Dugald Stewart goes so far as to call him an Atheist: "In no part of
Spinoza's works has he avowed himself an Atheist; but it will not be
disputed by those who comprehend the drift of his reasonings, that, in
point of practical tendency, Atheism and Spinozism are one and the
same." During his life he awakened in the minds of some of the ablest
men of letters and religion a bitter hatred it is now difficult to
understand. It is but fifty years ago that Karel Luinman, at that time
minister of the Reformed church at Middleburg, said: "Spit on that
grave--there lies Spinoza." Later Froude, Lewes and Maurice have
described him as a calm, brave man who lived nobly, and confronted
disease and death with a deeply religious faith. Coleridge pronounced
the Pantheism of Spinoza preferable to modern Deism, which he held to be
but "the hypocrisy of Materialism." Schleiermacher vindicated the memory
of the great philosopher after the following fashion: "Offer up
reverently with me a lock of hair to the manes of the rejected but holy
Spinoza! The great Spirit of the Universe filled his soul; the Infinite
to him was beginning and end; the Universal his sole and only love.
Dwelling in holy innocence and deep humility among men, he saw himself
mirrored in the eternal world, and the eternal world not all unworthily
reflected back in him. Full of religion was he, full of the Holy Ghost;
and therefore it is that he meets us standing alone in his age, raised
above the profane multitude, master of his art, but without disciples
and the citizen's rights." Probably the truth of the matter is that
Spinoza was a man of pure, brave and simple life; of gentle disposition;
and of rare philosophical abilities and attainments; but whose system,
though possessed of much that is true and good, is yet essentially
opposed to God's revelation of himself in the sacred Scriptures, and in
the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
"Even people who lived in the same house with him never suspected how
rapidly death was approaching. He had come down, as he generally did in
the evening, and talked for a long time with his companions about the
sermons which they had just heard. That evening he went to bed earlier
than usual. The next day, February 23, 1677, he came once more
downstairs, before church-time to speak with his friends. In the
meantime Dr. Ludwig Meyer, of Amsterdam, to whom Spinoza had written,
arrived. He gave his suffering friend such medical assistance as he
could; and, amongst other orders, desired the landlady to kill a
chicken, that Spinoza might have some soup for dinner. This was done,
and Spinoza ate the soup with a good appetite. When Van der Spyck and
his wife returned from the afternoon service, they heard that Spinoza
had died about three o'clock. Nobody was with him in his last hours
except the doctor from Amsterdam, who went away again the same evening."
_Kuno Fisher's Lecture on "The Life and Character of Spinoza."_
STAEL-HOLSTEIN (Anna Louise Germaine Necker, Baroness de), 1766-1817.
"_I have loved God, my father and liberty._"
STAFFORD (William Howard, Viscount of), 1612-1680. "_This block will be
my pillow, and I shall repose there well, without pain, grief or fear._"
He was accused by Titus Oates of complicity in the Popish Plot, and was
convicted of treason. He was probably innocent. His last words were
spoken at the place of execution, and show how noble and calm was his
spirit in the presence of death.
Stafford's brother accompanied him to the place of execution, weeping.
"Brother," said he, "why do you grieve thus; do you see anything in my
life or death which can cause you to feel any shame? Do I tremble like a
criminal or boast like an Atheist? Come, be firm, and think only that
this is my third marriage, that you are my bridesman."
_Lamartine's Cromwell._
STAMBULOFF (Stefan N., ex-Prime Minister of Bulgaria, called "The
Bismarck of Bulgaria"), 1853-1895. "_God protect Bulgaria._"
STANLEY (Arthur Penrhyn, Dean of Westminster, and the leader of the
"Broad Church" party), 1815-1881. "_So far as I have understood what the
duties of my office were supposed to be, in spite of every incompetence,
I am yet humbly trustful that I have sustained before the mind of the
nation the extraordinary value of the Abbey as a religious, national and
liberal institution._" Later he said: "_The end has come in the way in
which I most desired it should come. I could not have controlled it
better. After preaching one of my sermons on the beatitudes, I had a
most violent fit of sickness, took to my bed, and said immediately that
I wished to die at Westminster. I am perfectly happy, perfectly
satisfied; I have no misgivings._" His last recorded words were: "_I
wish Vaughan to preach my funeral sermon, because he has known me
longest._"
STEELE (Miss Anne, the author of many beautiful and familiar hymns),
1716-1778: "_I know that my Redeemer liveth._" The following lines are
inscribed on her tomb:
Silent the lyre, and dumb the tuneful tongue,
That sung on earth her dear Redeemer's praise;
But now in heaven she joins the angelic song,
In more harmonious, more exalted lays.
STEPHEN (first Christian martyr), "_Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge._"--_Acts vii: 60._
STEVENS (Thaddeus, American statesman and opponent of slavery; a man of
great ability and nobleness of spirit), 1793-1868.
Two colored clergymen called and asked leave to see Stevens and pray
with him. He ordered them to be admitted; and when they had come to his
bedside, he turned and held out his hand to one of them. They sang a
hymn and prayed. During the prayer he responded twice, but could not be
understood. Soon afterward the Sisters of Charity prayed, and he seemed
deeply affected. The doctor told him that he was dying. He made a motion
with his head, but no other reply. One of the sisters asked leave to
baptize him, and it was granted, but whether by Stevens or his nephew is
not clear. She performed the ceremony with a glass of water, a portion
of which was poured upon his forehead. The end came before the beginning
of the next day. He lay motionless for a few moments, then opened his
eyes, took one look, placidly closed them, and, without a struggle, the
great commoner had ceased to breathe.
_Samuel W. McCall: "Life of Stevens."_
On his monument reared over his grave are inscribed by his direction,
these words: "I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any
natural preference for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited as
to race by charter rules, I have chosen this, that I might illustrate in
my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, (the)
equality of Man before his Creator."
STEVENSON (Robert Louis, English author), 1850-1894. "_What is that?_"
He felt a sudden pain in his head, and, clasping his forehead with both
hands, he exclaimed, "What is that?" and soon after ceased to
breathe.[43]
The Academy tells this of Stevenson: "An old friend had set his
beautiful lines to music:
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live, and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
"He said one evening at his happy home in Merton Abbey, before he
started on his last journey, that, when out in the Sudan, he crooned
himself to sleep night after night with those lines which had been set
to music by his friend. It is fitting that he should lie at rest out
there in the spacious country, under the wide and starry sky."
[43] According to a writer in the Chicago "Open Court," the main
cause of the death of Robert Louis Stevenson was probably his
consumption of tobacco. Two years before his death he confessed that
his bill for cigars amounted to $450 a year; and during the last six
months of his life he smoked an average of forty cigarettes per day,
and often as many as eighty in twenty-four hours. Can any one wonder
that this frightful habit induced chronic insomnia, to cure or
lessen which he smoked all night, till narcosis of the brain brought
on stupefaction and temporary loss of consciousness--for weeks his
nearest approach to refreshing slumber. His physician warned him in
vain that he was burning life's candle at both ends, for he tried to
write in spite of his misery; but he stuck to nicotine as the only
specific for his nervousness, with the result that was
inevitable,--his death a year afterwards.--
_Mathews: "Nugae Litterariae."_
STONEHOUSE (Sir James, English physician and clergyman), 1716-1795.
"_Precious salvation!_"
STROZZI (Filippo, Florentine statesman), 1488-1538. He committed suicide
while imprisoned by Cosmo de' Medici, the first Great Duke of Tuscany.
As he was dying he cut with the point of his sword upon the
mantel-piece, this line from Virgil: "_Exariare aliquis nostris ex
ossibus ultor._"
SUMNER (Charles, distinguished United States Senator and opponent of
slavery. He was a man of great learning in history, political science
and polite literature; and, notwithstanding the rare culture of his mind
and tastes, he was always the defender of the poor and enslaved),
1811-1874. "_Sit down_," to his friend, Hon. Samuel Hooper. As he
uttered these words his heart ruptured, a terrible convulsion shook his
frame, and death came at once.[44]
A few hours before Sumner died Judge Hoar gave him a message from Ralph
Waldo Emerson, to which Sumner replied with some difficulty, "Tell
Emerson that I love and revere him." Over and over again he said to
Judge Hoar, "Do not let the Civil Rights bill fail!" To the last his
mind was engaged upon the great problems of national interest that had
occupied him during all the stormy days of the Civil War.
[44] Rupture of the heart, it is believed, was first described by
Harvey; but since his day several cases have been observed. Morgagni
has recorded a few examples: Amongst them that of George II., who
died suddenly, of this disease in 1760; and, what is very curious,
Morgagni himself fell a victim to the same malady. Dr. Elliotson, in
his Lumleyan Lecture on Diseases of the Heart, in 1839, stated that
he had only seen one instance; but in the Cyclopaedia of Practical
Medicine, Dr. Townsend gives a table of twenty-five cases, collected
from various authors. Generally this accident is consequent upon
some organic disease, such as fatty degeneration; but it may arise
from violent muscular exertion, or strong mental emotions.--_Welby:
"Mysteries of Life, Death and Futurity."_
Dr. William Stroud endeavors to prove, in his "The Physical Cause of
the Death of Christ," that our Saviour died upon the cross from
rupture of the heart, produced by agony of mind. He says: "In the
garden of Gethsemane Christ endured mental agony so intense that,
had it not been limited by divine interposition, it would probably
have destroyed his life without the aid of any other sufferings; but
having been thus mitigated, its effects were confined to violent
palpitation of the heart, accompanied with bloody sweat. On the
cross this agony was renewed, in conjunction with the ordinary
sufferings incidental to that mode of punishment; and having at this
time been allowed to proceed to its utmost extremity without
restraint, occasioned sudden death by rupture of the heart,
intimated by a discharge of blood and water from his side, when it
was afterward pierced with a spear."
SVETCHINE, or SWETCHINE (Sophia Soymonof, a Russian lady and writer),
1782-1857. Madame Svetchine's last words were, "_It will soon be time
for mass. They must raise me._" She was a most devoted Roman Catholic.
SWARTZ (Frederick Christian, Missionary in India), 1726-1798. "_Had it
pleased my Lord to spare me longer I should have been glad. I should
then have been able to speak yet a word to the sick and poor; but His
will be done! May He, in mercy, but receive me! Into Thy hands I commend
my spirit; Thou hast redeemed me, O Thou faithful God._" After this his
Malabar helpers sang a portion of a hymn and he endeavored to sing with
them, but his strength failing, he soon expired in the arms of a native
Christian.
SWEDENBORG (Emanuel, Swedish seer, philosopher and theologian),
1688-1772. "_It is well; I thank you; God bless you._" He told the
Shearsmiths on what day he should die; and the servant remarked: "He
was as pleased as I should have been if I was to have a holiday, or was
going to some merry-making."
His faculties were clear to the last. On Sunday afternoon, the 29th day
of March, 1772, hearing the clock strike, he asked his landlady and her
maid, who were both sitting at his bed-side, what o'clock it was; and
upon being answered it was five o'clock, he said--"It is well; I thank
you; God bless you;" and a little after, he gently departed.[45]
_White's "Life and Writings of Swedenborg."_
[45] Swedenborg was buried in the vault of the Swedish Church in
Prince's Square, on April 5, 1772. In 1790, in order to determine a
question raised in debate, viz., whether Swedenborg was really dead
and buried, his wooden coffin was opened, and the leaden one was
sawn across the breast. A few days after, a party of Swedenborgians
visited the vault. "Various relics" (says White: "_Life of
Swedenborg_," 2nd ed., 1868, p. 675) "were carried off: Dr. Spurgin
told me he possessed the cartilage of an ear. Exposed to the air,
the flesh quickly fell to dust, and a skeleton was all that remained
for subsequent visitors.... At a funeral in 1817, Granholm, an
officer in the Swedish Navy, seeing the lid of Swedenborg's coffin
loose, abstracted the skull, and hawked it about amongst London
Swedenborgians, but none would buy. Dr. Waehlin, pastor of the
Swedish Church, recovered what he supposed to be the stolen skull,
had a cast of it taken, and placed it in the coffin in 1819. The
cast which is sometimes seen in phrenological collections is
obviously not Swedenborg's: it is thought to be that of a small
female skull."
SWIFT (Jonathan, Dean of Saint Patrick's, Dublin, and author of "The
Tale of a Tub," and "Travels of Lemuel Gulliver"), 1667-1745. "_It is
folly; they had better leave it alone_," to his house-keeper who
informed him that the usual bonfires and illuminations were preparing to
do honor to his birthday. Some say his last words were, "_Ah, a German!
a prodigy, admit him!_" spoken as Handel was announced.
TALLEYRAND-PERIGORD (Charles Maurice, celebrated French diplomatist),
1754-1838, "_I am suffering, sire, the pangs of the damned._" Said to
the king, Louis Phillippe, who enquired his condition.
Louis Blanc (_Histoire de Dix Ans. v. 290_) says that when Louis
Philippe called upon Talleyrand during that prince's last hours, he
enquired if he suffered: "_Yes, comme un damne_," answered Talleyrand;
at which the king said under his breath, "What, already?" (Quoi, deja?)
TALMA (Francois Joseph, "The Garrick of the French Stage"), 1770-1826.
"_The worst is I can not see._"
He was interred, according to his own directions, in the cemetery of
Pere-la-Chaise, Paris, without any religious ceremony, but funeral
orations by Jouy and Arnault were delivered at the grave. To change, it
is alleged, his resolution on this score, the Archbishop of Paris had
sought an interview, but in vain. Talma's conduct, it is supposed,
proceeded from his resentment at the excommunication pronounced by the
Roman Catholic Church against actors.
TASSO (Torquato), 1544-1595. "_Lord, into Thy hands I commend my
spirit._"
When a guest of Rome, lodged in the Vatican, waiting to be crowned with
laurel--the first poet so honored since Petrarch--he sighed to flee away
and be at rest. Growing very ill, he obtained permission to retire to
the Monastery of Saint Onofrio. When the physician informed him that his
last hour was near, he embraced him, expressed his gratitude for so
sweet an announcement, and then, lifting his eyes, thanked God that
after so tempestuous a life he was now brought to a calm haven. The Pope
having granted the dying poet a plenary indulgence, he said, "This is
the chariot on which I hope to go crowned, not with laurel as a poet
into the capital, but with glory as a saint into heaven."
_Alger's "Genius of Solitude."_
Just before his death he requested Cardinal Cynthia to collect his works
and commit them to the flames, especially his "Jerusalem Delivered."
TAYLOR (Bayard, traveller, poet and lecturer; the translator of Goethe's
"Faust"), 1825-1878. "_I want, oh, you know what I mean, the stuff of
life._"
TAYLOR (Edward T., an American preacher known as "Father Taylor"),
1793-1871. "_Why, certainly, certainly!_" These words were spoken to a
friend who asked him if Jesus was precious. He became a sailor, and was
for many years the chaplain of the Seamen's Bethel, Boston.
TAYLOR (Jane, writer for the young), 1783-1823. "_Are we not children,
all of us?_"
TAYLOR (Jeremy, distinguished bishop in the English Church, and author
of "Holy Living and Dying." He has been called "The Shakspeare of
Divines"), 1613-1667. "_My trust is in God._"
TAYLOR (John, "The Water Poet." He followed for a long time the
occupation of waterman on the Thames, and later kept a public house in
Phoenix Alley, Long Acre), 1580-1654. "_How sweet it is to rest!_"
TAYLOR (Rev. Dr. Rowland), --1555. He said as he was going to martyrdom,
"I shall this day deceive the worms in Hadley churchyard."[46] And when
he came within two miles of Hadley, "Now," said he, "lack I but two
stiles; and I am even at my Father's house." His last words were,
"_Lord, receive my spirit._"
[46] Being asked by the sheriff to explain these words, he said: "I
am as you see, a man that hath a very great carcass, which I thought
should have been buried in Hadley churchyard, if I had died in my
bed, as I well hoped I should have done. But herein I see I was
deceived. And there are a great number of worms in Hadley
churchyard, which should have had jolly feeding upon this carrion
which they have looked for many a day. But now I know we be
deceived, both I and they; for this carcass must be burnt to ashes,
and so shall they lose their bait and feeding that they looked to
have had of it." Fox, the martyrologist, adds that, "when the
sheriff and his company heard these words they were amazed, and
looked at one another, marvelling at the man's constant mind, that
thus without all fear made but a jest at the cruel torment and death
now at hand prepared for him."
TAYLOR (Zachary, American general and twelfth President of the United
States), 1784-1850. "_I am about to die. I expect the summons soon. I
have endeavored to discharge all my official duties faithfully. I regret
nothing, but am sorry that I am about to leave my friends._"
TENDERDEN (Lord), "_Gentlemen of the jury, you will now consider of your
verdict._"
TENNENT (William, Pastor of Presbyterian Church in Freehold, N. J. His
name has been rendered famous by his peculiar experience which at the
time attracted the attention of the entire country. During an attack of
fever, he fell into a trance which continued three days. He was supposed
to be dead, and was prepared for burial; but suddenly he recovered, and
gave a description of what he had seen in the Heavenly world. He never
doubted to the last day of his life that he had seen the New Jerusalem
during the three days of his trance. Elias Boudinot published a
circumstantial account of the wonderful vision), 1705-1777. "_I am
sensible of the violence of my disorder, and that it is accompanied with
symptoms of approaching dissolution; but, blessed be God, I have no wish
to live, if it should be His will to call me hence._"
TENNYSON (Alfred, Lord, Poet-laureate of England), 1809-1892. "_I have
opened it._" These are the last words of the poet that have been made
public; later he bade his family farewell, but what he said has never
been published.
His last food was taken at a quarter of four, and he tried to read, but
could not. He exclaimed, "I have opened it." Whether this referred to
the Shakspeare, opened by him at
Hang there like fruit, my soul,
Till the tree die,
which he always called among the tenderest lines in Shakspeare, or
whether one of his last poems, of which he was fond, was running through
his head I cannot tell:
Fear not, thou, the hidden purpose of that Power
Which alone is great,
Nor the myriad world, his shadow, nor the silent
Opener of the Gate.
He then spoke his last words, a farewell blessing to my mother and
myself.
For the next hours the full moon flooded the room and the great
landscape outside with light; and we watched in solemn stillness. His
patience and quiet strength had power upon those who were nearest and
dearest to him; we felt thankful for the love and the utter peace of it
all; and his own lines of comfort from "_In Memoriam_" were strongly
borne in upon us. He was quite restful, holding my wife's hand, and, as
he was passing away, I spoke over him his own prayer, "God accept him!
Christ receive him!" because I knew that he would have wished it.
_Alfred, Lord Tennyson, a Memoir by his son._
TERCHOUT (Adele--"La Comete"). The gay and thoughtless life of this
beautiful young woman ended in sad regrets and bitter remembrances, and
yet there is some slight hope that there was with her at last a thought
real, if not deep, of better things.
Does any one remember a beautiful girl who went by the nickname of "La
Comete," and flashed through the Parisian world during the last year of
the Second Empire? She was called "Comet" on account of the exceeding
length and loveliness of her golden hair. Theophile Gautier wrote a
sonnet to her, Cabanel painted her portrait. Worth dressed her, and Leon
Cugnot took her as the model of his statue, "La Baigneuse." Her real
name was Adele Terchout, and just before the Franco-German war broke out
she declined an offer of marriage from an elderly duke, with a very
ancient escutcheon. At that time she owned one of the finest mansions in
the Champs Elysees, had twelve horses in her stables and a bushel of
diamonds in her dressing-case. Last week this dazzling creature died in
a Parisian hospital absolutely destitute, and the disease which carried
her off was the most hideous that could befall a pretty woman--a lupus
vorax, or cancer in the face, which totally disfigured her. Like Zola's
"Nana," the only vestige left of her beauty when she died was her
matchless hair, which measured nearly five feet.
_London Truth._
THEOPHRASTUS (eminent Greek philosopher. He was a favorite pupil of
Aristotle whom he succeeded as President of the Lyceum B. C. 322), about
B. C. 374-286. This philosopher's last words are not recorded, but on
his death-bed he accused Nature of cruelty. He charged her with
having-given a long life to stags and crows, and only a short one to men
and women who are so much better able to use for their own good and that
of others length of days. He declared that human beings needed long life
for the perfection of art. He complained that as soon as he had begun to
perceive the beauty of the world he was called upon to die.[47]
[47] Thus also did Themistocles, the most renowned of Grecian
generals, grieve that when he had acquired the wisdom necessary for
a useful life, it was time to die.
THERESA or TERESA ("Saint," Spanish nun, author of a number of
devotional books, a visionary of whom many wonderful miracles are
related. She was canonized by Pope Gregory XV.), 1515-1582. "_Over my
spirit flash and float in divine radiancy the bright and glorious
visions of the world to which I go._" The claim of celestial
illumination was made by her throughout her entire life and in the hour
of death, but just what were her last words is very uncertain.
At her death-bed the bystanders beheld her already in glory; to one she
appeared in the midst of angels, another saw floating over her head a
heavenly light that descended and hovered about her,[48] another
discovered spiritual beings clothed in white entering her cell, another
saw a white dove fly from her mouth up to heaven, while at the same time
a dead tree near the sacred spot suddenly burst into the fullness of
bloom.[49]
After her death she appeared to a nun and said that she had not died of
disease, but of the intolerable fire of divine love.
_Salazar: "Anamuesis Sanctorum Hispanorum."_
[48] The luminous faces and bodies of martyrs and saints are common
enough in the chronicles of mediaeval miracles. Some modern
physicians think there were physiological causes for the strange
and, at the time, startling phenomena.
Bartholin, in his treatise "De Luce Hominum et Brutorum" (1647),
gives an account of an Italian lady whom he designates as "mulier
splendens," whose body shone with phosphoric radiations when gently
rubbed with dry linen; and Dr. Kane, in his last voyage to the polar
regions, witnessed almost as remarkable a case of phosphorescence. A
few cases are recorded by Sir H. Marsh, Professor Donovan and other
undoubted authorities, in which the human body, shortly before
death, has presented a pale, luminous appearance.
On the eve of St. Alcuin's death (May 19th, 804), the entire
monastery was enveloped in a mysterious light, so that many thought
the building was on fire. The soul of the saint was seen to ascend
in the form of a dove, and the spectators heard celestial music in
the air.--_Early Superstitions._
The soul of St. Engelbert while going up to heaven was so bright
that St. Hermann mistook it for the moon.
Andrew Jackson Davis (the "Poughkeepsie Seer") records that while in
the clairvoyant condition he saw the entire process of the soul's
disengagement from the body.--"_The Great Harmonia_," _vol._ I, _p._
163.