside her named Lord Beauchamp,
the heir to the Suffolk claim, as a possible successor. "I will have no
rogue's son," she cried hoarsely, "in my seat." But she gave no sign
save a motion of the head at the mention of the King of Scots. She was,
in fact, fast becoming insensible; and early the next morning, on March
24, 1603, the life of Elizabeth, a life so great, so strange and lonely
in its greatness, ebbed quietly away.[19]
[19] There is a dim tradition that, much more than a century ago,
the tomb under which the two sister-queens--Mary, the Roman
Catholic, and Elizabeth, the Protestant, _regno consortes et
urna_--lie side by side had fallen into disrepair, and that a bold
Westminster boy crept into the hollow vault, and, through an
aperture in the coffin, laid his hand on the heart of the mighty
Tudor queen.--_Farrar._
ELIZABETH (Philippine Marie Helene, usually called Madame Elizabeth,
sister of Louis XVI), 1764-1794. "_In the name of modesty, cover my
bosom!_"
When she ascended the scaffold, the executioner rudely undid the clasp
which closed the veil across her breast. "In the name of modesty," she
said to one of the bystanders whose arms were not tied, "cover my
bosom!"
Alison, in his "History of Europe," calls attention to the fact that "a
similar instance of heroic virtue in death occurred in a female martyr
in the early Christian church. Perpetua and Felicitas, both Christians,
were sentenced in the year 203, to be killed by wild cattle at Carthage.
They were both attacked, accordingly, by furious bulls, who tossed them
on their horns. So violent was the shock that Perpetua fell on the
ground stunned; but partly recovering her senses, she was seen gathering
her torn clothes about her, so as to conceal her limbs, and after tying
her hair, she helped Felicitas to rise, who had been severely wounded;
and, standing together, calmly awaited another attack."
ELLIOTT (Ebenezer, English poet known as the "Corn-Law Rhymer." He was a
workman in an iron foundry who won the attention of the cultivated world
by his verses, and rose to eminence by his "Corn-Law Rhymes" in which he
urged the repeal of duties on corn. He wrote also "The Village
Patriarch," "Byron and Napoleon," "Love" and a number of other poems of
more or less merit), 1781-1849. "_A strange sight, sir, an old man
unwilling to die._"
EMERSON (Ralph Waldo, American essayist, poet, and speculative
philosopher), 1803-1882.
For the day or two before his death he was troubled with the thought
that he was away from home, detained by illness at some friend's house,
and that he ought to make the effort to get away and relieve him of the
inconvenience. But to the last there was no delirium; in general he
recognized every one and understood what was said to him, though he was
sometimes unable to make intelligible reply. He took affectionate leave
of his family and the friends who came to see him for the last time, and
desired to see all who came. To his wife he spoke tenderly of their life
together and her loving care of him; they must now part, to meet again
and part no more. Then he smiled and said, "_O, that beautiful boy!_"
I was permitted to see him on the day of his death. He knew me at once,
greeted me with the familiar smile, and tried to rise and to say
something, but I could not catch the words.
He was buried on Sunday, April 30, in Sleepy Hollow, a beautiful grove
on the edge of the village, consecrated as a burial-place in 1855,
Emerson delivering the address. Here, at the foot of a tall pine-tree
upon the top of the ridge in the highest part of the grounds, his body
was laid, not far from the graves of Hawthorne and of Thoreau, and
surrounded by those of his kindred.[20]
_James Elliot Cabot_
[20] The quiet little town of Concord is greatly stirred up over the
discovery of a dastardly attempt on Saturday night to rob the last
resting place of its noted dead, the grave of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The fact that the grave had been visited by vandals was discovered
early Sunday afternoon by a visitor to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where
the remains are interred. At the head of the grave was a large
aperture seven feet in depth and twenty inches wide extending to the
box containing the casket.
An alarm was at once given, and the town authorities, together with
the Sleepy Hollow Commissioners, made an investigation. The
perpetrators of the deed have not been discovered, but the theory is
that the attempted vandalism was made some time during Saturday
night, and the villains were frightened away by some passing team on
the Bedford road just adjacent. Whether the motive was to obtain
possession of the remains, or to despoil the casket of its valuable
trimmings, is, of course, a matter of conjecture; but the general
impression is that the skull was what was most wanted. The wooden
box inclosing the casket had decayed somewhat, the interment having
taken place over seven years ago, and in the earth which the
rascals had thrown out were some pieces of the box. One side of the
casket had fallen down a little, but this is attributable to natural
decay. Otherwise the casket had not been disturbed or opened.
Mr. Edward W. Emerson, son of Ralph Waldo, arrived home this
afternoon, and the investigation of the desecration of his father's
grave was immediately entered upon by him with the town authorities.
Mr. Emerson has been out of town for two weeks or more, and the
first information he had of the affair was that given him upon his
arrival this noon. The earth has been replaced, and a watch placed
over the grave.
_N. Y. Times, Oct. 15, 1889._
EMMET (Robert, an eloquent Irish enthusiast and sincere patriot, and one
of the chiefs of the "United Irishmen"), 1780-1803. "_Not--_"
He said on the scaffold, at the close of a brief address: "My friends, I
die in peace, and with sentiments of universal love and kindness towards
all men." He then shook hands with some persons on the platform,
presented his watch to the executioner, and removed his stock. The
immediate preparations for execution then were carried into effect, he
assisted in adjusting the rope round his neck, and was then placed on
the plank underneath the beam, and the cap was drawn over his face; but
he contrived to raise his hand, partly removed it, and spoke a few words
in a low tone to the executioner. The cap was replaced, and he stood
with a handkerchief in his hand, the fall of which was to be the signal
for the last act of the "finisher of the law." After standing on the
plank for a few seconds the executioner said: "Are you ready, sir?" and
Emmet said, "Not yet." There was another momentary pause; no signal was
given; again the executioner repeated the question. "Are you ready,
sir?" And again Emmet said, "Not yet." The question was put a third
time, and Emmet pronounced the word "Not;" but before he had time to
utter another word the executioner tilted one end of the plank off the
ledge.
_Madden's Life of Emmet._
Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives dare now
vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them
and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed
until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my
country takes her place among the nations of the earth--then, and not
till then--let my epitaph be written I have done.--_From Emmet's Last
Speech._
See Moore's beautiful poem on Emmet's fate and on his attachment to Miss
Curran in two of the Irish Melodies.
EMMONS (Rev. Dr. Nathaniel, distinguished New England theologian and
divine), 1745-1840. "_I am ready._"
ENGHIEN D' (Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Duc. French prince who was
arrested on neutral territory on suspicion of conspiracy, and, after a
military trial which was little better than a farce, shot), 1772-1804.
To the soldiers who had pointed their guns he said: "_Grenadiers! lower
your arms, otherwise you will miss me or only wound me._" Some say his
last words were: "Is there no priest at the chateau?--is there no
priest?"
A lantern glimmering at either end of the file of soldiers shewed
d'Enghien his fate. As the sentence of death was read, he wrote in
pencil a message to his wife, folded and gave it to the officer in
command of the file, and asked for a priest. There was no priest in
residence at the chateau. He prayed a moment, covering his face with his
hands. As he raised his head, the officer gave the word to fire.
_Hopkins: "The Dungeons of Old Paris."_
This deed excited general and deep indignation against Bonaparte, and is
commonly regarded as one of the worst crimes by which his memory is
stained.
_Lippincott: "Biographical Dictionary."_
EPAMINONDAS (Theban statesman and general. Cicero describes him as "the
greatest man that Greece ever produced"), B. C. 412-363. "_All is
well!_" These words were spoken immediately after the javelin had been
extracted from his breast.
The fatal dart was thrown by Gryllus, son of Xenophon, the historian and
leader of the ten thousand Greeks on their retreat from the battle-field
of Cunaxa to the Black Sea.
ERASMUS (surnamed Roterdamensis, Dutch scholar. He was an illegitimate
son of Gerard Praet, a citizen of Gonda), 1467-1536. "_Domine! Domine!
fac finem! fac finem!_"
ETTY (William, English historical painter among whose last pictures are
"Pandora Crowned by the Seasons," "Ulysses and the Sirens," "Joan of
Arc," and "The Judgment of Paris"), 1787-1849. "_Wonderful, wonderful,
this death!_"
EUCLES (The "runner" from the plains of Marathon, who brought the news
of the successful issue of that battle to the anxious Senate waiting at
Athens). "_Rejoice! we rejoice!_" As Eucles ran he cried these words
until he came to the Senate, when he shouted them with all his voice and
fell dead.
EUGENIUS IV. (Gabriele Condolmero, Pope), 1383-1447. "_Oh Gabriele, how
much better would it have been for thee, and how much more would it have
promoted thy soul's welfare, if thou hadst never been raised to the
Pontificate, but hadst been content to lead a quiet and religious life
in the monastery._"
EVERERUARD (Charles de, Saint-Denis, French courtier, soldier, wit and
_litterateur_. He was a brave man, but of flippant disposition),
1613-1703. "_With all my heart I would fain be reconciled to my stomach,
which no longer performs its usual functions_," said to an ecclesiastic
who asked him if he would be reconciled. During his last days he gave
no attention to religious matters, and only regretted that he could not
digest partridges and pheasants, and must eat only boiled meats.
FARINATO (Paolo, Italian painter), about 1525-1606. "_Now I am going._"
These words he cried out as he lay upon his death bed. His wife who was
sick in the same room, hearing him, answered, "I will bear you company,
my dear husband;" and she did so, for as he drew his last breath she
also expired.
FICHTE (Johann Gottlieb, distinguished German philosopher whose name is
forever associated with those of Kant, Schelling, and Hegel as worthy of
a place with the greatest thinkers of modern times), 1762-1814. "_Indeed
no more medicine; I am well._"
The following, purporting to be the "Dying Confession of Fichte," has
been frequently published, but upon what authority the compiler of this
book has been unable to discover:
"I know absolutely nothing of any existence, not even of my own. Images
there are, and they constitute all that apparently exists. I am myself
one of those images; nay, not so much, but only a confused image of an
image. All reality is converted into a marvellous dream, without a life
to dream of, or a mind to dream; into a dream itself made up only of a
dream. Perception is a dream; and thought, the source of all the
existence, the reality of which I imagine to myself, is but the dream of
that dream."
For eleven days he lingered, with but few intervals of clear
consciousness, his sleep being ever deeper till on the night of the 27th
of January all sign of life vanished. He was buried in the first
churchyard before the Oranienburg gate in Berlin; at his side now lie
the remains of Hegel and Solger. Five years later his wife was laid at
his feet. On the tall obelisk which marks his grave is the inscription
from the Book of Daniel: "The teachers shall shine as the brightness of
the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars
that shine for ever and ever."
_Adamson: "Life and Philosophy of Fichte."_
FILLMORE (Millard, thirteenth President of the United States),
1800-1874. "_The food is palatable._"
FLAVEL (John, distinguished nonconformist clergyman and author),
1627-1691. "_I know that it will be well with me._"
A man of beautiful Christian character and great learning who was
ejected from his charge at Dartmouth in 1662 for nonconformity. The
Episcopalians were not satisfied to persecute this servant of God during
his life, but ordered his monument removed from the Church of St.
Saviour.
FONTENELLE DE (Bernard le Bovier, author of "Conversations on a
Plurality of Worlds," "Dialogues of the Dead" and "History of the
Academy of Science"), 1657-1757. "_I suffer nothing, but feel a sort of
difficulty of living longer._"
Voltaire calls him, "The most universal genius of the age of Louis XIV."
FORDYCE (George, distinguished Scottish physician, Author of "Elements
of Agriculture and Vegetation"), 1736-1802. "_Stop, go out of the room;
I am about to die_," to his daughter who was reading to him.
FORSTER (Johann Reinhold, a Polish Prussian naturalist, geographer and
philologist), 1729-1798. "_This is a beautiful world._"
FOX (George, founder of the Society of Friends), 1624-1690. "_All is
well, all is well--the Seed of God reigns over all, and over death
itself. Though I am weak in body, yet the power of God is over all, and
the Seed reigns over all disorderly spirits._" A little later he said,
and they were his last words, "_Never heed; the Lord's power is over all
weakness and death._"
FOX (Charles James, English orator and statesman), 1749-1806. "_Trotter
will tell you_," said to Mrs. Fox, who did not understand what he meant.
FRANCIS ("Saint," of Assisi, founder of an order of mendicant friars
called Franciscans or Cordeliers, from the cord with which they girded
their coarse tunics), 1182-1226. "_The righteous wait expectant till I
receive my recompense._"
Members of his order were kneeling around his bed, awaiting his death.
FRANCKE (August Hermann, professor of Oriental languages at Halle,
author of "Methodus Studii Theologiae;" and other works, and founder of
the orphan asylum and college for the poor which were known as Francke's
Institutions), 1660-1727. "_Yes_," to his wife who asked him if his
Saviour was still with him.
So long as he was able to speak he would repeat from time to time in
both Hebrew and German, "God will continue to support me. My soul has
cast itself upon him; Lord, I wait for thy salvation."
FRANKLIN (Benjamin, moralist, statesman, and philosopher), 1706-1790.
"_A dying man can do nothing easy._" He endured in later years a
complication of diseases, which brought the extremity of physical
suffering, but courage was strong, and he worked on almost to the last.
Worn with pain, he welcomed the end. His last look was on the picture of
Christ which had hung for many years near his bed, and of which he often
said, "That is the picture of one who came into the world to teach men
to love one another." The resolute repression of all signs of suffering,
every indication of the long conflict, passed at once. He lay smiling in
a quiet slumber, and the smile lingered when the coffin lid shut him
in. His grave is in the heart of the city he loved, and even the
careless passerby pauses a moment to read the simple legend.
An epitaph, written by him in 1729, holds his chief characteristics, his
humor, his quiet assurance of better things to come, whether for this
world or the next:
THE BODY
OF
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
PRINTER,
(LIKE THE COVER OF AN OLD BOOK,
ITS CONTENTS TORN OUT,
AND STRIPT OF ITS LETTERING AND GILDING),
LIES HERE, FOOD FOR WORMS.
YET THE WORK ITSELF SHALL NOT BE LOST,
FOR IT WILL, AS HE BELIEVES, APPEAR ONCE MORE,
IN A NEW AND MORE BEAUTIFUL EDITION,
CORRECTED AND AMENDED
BY
THE AUTHOR.[21]
[21] It has been suggested that Franklin was helped to his famous
epitaph upon himself by Benjamin Woodbridge's funeral elegy upon
John Cotton, preserved in Mather's Magnalia:
"A living, breathing Bible; tables where
Best covenants at large engraven were;
Gospel and law in his heart had each its column;
His head an index to the sacred volume;
His very name a title-page; and next
His life a commentary on the text.
O, what a monument of glorious worth,
When in a new edition he comes forth,
Without erratas, may we think he'll be
In leaves and covers of eternity."
FREDERICK WILLIAM I. (Friedrich Wilhelm I., King of Prussia, son of
Frederick I.), 1688-1740. "_Herr Jesu, to thee I live; Herr Jesu, to
thee I die; in life and in death thou art my gain._"
"Feel my pulse, Pitsch," said he, noticing the Surgeon of his Giants:
"tell me how long this will last." "Alas! not long," answered Pitsch.
"Say not, alas; but how do you know?" "The pulse is gone!" "Impossible,"
said he, lifting his arm: "how could I move my fingers so, if the pulse
were gone?" Pitsch looked mournfully steadfast. "Herr Jesu, to thee I
live; Herr Jesu, to thee I die; in life and in death thou art my gain
(_Du bist mein Gewinn_)." These were the last words Friedrich Wilhelm
spoke in this world. He again fell into a faint. Eller gave a signal to
the Crown Prince to take the Queen away. Scarcely were they out of the
room when the faint deepened into death; and Friedrich Wilhelm, at rest
from all his labors, slept with the primeval sons of Thor.[22]--_Carlyle._
[22] Mr. Carlyle may well call it a "characteristic trait" in his
favorite Friedrich Wilhelm, as that "wild son of Nature" lay
a-dying, that on a certain German hymn which he "much loved" being
sung to him, or along with him,--when they came to the words, "Naked
I came into the world, and naked shall I go out,"--"No," said he,
with vivacity, "not quite naked; I shall have my uniform on." After
which the singing went on again with vivacity, akin to that with
which the mother of Henri Quatre--not left the world, but brought
her son into it; for historians, without romancing, tell us she sung
a gay Bearnais song as her brave boy was coming into the world at
Pau.
FREDERICK II. (of Prussia, called Frederick the Great), 1744-1786.
"_Throw a quilt over it._" He referred to one of his dogs that sat on a
stool near him, and was shivering from cold. These were his last
conscious words, but later, in delirium, he said, "_La montagne est
passee, nous irons mieux._"