Chapter VII: Part 7

It was alleged that Peters was one of those that stood masked on the scaffold when the king was beheaded, and to render him more odious, it was reported that he was the executioner. During his imprisonment he wrote several letters of advice to his daughter, which were published under the title of "A Dying Father's Legacy to an Only Child," of which his great-nephew, Samuel, said: "It was printed and published in Old and New England, and myriads of experienced Christians have read his legacy with ecstasy and health to their souls." After execution his head was stuck on a pole and placed on London bridge.... His private character has been the subject of much discussion. He was charged by his enemies with gross immorality, and the most bitter epithets have been applied to him. Of late years he has been estimated more favorably. _Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography._

PHILIP II. (of Spain), 1527-1598. "_I die like a good Catholic, in faith and obedience to the Holy Roman church._"

Soon after these last words had been spoken, a paroxysm, followed by faintness, came over him, and he lay entirely still. They had covered his face with a cloth, thinking that he had already expired, when he suddenly started with great energy, opened his eyes, seized the crucifix again from the hand of Don Fernando de Toledo, kissed it, and fell back again in agony.... He did not speak again, but lay unconsciously dying for some hours, and breathed his last at five in the morning of Sunday, the 13th of September. _Motley: "History of the United Netherlands."_

PHILIP III. (of Spain), 1578-1621: "_Oh would to God I had never reigned! Oh, that those years I have spent in my kingdom I had lived a solitary life in the wilderness! Oh, that I had lived alone with God! How much more secure should I now have died! With how much more confidence should I have gone to the throne of God! What doth all my glory profit, but that I have so much the more torment in my death?_"

PIUS IX. (Cardinal Giovanni Maria Mastai-Farretti, elected Pope June 17th, 1846), 1792-1878. "_Guard the church I loved so well and sacredly._" Some say his last words were, "Death wins this time."

PHOCION (Athenian statesman and general, unjustly condemned on a charge of treason, and put to death), B. C. 402-317. "_No resentment._"

PITT (William), 1759-1806. "_O my country, how I leave thee!_"

PIZARRO (Francisco, the conqueror of Peru), about 1475-1541. "_Jesu!_" He was assassinated in his palace, June 26, 1541, and was killed only after desperate resistance.

PLOTINUS (Greek philosopher of the Neo-Platonic school), 204-270. "_I am laboring to return that which is divine in us, unto that Divinity which informs and enlivens the whole universe._"

He was intensely religious, and if he had come a century later would, instead of a heathen philosopher, have been one of the first names among the saints of the church.--_Hallam._

POE (Edgar Allan, American poet, author of "The Raven"), 1811-1849. "_Lord help my soul!_"

Dr. Moran, resident physician of the Marine Hospital, where Poe died, wrote to Mrs. Clemm, under date of November 15th, 1849, an account of Poe's last hours, in which he represents him as having been wildly delirious, sometimes "resisting the efforts of two nurses to keep him in bed, until Saturday, when he commenced calling for one 'Reynolds,' which he did through the night until three on Sunday morning. At this time a very decided change began to affect him. Having become enfeebled from exertion, he became quiet and seemed to rest for a short time; then gently moving his head he said, 'Lord help my soul!' and expired."

POLYCARP ("Saint," Christian Father and martyr and the reputed disciple of the Apostle John), burned at the stake, 169. "_O Father of Thy beloved and blessed Son, Jesus Christ! O God of all principalities and of all creation! I bless Thee that Thou hast counted me worthy of this day, and of this hour, to receive my portion in the number of the martyrs, in the cup of Christ. I praise Thee for all these things; I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, by the eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ, Thy well-beloved Son, through whom, and with whom, in the Holy Spirit, be glory to Thee, both now and forever. Amen._"

POPE (Alexander), 1688-1744. "_I am dying, sir, of a hundred good symptoms_," said to a friend who called to inquire concerning his health. Some give his last words thus: "Friendship itself is but a part of virtue."[41]

[41] On some occasion of alteration in the church at Twickenham,
England, or burial of some one in the same spot, the coffin of Pope
was disinterred, and opened to see the state of the remains. By a
bribe to the sexton of the time, possession of the skull was
obtained for the night, and another skull was returned in place of
it. Fifty pounds were paid for the successful management of this
transaction. Whether this account is correct or not, the fact is
that the skull of Pope figures in a private museum.--_William
Howitt._

The head of the celebrated Duc de Richelieu, like that of Pope, the
Mahdi, and Swendenborg, is above ground. At the time of the
revolution in France the body of the Duke was exhumed from its grave
in the Church of the Sorbonne. This having been subjected to
numerous indignities, the head was cut off, and the latter
eventually came into the possession of a grocer, who afterward sold
it to M. Armez, the elder. M. Armez, after the Restoration, offered
the head to the then Duc de Richelieu, the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, who took no notice whatever of the offer. The son of M.
Armez inherited the skull. In 1846 the illustrious Montalembert,
when President of the Historical Committee of Arts and Monuments, at
the instance of his colleagues, did his best to recover the head of
the Duke, but without success. M. F. Feuillet de Conches, in his
"Causeries d'un Curieux," makes this comment: "We accuse no one,
still the fact is undeniable that this terrible head, the
personification of the absolute monarchy killing the aristocratic
monarchy, is wandering upon the earth like a spectre that has
straggled out of the domain of the dead."

POPE (William, the notorious leader of a company of men who attracted considerable attention by their open and continued abuse of sacred things. The utterances of these men shocked community and filled the minds of even open unbelievers with horror. It was reported, but of that the compiler of this book has no positive knowledge, that Pope and his associates diverted themselves by kicking the Bible about the floor of the room in which they held their infamous meetings. In his death chamber was a scene of terror),--1797. "_I have done the damnable deed--the horrible damnable deed! I cannot pray. God will have nothing to do with me. I will not have salvation at His hands. I long to be in the bottomless pit--the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone! I tell you I am damned! I will not have salvation! Nothing for me but hell. Come, eternal torments. O God, do not hear my prayers, for I will not be saved. I hate everything that God has made._"

PORTEUS (Beilby, Bishop of London. Among his works are a "Life of Archbishop Seeker," "Sermons," and a Seatonian prize poem on "Death." It is said that he assisted Hannah More in the composition of "Coelebs in Search of a Wife"), 1731-1808. "_O, that glorious sun!_"

PRESTON (John, author of "Treatise on the Covenant"), 1587-1628. "_Blessed be God, though I change my place, I shall not change my company; for I have walked with God while living, and now I go to rest with God._"

PRIESTLY (Joseph, philosopher and writer), 1733-1804. "_I am going to sleep like you, but we shall all awake together, and I trust to everlasting happiness_," spoken to his grandchildren and attendants.

To Priestly we owe our knowledge of oxygen, binoxide of nitrogen, sulphurous acid, fluosilicic acid, muriatic acid, ammonia, carburetted hydrogen, and carbonic oxide.

PUSEY (Edward Bouverie, Regius professor of Hebrew at Oxford, author with John Henry Newman, of "Tracts for the Times." He favored auricular confession and many of the distinctive doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic church), 1800-1882. "_My God!_"

He repeated again and again during his last hours the words, "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." When a common cup containing food was brought to him, he clutched it with reverent eagerness, thinking in the bewilderment of his mind, that it was the chalice. When he saw the friends about his bed kneeling in prayer, he raised his hand, with the words, "By His authority committed unto me, I absolve thee from all thy sins." At last, gazing about him as though he saw what the dear ones by his bedside could not see, he cried out, "My God!" and ceased to breathe. His Hebrew Bible lay open on a little table near his bed just as he had left it a few days before, at 1 Chron. xvi, where is described David's triumphant restoration of the ark of God to its place in the reverent worship of Israel.

QUARLES (Francis, quaint English poet, author of "Emblems"), 1592-1644. "_What I cannot utter with my mouth, accept, Lord, from my heart and soul._"

QUIN (James, actor), 1693-1766. "_I could wish this tragic scene were over, but I hope to go through it with becoming dignity._"

QUICK (John, actor), 1748-1831. "_Is this death?_"

RABELAIS (Francois), about 1483-1553. "_Let down the curtain, the farce is over._" Some say his last words were, "I am going to the great perhaps."

RALEIGH or RAWLEIGH (Sir Walter), 1552-1618. "_This is a sharp medicine, but a sure remedy for all evils!_" These words he said upon the scaffold, when permitted to feel of the edge of the axe. Some say that later he was asked which way he chose to place himself on the block, and that he replied, "So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies." Others say that his last words were these addressed to the hesitating headsman, "Why dost thou not strike? Strike!"

The lovers of tobacco will remember that it was Sir Walter Raleigh who introduced their "delightful weed" into Europe. So fond was he of the weed that he used it upon the scaffold. The snuff-box out of which he took a pinch just before his head rested upon the block was in constant use by the Duke of Sussex, and was disposed of at his sale for L6.

Mr. Van Klaes whose will is celebrated all over Holland was not to be behind Sir Walter Raleigh in his devotion to tobacco. After his bequests to relatives and charities, he has this paragraph in his will:

"I wish every smoker in the kingdom to be invited to my funeral in every way possible, by letter, circular and advertisement. Every smoker who takes advantage of the invitation shall receive as a present ten pounds of tobacco, and two pipes on which shall be engraved my name, my crest, and the date of my death. The poor of the neighborhood who accompany my bier shall receive every year on the anniversary of my death a large package of tobacco. I make the condition that all those who assist at my funeral, if they wish to partake of the benefits of my will, must smoke without interruption during the entire ceremony. My body shall be placed in a coffin lined throughout with the wood of my old Havana cigar-boxes. At the foot of the coffin shall be placed a box of French tobacco called _Caporal_ and a package of our old Dutch tobacco. At my side place my favorite pipe and a box of matches, ... for one never knows what may happen. When the bier rests in the vault, all the persons in the funeral procession are requested to cast upon it the ashes of their pipes, as they pass it on their departure from the grounds."

The wishes of the testator were fulfilled to the letter. The funeral went off gloriously in dense clouds of smoke. Mr. Van Klaes' cook, Gertrude, to whom was left in a codicil to the will a large sum of money on condition she should overcome her aversion to tobacco, walked in the funeral procession with a cigarette in her mouth.

RANDOLPH (John, an able but eccentric American statesman), 1773-1833. "_Write that word 'Remorse;' show it to me._" These words rest upon doubtful authority.

RAPHAEL (Sanzio, most illustrious of painters. "The Transfiguration" at Rome, and the "Madonna di San Sisto" at Dresden are accounted his master-pieces), 1483-1520. "_Happy--._'

"Once again Raphael revived, and, supported by two friends, arose and looked around with wide-open eyes. 'Whence comes the sunshine?' murmured he.

"'Raphael,' cried I, and extended both hands toward him, 'do you recognize me?'

"For a moment it seemed as if he had not heard me, then he spoke again, and the holy calm of his expression, in spite of the death-struggle, bore testimony to his words, 'Happy--.' He tried to finish the sentence, but could not. He never uttered another word, but it was full night when a voice broke through the long stillness: 'Raphael is dead!'" _Cardinal Bibbiena in a letter to his niece Maria di Bibbiena._

RAVAILLAC (Francois, the assassin of Henry IV. of France), 1578-1610. "_I receive absolution upon this condition._" Ravaillac asked absolution of Dr. Filesac, who answered, "We are forbidden to give it in the case of a crime of high treason, unless the guilty one reveals his abettors and accomplices." Ravaillac replied, "I have none. It is I alone that did it. Give me a conditional absolution. You cannot refuse this." "Well, then," said Dr. Filesac, "I give it to you, but if the contrary be true, instead of absolution I pronounce your eternal damnation. Look to it." Ravaillac answered, "I receive absolution upon this condition."

On May 27, 1610, Ravaillac was declared by the Parliament guilty of divine and human high treason; condemned to have his flesh torn with hot pincers and the wounds filled with melted lead, boiling oil, etc.; to have his right hand, holding the regicidal knife, burned in a fire of sulphur; to be afterward torn to pieces alive by four horses, to have his members reduced to ashes and the ashes thrown to the winds. The same decree ordered that the house in which he was born be demolished; that his father and his mother leave the kingdom in fifteen days, with orders not to return, under penalty of being hung and strangled; and finally that his brothers, sisters, uncles, etc., give up the name of Ravaillac and take another, under pain of the same penalties.

Ravaillac, most fearless of fanatics and devotees, said, when interrogated before Parliament as to his estate and calling, "I teach children to read, write, and pray to God." At his third examination, he wrote beneath the signature which he had affixed to his testimony the following distich:

"Que toujours, dans mon coeur,
Jesus soit le vainqueur!"

and a member of Parliament exclaimed on reading it, "Where the devil will religion lodge next!"[42]

[42] John Chastel was torn to pieces sixteen years before, for
attempting the life of the same monarch. Salcede, the Spaniard,
endeavored to assassinate Henri III., and was accordingly
dismembered. Nicholas de Salvado and Balthazar de Gerrard suffered
in the same way for attacking William, Prince of Orange. Livy
records that Mettius Suffetius was dismembered by chariots for
deserting the Roman cause.

RAYMOND (John Howard, President of Vassar College), 1814--. "_How easy--how easy--how easy to glide from work here to the work----_" _there_, he evidently wished to add, but his voice failed him.

READE (Charles, author of "Peg Woffington," "The Cloister and the Hearth," "Very Hard Cash," "Griffith Gaunt" and "Put Yourself in His Place"), 1814-1884. "_Amazing, amazing glory! I am having Paul's understanding._" He referred to 2 Cor. xii. 1-4, which had previously been a subject of conversation with a relative. In the epitaph which he wrote for his own tombstone, he shows his complete reliance for future happiness on the merits and mediation of Christ:

HERE LIE,
BY THE SIDE OF HIS BELOVED FRIEND,
THE MORTAL REMAINS OF
CHARLES READE,
DRAMATIST, NOVELIST AND JOURNALIST.
HIS LAST WORDS TO MANKIND ARE
ON THIS STONE.

"I hope for a resurrection, not from any power in nature, but from the will of the Lord God Omnipotent, who made nature and me. He created me out of nothing, which nature could not do. He can restore man from the dust, which nature cannot.

"And I hope for holiness and happiness in a future life, not for any thing I have said or done in this body, but from the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ.

"He has promised his intercession to all who seek him, and he will not break his word; that intercession, once granted, cannot be rejected: for he is God, and his merits infinite; a man's sins are but human and finite.

"'Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' 'If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.'"

RENAN (Ernest, Orientalist and critic), 1823-1892. "_I have done my work. It is the most natural thing in the world to die; let us accept the Laws of the Universe--the heavens and the earth remain._"

Some authorities give his last words thus: "Let us submit to the Laws of Nature of which we are one of the manifestations. The heavens and the earth abide."

He began to study for the priesthood, but renounced that profession because he doubted the truth of the orthodox creed. He displayed much learning in his "General History of the Semitic Languages," was admitted into the Academy of Inscriptions in 1856, and was sent to Syria in 1860 to search for relics of ancient learning and civilization. Soon after his return he was appointed professor of Hebrew in the College of France, but was suspended in 1862, in deference to the will of those who considered him unsound in faith. He admits the excellence of the Christian religion, but discredits its supernatural origin and rejects the miracles.--_Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary._

REYNOLDS (Sir Joshua, celebrated portrait painter), 1723-1792. "_I have been fortunate in long good health and constant success, and I ought not to complain. I know that all things on earth must have an end, and now I am come to mine._"

RICHELIEU (Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal and French statesman), 1585-1642. "_Absolutely, and I pray God to condemn me, if I have had any other aim than the welfare of God and the state_," in reply to the question whether he pardoned his enemies.

His last words are sometimes incorrectly given thus: "I have no enemies except those of the State."

RICHMOND (Leigh, a clergyman of the English Church, and author of "Annals of the Poor" and "The Fathers of the English Church"), 1772-1827. "_Brother, brother, strong evidences, nothing but strong evidences will do in such an hour as this. I have looked here and looked there for them, and all have failed me, and so I cast myself on the sovereign, free and full grace of God in the covenant by Jesus Christ; and there, brother, there I have found peace._"

RICHTER (Jean Paul Frederich, German author), 1763-1825. "_My beautiful flowers, my lovely flowers!_"

His wife brought him a wreath of flowers that a lady had sent him, for every one wished to add some charm to his last days. As he touched them carefully, for he could neither see nor smell them, he seemed to rejoice in the images of the flowers in his mind, for he said repeatedly, "My beautiful flowers, my lovely flowers!"

Although his friends sat around the bed, as he imagined it was night, they conversed no longer; he arranged his arms as if preparing for repose, which was to be to him the repose of death, and soon sank into a tranquil sleep.... At length his respiration became less regular, but his features always calmer, more heavenly. A slight convulsion passed over the face; the physician cried out, "That is death!" and all was quiet. The spirit had departed.

ROBERTSON (Frederick William, an English clergyman of singular purity and depth of religious feeling, and of great ability), 1816-1853. "_I cannot bear it; let me rest. I must die. Let God do his work._"

A member of his congregation, a chemist, asked him to look at his galvanic apparatus. He took the ends of the wire, completed the circuit, experiencing the tingling. He then held the end of the wire to the back of the head and neck, without a single sensation being elicited. Then he touched his forehead for a second. "Instantly a crashing pain shot through, as if my skull was stove in, and a bolt of fire were burning through and through." In the same letter he writes, "My work is done." Some hope might have been entertained if he could have had a curate to help him with his work. But the then Vicar of Brighton, rather an unsympathetic man, refused to let him have the curate on whom his heart was set. So he sank, unrelieved, into death. The dark secrets of the hospital of torture hardly reveal greater suffering than Robertson endured in those last hours. When they sought to change his position, he said, "I cannot bear it; let me rest. I must die. Let God do his work." These were his last words.

He was only thirty-seven years old when he died; an age when he had not reached the climax of his powers, or the complete development of his character and views. It is an interesting circumstance that after his death an inhabitant of Brighton who had stood aloof from his teaching during his lifetime, read his sermons and was so struck with the beauty of his teaching that in gratitude he placed a marble bust of the great preacher in the Pavilion. _London Society._

For six years he continued to preach sermons, the like of which, for blending of delicacy and strength of thought, poetic beauty and homely lucidity of speech, had perhaps never been heard before in England. Robertson was unhappily (for his comfort) not very "orthodox;" consequently he was long misunderstood, and vilified by the "professedly religious portion of society;" but so true, so beautiful was his daily life and conversation that he almost outlived those pious calumnies, and his death (from consumption) threw the whole town in mourning.--_Chambers' Encyclopaedia._

ROB ROY (whose original name was Macgregor, was a friend and follower of the "Pretender" in the Rebellion of 1715. He is the hero of one of Scott's novels), about 1660-1743.

Tradition relates that Rob Roy was visited on his death-bed by a person with whom he was at enmity, and that as soon as the visitor, whom he treated with a cold, haughty civility during their short conference, had departed, the dying man said, "Now all is over--let the piper play '_Ha til mi tulidh_' (we return no more)"--and he is said to have expired before the dirge was finished.--_Francis Jacox._

ROYER-COLLARD (Pierre Paul, French philosopher and statesman), 1763-1845. "_There is nothing solid and substantial in the world but religious ideas._"

ROGERS (John, Vicar of St. Pulchers, and reader of St. Paul's in London. He was burnt at the stake),--1555. "_Lord, receive my spirit._"

ROLAND (Marie Jeanne Philipon, Madame. "The Spirit of the Girondin Party"), 1754-1793. "_Go first; I can at least spare you the pain of seeing my blood flow._"

When she arrived in front of the Statue of Liberty, she bent her head to it, exclaiming, "Oh Liberty, how many crimes are committed in thy name!" At the foot of the scaffold she said to her companion, an old and timid man, whom she had been encouraging on the way, "Go first; I can at least spare you the pain of seeing my blood flow."

ROMAINE (William, English theologian, for thirty years rector of Blackfriars), 1714-1795. "_Holy, holy, holy, blessed Lord Jesus! to Thee be endless praise!_"

ROSA (Salvator, Italian painter), 1615-1673. "_To judge by what I now endure, the hand of death grasps me sharply._" Last recorded words.

ROSSETTI (Dante Gabriel, English painter and poet, leader in the Pre-Raphaelite movement), 1828-1882. "_I think I shall die to-night._" These are his last recorded words.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti is buried near the waves of his beloved German Ocean in the churchyard of Birchington, a small village on the Isle of Thanet. He died in 1882 at his bungalow, on a cliff near by, and his grave is marked by a tall Celtic cross of stone, carved with designs by Ford Madox Brown. The head and arms of the cross are decorated with a spray ending in leaves, and two leafy branches right and left. The shaft has four panels, with reliefs. The upper compartment has a figure of Christ, fronting, and two figures right and left in profile. The panel below has a kneeling bull, with wings, to represent the Evangelist. Below that is a kneeling painter, with canvas and easel before him and his palette on his arm. The lowest panel is filled with a decorative scroll. There is a stained-glass window to his memory in the little church.

ROUSSEAU (Jean Jacques, the famous author of "La Nouvelle Heloise," "Emile," "Du Contrat Social" and "Confessions"), 1712-1778. "_Throw up the window that I may see once more the magnificent scene of nature._"

RUTHERFORD (Rev. Samuel), 1695-1779. "_If he should slay me ten thousand times, ten thousand times I'll trust him. I feel, I feel, I believe in joy, and rejoice; I feed on manna. O for arms to embrace him! O for a well-tuned harp!_"

RUTHERFORD (Rev. Thomas), 1712-1771. "_He has indeed been a precious Christ to me; and now I feel him to be my rock, my strength, my rest, my hope, my joy, my all in all._"

SABATIER (Raphael Bienvenu, French surgeon), 1732-1811. "_Contemplate the state in which I am fallen, and learn to die_," said to his son.

He was ashamed of his bodily infirmities and of his approaching mortality.

SAMSON (one of the judges of Israel, of the tribe of Dan, and the son of Manoah), about B. C. 1155. "_Let me die with the Philistines._" After performing several wonderful deeds of strength, he was made prisoner, and deprived of sight by the Philistines, a great number of whom he subsequently destroyed, along with himself, by pulling down the temple in which they were assembled. _See Judges, xvi._

SAND ("George," pseudonym of Madame Dudevant), 1804-1876. "_Laissez la verdure_"--meaning, "Leave the tomb green, do not cover it over with bricks or stone."

SANDERSON (Robert, English prelate, chaplain to Charles I., and later Bishop of London), 1587-1663. "_My heart is fixed, O God! my heart is fixed where true joy is to be found._"

SARPI (Fra Paolo, author of "History of the Council of Trent," and opponent of the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope), 1552-1623. "_Be thou everlasting._" These words were spoken in reference to his country, Venice.

SAUNDERS (Lawrence, suffered martyrdom during the reign of Queen Mary). "_Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life._"

Away went Mr. Saunders, with a merry courage, toward the fire. He fell to the ground and prayed; he rose up again and took the stake to which he should be chained in his arms and kissed it, saying: "Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life." Being fastened to the stake he fell full sweetly asleep in the Lord. _Fox's "Book of Martyrs."_

SAVONAROLA (Girolamo, celebrated preacher and political, as well as religious, reformer of Florence), 1452-1498. "_O Florence, what hast thou done to-day?_" He was strangled and burnt by the commissioners of the Pope, May 23, 1498. His last words are sometimes given thus: "The Lord has suffered as much for me."

While he and his companions, all three barely covered by their tunics, with naked feet and arms bound, were being slowly led from the ringhiera to the gibbet, the dregs of the populace were allowed to assail them with vile words and viler acts. Savonarola endured this bitter martyrdom with unshaken serenity. One bystander, stirred with compassion, approached him and said a few comforting words, to which he benignantly replied: "At the last hour, God alone can give mortals comfort." A certain priest, named Nerotto, asked him, "in what spirit dost thou bear martyrdom?" He said: "The Lord hath suffered as much for me." He then kissed the crucifix, and his voice was heard no more. _Villari: "Life and Times of Savonarola."_

SAX (Hermann Maurice, Marshal of France), 1696-1750. "_The dream has been short, but it has been beautiful._"

SCARRON (Paul, the creator of French burlesque), 1610-1660. "_Ah! mes enfants, you cannot cry as much for me as I have made you laugh in my time!_" Some say that a few moments later he added, "I never thought that it was so easy a matter to laugh at the approach of death."

The life of Scarron was one of extreme wretchedness. He was, like Heine, a miserable paralytic; his form, to use his own words, "had become bent like a Z." "My legs," he says, "first made an obtuse angle with my thighs, then a right and at last an acute angle; my thighs made another with my body. My head is bent upon my chest; my arms are contracted as well as my legs, and my fingers as well as my arms. I am, in truth, a pretty complete abridgment of human misery." At the time of his marriage (to the beautiful and gifted Mademoiselle d'Aubigne, afterward Madame de Maintenon, the wife for thirty years of Louis XIV.) he could only move with freedom his hand, tongue and eyes. His days were passed in a chair with a hood, and so completely was he the abridgment of man he describes himself that his wife had to kneel to look in his face. He could not be moved without screaming from pain, nor sleep without opium. The epitaph which he wrote on himself is touching from its truth:

Tread softly--make no noise
To break his slumbers deep;
Poor Scarron here enjoys
His first calm night of sleep.
--_Russell: Library Notes._

SCHILLER (Friedrich, "the only German poet who can contest the supremacy of Goethe"), 1759-1805. "_Many things are growing plain and clear to my understanding._"

Of his friends and family he took a touching but tranquil farewell; he ordered that his funeral should be private, without pomp or parade. Some one inquiring how he felt, he said, "Calmer and calmer;" simple but memorable words, expressive of the mild heroism of the man. About six he sank into a deep sleep; once for a moment he looked up with a lively air and said, "Many things are growing plain and clear to my understanding." Again he closed his eyes, and his sleep deepened and deepened till it changed into the sleep from which there is no awakening, and all that remained of Schiller was a lifeless form soon to be mingled with the sods of the valley.--_Carlyle's "Life of Schiller."_

Dunzer says, in his "Life of Schiller": "During Schiller's delirium, from May 5th to May 9th, 1805, he repeated passages from his 'Demetrius,' and before falling asleep he called out, 'Is that your hell? Is that your heaven?' and then looked upward with a calm smile: '_Liebe, gute_' (Dear, good one), addressed to his wife, were the last words he uttered."

Schiller's last words are sometimes given thus: "_Einen Blick in die Sonne._"

SCHIMMELPENNINCK (Mary Anne, author of "Memoirs of Port-Royal"), 1778-1856. "_O, I hear such beautiful voices, and the children's are the loudest._"

SCHLEGEL (Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, von, German philosopher and author), 1772-1829. "_But the consummate and perfect knowledge--_"

SCHLEIERMACHER (Friedrich Ernst Daniel, distinguished German pulpit orator and theologian), 1768-1834. "_Now I can hold out here no longer. Lay me in a different posture._"

On the last morning, Wednesday, February 12, his sufferings evidently became greater. He complained of a burning inward heat, and the first and last tone of impatience broke from his lips: "Ah, Lord, I suffer much!" The features of death came fully on, the eye was glazed, the death-struggle was over! At this moment, he laid the two fore-fingers upon his left eye, as he often did when in deep thought, and began to speak: "We have the atoning death of Jesus Christ, his body and his blood." During this he had raised himself up, his features began to be reanimated, his voice became clear and strong; he inquired with priestly solemnity: "Are ye one with me in this faith?" to which we, Lommatzsch and a female friend who were present, and myself, answered with a loud _yea_. "Then let us receive the Lord's Supper! but the sexton is not to be thought of; quick, quick! let no one stumble at the form; I have never held to the dead letter!"

As soon as the necessary things were brought in by my son-in-law, during which time we had waited with him in solemn stillness, he began--with features more and more animated, and with an eye to which a strange and indescribable lustre, yea, a higher glow of love with which he looked upon us, had returned,--to pronounce some words of prayer introductory to the solemn rite. Then he gave the bread first to me, then to the female friend, then to Lommatzsch, and lastly to himself, pronouncing aloud to each, the words of institution (Matt. xxvi, etc.; I Cor. xi. 23-29),--so loud indeed, that the children and Muhlenfels (late Professor in the London University), who kneeled listening at the door of the next room, heard them plainly. So also with the wine, to us three first, and then to himself, with the full words of institution to each. Then, with his eyes directed to Lommatzsch, he said: "Upon these words of Scripture I stand fast, as I have always taught; they are the foundation of my faith." After he had pronounced the blessing, he turned his eye once more full of love on me, and then on each of the others, with the words: "In this love and communion, we are and remain ONE."

He laid himself back upon his pillow; the animation still rested on his features. After a few minutes he said: "Now I can hold out here no longer," and then, "Lay me in a different posture." We laid him on his side,--he breathed a few times,--and life stood still! Meanwhile the children had all come in, and were kneeling around the bed as his eyes closed gradually. _Account of Schleiermacher's Death prepared by his wife._

SCHWERIN VON (Kurt Christoph, Count and Field-marshal), 1684-1757. "_Let all brave Prussians follow me_," said just before he fell dead, having been struck by a cannon ball.

SCOTT (James, Duke of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II., of England), 1649-1685. "_There are six guineas for you, and do not hack me as you did my Lord Russell. I have heard that you struck him three or four times. My servant will give you more gold if you do your work well_," said to the headsman, who, notwithstanding these words, being unnerved, inflicted several blows before the neck was severed.

SCOTT (Thomas, Privy Councillor of James V. of Scotland). "_Begone, you and your trumpery; until this moment I believed there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty_," said to a priest who wished to point out to him the way of salvation.

SCOTT (Sir Walter), 1771-1832. "_God bless you all!_" to his family. Some give his last words thus: "I feel as if I were to be myself again."

Still others say his last words were these, addressed to Lockhart, "My dear, be a good man,--be virtuous,--be religious,--be a good man. Nothing else can give you any comfort, when you come to lie here."

It is also said by some authorities that his last words were, "There is but one book; bring me the Bible." These words it is represented were addressed to Lockhart who had asked him what book it was he wished to have read to him.

SCOTT (Winfield, distinguished American general), 1786-1866. "_James, take good care of the horse._"

As Frederick the Great's last completely conscious utterance was in reference to his favorite English greyhound, Scott's was in regard to his magnificent horse, the same noble animal that followed in his funeral procession a few days later. Turning to his servant, the old veteran's last words were: "James, take good care of the horse." In accordance with his expressed wish, he was buried at West Point on the first of June 1866, and his remains were accompanied to the grave by many of the most illustrious men of the land, including Gen. Grant and Admiral Farragut. _Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography._

SERMENT (Mlle. de, called "The Philosopher," because of her rare attainments in literature and of her wide acquaintance with ethics). She died of cancer of the breast, and expired in finishing these lines which she addressed to Death:

"_Nectare clausa suo,
Dignum tantorum pretium tulit illa laborum._"

SERVETUS (Michael. He calls himself _Serveto alias Reves_, adding his family name to his own, in the title of his earliest book. For twenty years of his life, during his residence in France, he was known only as _Michael de Villanovanus_, from the assumed name of his birthplace), 1509 or 1511-1553. "_Jesus, Son of the eternal God, have mercy on me!_"

The sentence was drawn out at great length on the 26th of October. Servetus did not know it till the next day, Friday, two hours before the execution. On a rising ground near the lake, a little to the eastward of the city, he was chained to a stake, and, the oldest account (that in _Sandius_) says, for more than two hours, while stifling in the fumes of straw and brimstone, suffered the torture of a fire of "green oak fagots, with the leaves still on," the wind blowing the flame so that it would only scorch, not kill, till the crowd, in horror, heaped the fuel closer. His last cry was, "Jesus, Son of the eternal God, have mercy on me!" Farel's retort was, "Call rather on the Eternal Son of God!" "I know well," he had written not long before, "that for this thing I must die, but not for that does my heart fail me that I may be a disciple like the Master." _Joseph Henry Allen in the New World, Dec. 1892._

SETON (Elizabeth Ann, philanthropist, foundress and first Superior of the Sisters of Charity in the United States), 1774-1821. "_Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water out of the side of Christ, strengthen me._" A few moments after she had spoken these words she murmured, "_Jesus, Mary, Joseph_," and expired.

SEVERUS (Bishop of Ravenna),--390. "_My dear one, with whom I lived in love so long, make room for me, for this is my grave, and in death we shall not be divided._" The last words of Severus are purely traditional.

Severus, Bishop of Ravenna, prepared a tomb for himself in his church. In it he placed the bodies of his wife, Vincentia, and of his daughter, Innocentia. After some years he was premonished that his time to die had come. He held service with the people, dismissed them and closed the cathedral doors. Then, clothed in his episcopal robes, with one attendant, he went to the sepulchre of his family. They raised the stone from the tomb, and Severus, looking in, said: "My dear one, with whom I lived in love so long, make room for me, for this is my grave, and in death we shall not be divided." Immediately he descended into the tomb, laid himself down beside his wife and daughter, crossed his hands upon his breast, looked up to heaven in prayer, gave one sigh and fell asleep.

SHEPPARD (Jack, the noted highwayman, the hero of many a chap-book of his day, and the hero and title of a novel by Defoe, and one by Ainsworth), 1701-1724. "_I have ever cherished an honest pride; never have I stooped to friendship with Jonathan Wild, or with any of his detestable thief-takers; and though an undutiful son I never damned my mother's eyes._"

Jack Sheppard was a popular idol followed by praise and applause even to the gallows. "There was scarce a beautiful woman in London who did not solace him during his prison hours with her condescension, and enrich him with her gifts. Not only did the President of the Royal Academy deign to paint his portrait, but (a far greater honor) Hogarth made him immortal. Even the King displayed a proper interest, demanding a full and precise account of his escapes. The hero himself was drunk with flattery; he bubbled with ribaldry; he touched off the most valiant of his contemporaries in a ludicrous phrase. But his chief delight was to illustrate his prowess to his distinguished visitors, and nothing pleased him better than to slip in and out of his chains."

Not a few of the highwaymen of the day were "gentlemen" and "coxcombs." We have from Swift a picture of one such in his sketch of "Clever Tom Clinch," who

While the rabble were bawling,
Rode stately through Holborn to die of his calling;
He stopped at the George for a bottle of sack,
And promised to pay for it--when he came back.
His waistcoat and stockings and breeches were white,
His cap had a new cherry ribbon to tie't:
And the maids at doors and the balconies ran
And cried "Lac-a-day! he's a proper young man!"

SHERIDAN (Richard Brinsley), 1751-1816. "_Did you know Burke?_" He referred to Edmund Burke, the celebrated orator, statesman and philosopher.

SHERMAN (John, distinguished American statesman, United States senator, and secretary of state), 1823-1900. "_I think you had better send for the doctor--I am so faint._"

At three o'clock yesterday morning, Mr. Sherman took a decided turn for the worse. At that hour he complained of feeling faint and asked that his physician be called. During the next hour the patient had several fainting spells and during the day these continued at short intervals. His doctor found him very weak and prescribed a stimulant, but the medicine had very little effect, and the patient sank slowly. All day his condition grew worse, but he retained consciousness till about nine o'clock last night. From time to time, yesterday, Mr. Sherman attempted to speak, but his words were not intelligible. _Albany Evening Journal, Oct. 22, 1900._

SICKINGEN (Franz von, Protestant leader and a brave German soldier. He championed the cause of learning and protected Ulrich von Hutten, Reuchlin, and others from the rage and oppression of Romish ecclesiastics), 1481-1523. "_I have already confessed my sins to God_," to his chaplain who inquired whether he desired to confess. He was killed while defending his castle of Neustall.

SIDNEY (Algernon, English republican patriot), 1622-1683. "_Not till the general resurrection: strike on!_" to the executioner who, asked him if he would like to rise again, after laying his head on the block.

SIDNEY (Sir Philip, English gentleman, soldier and author), 1554-1586. "_In me behold the end of the world with all its vanities._"

He was mortally wounded at Zutphen, September, 1586. After he was wounded he called for some drink, which was brought, but before he had tasted it, he gave the bottle to a wounded soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is greater than mine."

SMALRIDGE (George, Bishop of Bristol), 1663-1719. "_God be thanked, I have had a very good night._"

SMITH (Joseph, founder and first prophet of the Mormon Church), 1805-1844. "_That's right, Brother Taylor; parry them off as well as you can_," to the Mormon Apostle John Taylor who was defending Smith and endeavoring to drive back the mob.

Smith amassed a large fortune, assumed the title of lieutenant-general and president of the church, and exercised absolute authority over his "saints." He provoked the popular indignation by attempts to seduce the wives of other men, and was arrested and confined in jail at Carthage. In June, 1844, a mob broke into the jail and killed Joseph Smith. _Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary._

"I was sitting at one of the front windows of the jail, when I saw a number of men, with painted faces, coming round the corner of the jail and aiming toward the stairs.

"As Hyrum fell he cried, 'I am a dead man,' and spoke and moved no more. As he fell Joseph leaned over him, and in tones of deep and sad sympathy exclaimed, 'Oh! my poor, dear brother Hyrum!' While I was engaged in parrying the guns, Brother Joseph said, 'That's right, Brother Taylor; parry them off as well as you can.' These were the last words I ever heard him speak on earth." _Martyrdom of Smith, by Apostle John Taylor._

It was believed that sacred as the tomb is always considered to be, there were persons capable of rifling the grave in order to obtain the head of the murdered Prophet for the purpose of exhibiting it, or placing it in some phrenological museum--the skull of Joseph Smith was worth money. This apprehension, in point of fact, proved true, for the place where the bodies were supposed to be buried was disturbed the night after the interment. The coffins had been filled with stones, etc., to about the weight which the bodies would have been. The remains of the two brothers were then secretly buried the same night by a chosen few, in the vaults beneath the temple. The ground was then levelled, and pieces of rock and other _debris_ were scattered carelessly over the spot. But even this was not considered a sufficient safeguard against any violation of the dead, and on the following night a still more select number exhumed the remains, and buried them beneath the pathway behind the Mansion House. The bricks which formed the pathway were carefully replaced and the earth removed was carried away in sacks and thrown into the Mississippi. If this last statement is true, the bodies must have been removed a third time, as, since writing the above, the author has it on unquestionable authority that they now repose in quite a different place. Brigham Young has endeavored to obtain possession of the remains of the Prophet, that they might be interred beneath the temple at Salt Lake. _"Early Days of Mormonism" by J. H. Kennedy._

SOCRATES, 470-400 B. C. "_Crito, I owe a cock to AEsculapius, will you remember to pay the debt?_"

He walked about until, as he said, his legs began to fail; and then he lay on his back, according to the directions, and the man who gave him the poison now and then looked at his feet and legs, and after awhile he pressed his foot hard and asked him if he could feel, and he said "No;" and then his leg, and so upward and upward, and showed us that he was cold and stiff. And he felt them himself, and said, "When the poison reaches the heart that will be the end." He was beginning to grow cold about the groin, when he uncovered his face, for he had covered himself up, and said (they were his last words)--he said: "Crito, I owe a cock to AEsculapius, will you remember to pay the debt?" "The debt shall be paid," said Crito. "Is there anything else?" There was no answer to this question, but in a minute or two a movement was heard and the attendants uncovered him; his eyes were set, and Crito closed his eyes and mouth. _From Jowett's "Dialogues of Plato."_

SOPHONISBA (the wife of Syphax, King of Numidia). "_If my husband has for his new wife no better gift than a cup of death, I bow to his will and accept what he bestows. I might have died more honorably if I had not wedded so near to my funeral._"

Sophonisba was taken prisoner by Masinissa who had been formerly her lover. He married her, but, yielding to Scipio, who feared that she would influence her husband in favor of Carthage, he sent her a cup of poison, bidding her remember her birth and estate.

SOUTHCOTT (Joanna, a religious impostor who was probably of unsound mind), 1750-1814. "_If I have been deceived, doubtless it was the work of a spirit; whether that spirit was good or bad I do not know._" Last recorded words.

In the last year of her life she secluded herself from the world, and especially from the society of the other sex, and gave it out that she was with child of the Holy Ghost; and that she would give birth to the Shiloh promised to Jacob, which should be the second coming of Christ. Her prophecy was that she was to be delivered on the 19th of October, 1814, at midnight; being then upwards of sixty years of age.

This announcement seemed not unlikely to be verified, for there was an external appearance of pregnancy; and her followers, who are said to have amounted at that time to 100,000, were in the highest state of excitement. A splendid and expensive cradle was made, and considerable sums were contributed in order to have other things prepared in a style worthy of the expected Shiloh. On the night of the 19th of October a large number of persons assembled in the street in which she lived, waiting to hear the announcement of the looked-for event; but the hour of midnight passed over, and the crowd were only induced to disperse by being informed that Mrs. Southcott had fallen into a trance. _Chambers' Miscellany._

After the death of Joanna Southcott, her followers refused to believe her dead, and consented to a postmortem examination of her body, only when decomposition had actually commenced. After her burial they formed themselves into a religious society which they called the Southcottian church, and professed to believe that she would rise from the dead and bring forth the promised Shiloh.

SPINOZA (Baruch, his Hebrew name which he translated into Latin as Benedictus), 1632-1677. There can be no certainty with regard to the last hours of Spinoza. There was with him at the time of his death but one friend who refused to make any disclosure, and who chose to pass to his own grave in silent possession of the secret. Nevertheless a report prevailed, and was for a time believed, that Spinoza died in great fear and distress of mind, and that with his last breath he cried out: "_God have mercy upon me, and be gracious to me, a miserable sinner!_" Another report, equally without foundation, represented the great Dutch philosopher as resorting to suicide when he saw death drawing near.

Spinoza is regarded as the ablest of modern pantheistic philosophers. 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.