Chapter VIII: Part 8

"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.

[49] It was commonly believed that the immortal soul escaped from
the dead body through the mouth. Sometimes it passed out under the
form of a bird, and sometimes it seemed to be a vapor. The
appearance of the departing soul is mentioned as a known fact, by
the celebrated mystic, Jacob Boehmen, in his curious book. "_The
Three Principles_," where it is described as that of "a blue vapor
going forth out of the mouth of a dying man, which maketh a strong
smell all over the chamber."

THOREAU (Henry David, American author and naturalist), 1817-1862. "_I leave this world without a regret._"

He was bred to no profession; and it is said that he never went to church, never voted, and never paid a tax to the state though he was imprisoned for not doing so. He ate no flesh, drank no wine, never knew the use of tobacco, and never (though a naturalist) used either trap or gun.--_Emerson._

He lived in the simplest manner; he sometimes practised the business of land-surveyor. In 1845 he built a small frame house on the shore of Walden Pond, near Concord, where he lived two years as a hermit, in studious retirement. He published an account of this portion of his life, in a small book entitled "Walden."--_Lippincott._

Thoreau was a kind and good man, but a multitude of eccentricities separated him from the average life of man and removed him from the common sympathy of his race. His little house on the shore of Walden Pond he constructed with his own hands, because he thought that men should be able to do as much as the birds who build their own nests. The entire house cost him less than thirty dollars; and in it he lived at an expense of about twenty-seven cents a week. The house had neither lock nor curtain, and was unprotected day and night. The door was seldom closed, and the window was often wide-open in the midst of a winter storm. "I am no more lonely," he wrote, "than Walden Pond itself. What company has that, I pray? And yet it has not the blue devils, but blue angels in it, in the azure tint of its waters." It is said that he could tell the day of each month by the trees and flowers.

THURLOW (Edward, Lord Chancellor in the reign of George III.), 1732-1806. "_I'll be shot if I don't believe I'm dying._"

TIBERIUS (Claudius Nero, Roman Emperor), B. C. 42--A. D. 37. Finding himself dying, he took his signet ring off his finger, and held it awhile, as if he would deliver it to somebody; but put it again on his finger, and lay for some time, with his left hand clenched, and without stirring; when suddenly summoning his attendants, and no one answering the call, he rose; but his strength failing him, he fell down at a short distance from his bed.--_Seneca._

He died without appointing his successor, but the people cared little for that. They rejoiced at his death, and ran through the streets of Rome crying, "Away with Tiberius to the Tiber."

TILDEN (Samuel Jones, distinguished American lawyer and politician. He was twice a representative in the Legislature of the State of New York, a member of two Constitutional Conventions, Governor of the State of New York for two years, and a candidate for the Presidency of the United States), 1814-1886. "_Water._"

During the closing hours of life he suffered greatly from thirst.

TIMROD (Henry, American poet), 1829-1867. "_Never mind, I shall soon drink of the river of Eternal Life_," on finding that he could no longer swallow water.

"An unquenchable thirst consumed him. Nothing could allay that dreadful torture. He whispered as I placed the water to his lips, 'Don't you remember that passage I once quoted to you from "King John?" I had always such a horror of quenchless thirst, and now I suffer it!' He alluded to the passage:--

And none of you will let the Winter come,
To thrust his icy fingers in my maw!

"Just a day or two before he left on a visit to you at 'Copse Hill,' in one of our evening rambles he had repeated the passage to me with a remark on the extraordinary force of the words.

"Katie took my place by him at five o'clock (in the morning), and never again left his side. The last spoonful of water she gave him he could not swallow. 'Never mind,' he said, 'I shall soon drink of the river of eternal Life.'

"Shortly after he slept peacefully in Christ."
_From a letter by Timrod's sister._

TINDAL (Matthew, celebrated author and infidel), 1657-1733. "_O God--if there be a God--I desire Thee to have mercy on me._"

Tindal is particularly celebrated for two publications, the first, issued in 1706, being entitled, "The Rights of the Christian Church Asserted against the Romish and all other Priests;" and the other, published in 1730, called, "Christianity as Old as the Creation, or the Gospel a Republication of the Religion of Nature."

TITUS (Flavius Vespasianus, Roman Emperor. He was called by his subjects, "The love and delight of the human race"), 40-81. "_My life is taken from me, though I have done nothing to deserve it; for there is no action of mine of which I should repent, but one._" What that one action was he did not say.

TOPLADY (Rev. Augustus Montague, English Calvinistic clergyman and vicar of Broad Henbury, Devonshire. He was the author of several controversial works and of a number of beautiful hymns, chief among which is "Rock of Ages"), 1740-1778. "_No mortal man can live after the glories which God has manifested to my soul._"[50]

[50] Dr. Moore states that when the vital flame was flickering, the
heart was faltering with every pulse, and every breath was a
convulsion, he said to a dying believer, who had not long before
been talking in broken words of undying love, "Are you in pain?" and
the reply, with apparently the last breath, was, "It is delightful!"
In another person, in whom a gradual disease had so nearly exhausted
the physical powers that the darkness of death had already produced
blindness, the sense of God's love was so overpowering, that every
expression for many hours referred to it in rapturous words, such
as, "This is life--this is heaven--God is love--I need not faith--I
have the promise." It is easy to attribute such expressions to
delirium; but this does not alter their character, nor the reality
of the state of the soul which produces them. Whether a dying man
can maintain any continued attention to things through his senses,
we need not inquire. It is enough for him, if, in the spirit, he
possesses the peace and joy of believing.--_The Use of the Body in
Relation to the Mind._

TURENNE (Henry de la, Vicomte, famous French general, killed at Salzbach in July, 1675), 1611-1675. "_I do not mean to be killed to-day._" Said just before he was struck by a cannon-ball.

TYNDALE, or TINDALE (William, the venerable martyr and translator of the Bible), 1484-1536. "_Lord, open the eyes of the King of England._" He was first strangled and afterward burnt.

The merits of Tyndale must ever be recognized and honored by all who enjoy the English Bible, for their authorized version of the New Testament has his for its basis. He made good his early boast, that plough-boys should have the Word of God. His friends speak of his great simplicity of heart, and commend his abstemious habits, his zeal and his industry; while even the imperial procurator who prosecuted him styles him "homo, doctus, pius et bonus."

TYNDALL (John, English physicist, author of many scientific books, chief among which are "Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion," "Forms of Water in Clouds and Rivers, Ice and Glaciers," and "Floating Matter in the Air"), 1820-. It is uncertain what were the last words of Prof. Tyndall, but the last words which he wrote for publication were in response to a request from an American syndicate for a Christmas message to his American friends. The message closed with these words: "I choose the nobler part of Emerson, when, after various disenchantments, he exclaims, 'I covet truth!' The gladness of true heroism visits the heart of him who is really competent to say that."

TYNG (Dudley A., a young and gifted clergyman whose last words furnished the inspiration for Rev. Dr. Duffield's popular hymn, "Stand up for Jesus"). "_Know Him? He is my Saviour--my all. Father, stand up for Jesus!_"

Leaving his study for a moment, he went to the barn floor, where a mule was at work on a horse-power, shelling corn. Patting him on the neck, the sleeve of his silk study gown caught in the cogs of the wheel, and his arm was torn out by the roots. His death occurred in a few hours. When he was dying his father said to him, "Dudley, your mother has your hand in hers, can you press it a little that she may know you recognize her?" The young man made no response. Later his father said, "Dudley, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?" He started, and said, "Know Him? He is my Saviour--my all. Father, stand up for Jesus!"

USHER (James, Archbishop), 1580-1656. "_Lord, forgive my sins; especially my sins of omission._" His last words are sometimes given thus, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."

VALDES (Gabriel de la Concepcion, commonly known as Placido),--1844. "_Here! fire here!_"

Valdes was a full-blooded negro. He was executed with twenty other persons, for conspiracy to liberate the black population, the slaves of the Spanish inhabitants of Cuba. The execution took place at Havana, July, 1844. Seated on a bench, with his back turned, as ordered, to the soldiers appointed to shoot him, he said: "Adios, mundo; no hay piedad para mi. Soldados, fuego." "Adieu, O world; here is no pity for me. Soldiers, fire." Five balls entered his body. He arose, turned to the soldiers, and said, his face wearing an expression of superhuman courage:--"Will no one have pity on me? Here!" pointing to his heart, "fire here!" At that instant two balls pierced his heart and he fell dead. Little is known of him but his death, which was described in the _Heraldo_, of Madrid. "The Poems of a Cuban Slave," edited by Dr. Madden, are believed to have been the composition of the gifted Valdes.

VANDERBILT (Cornelius "Commodore," President of New York Central Railroad under whose management that road was consolidated with the Hudson River Railroad. He laid the foundation of an extensive railroad system and of an immense family fortune), 1794-1877. "_Yes, yes, sing that for me. I am poor and needy_," to one who was singing to him the familiar hymn, "Come, ye sinners, poor and needy."

VANE (Sir Henry), 1612-1662. "_Blessed be God, I have kept a conscience void of offence to this day, and have not deserted the righteous cause for which I suffer._"

Vane was condemned for treason, and beheaded June 14, 1662.

Vane, young in years, but in sage counsels old,
Than whom a better senator ne'er held
The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled
The fierce Epirat and the African bold,
Both spiritual power and civil thou hast learned:
Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans
In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.--_Milton._

VANINI (Lucilio), 1585-1619. "_Illi in extremis prae timore imbellis sudor; ego imperturbatus morior._" See _Grammond, Hist. Gal. iii._ 211.

After travelling through Germany, Holland and England, he went to Toulouse, where he was arrested and condemned by the parliament to be burned alive. He wrote "Amphitheatrum AEternae Providentiae," and "De Admirandis Naturae Arcanis," for which latter work he suffered in 1619.

VESPASIAN (Titus Flavius, Roman Emperor), 9-79. "_An Emperor ought to die standing._" A short time before this he said in attending to the apotheosis of the emperors, "I suppose I shall soon be a god."

VEUSTER DE (Joseph, the "Leper-Priest of Molokai." When he became "religious" he took the name of Damien, after the second of two brothers, Cosmos and Damien, both physicians, martyrs and saints in the Roman Catholic Church. He is commonly known as "Father Damien").--1889. "_Well! God's will be done. He knows best. My work with all its faults and failures, is in His hands, and before Easter I shall see my Saviour._"

There has been much discussion with regard to the character and work of Damien. The Rev. C. M. Hyde. D. D., of Honolulu, a missionary of high repute, and who had personal knowledge of the leper-priest, wrote a letter to the Rev. H. B. Gage, which was published in "The Sydney Presbyterian" of October 26, 1889. In that letter he said:

"The simple truth is, he (Father Damien) was a coarse, dirty man, headstrong and bigoted. He was not sent to Molokai, but went there without orders; did not stay at the leper settlement (before he became himself a leper), but circulated freely over the whole island (less than half the island is devoted to the lepers), and he came often to Honolulu. He had no hand in the reforms and improvements inaugurated, which were the work of our Board of Health, as occasion required and means were provided. He was not a pure man in his relations with women, and the leprosy of which he died should be attributed to his vices and carelessness. Others have done much for the lepers, our own ministers, the government physicians, and so forth, but never with the Catholic idea of meriting eternal life."

* * * * *

To the statements of Dr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson replied in most violent language, of which the following is a sample:

"You remember that you have done me several courtesies for which I was prepared to be grateful. But there are duties which come before gratitude, and offences which justly divide friends, far more acquaintances. Your letter to the Rev. H. B. Gage is a document which, in my sight, if you had filled me with bread when I was starving, if you had set up to nurse my father when he lay a-dying, would yet absolve me from the bonds of gratitude."

* * * * *

After this and more vituperation follows an analysis of Dr. Hyde's letter, and an elaborate defense of Father Damien. Men will differ in their opinions of the leper-priest, and, no doubt, much may be said on both sides of the case; but to the compiler of this work, who, in his own home, heard the story in all its details from the lips of Dr. Hyde, the beatification of Damien is, to say the least, a grotesque absurdity.

VICTORIA (Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of England and Ireland and Empress of India), 1819-1901. It is said, though upon what authority the compiler is unable to discover, that the last words of Queen Victoria were, "_Oh, that peace may come._" It is understood that the Queen was opposed to the war in South Africa, and her last words would seem to indicate that her thoughts, even in the hour of death, were busy with the unhappy conflict.

VIDOCQ (Eugene Francois, famous French detective), 1775-1857. "_How great is the forgiveness for such a life!_"

He was successively a thief, soldier, deserter, and gambler before he entered the public service, and was often imprisoned for his offences. About 1810 he enlisted in the police at Paris. His success as a detective has scarcely been paralleled in history. _Lippincott: "Biographical History."_

He retired to Paris and there lived quietly in lodgings until 1857, when, at the great age of eighty-two, he was struck down with paralysis. On finding his end near, he sent for a confessor, and--so whimsical a thing is human nature--he greatly edified the holy man by dying like a saint. One trifling peccadillo he perhaps forgot to mention. The breath had scarcely left his body, when ten lovely damsels, each provided with a copy of his will, which left her all his property arrived. Alas for all the ten! Vidocq had always loved the smiles of beauty, and had obtained them by a gift which cost him nothing. He had left his whole possessions to his landlady. _Smith: "Romance of History."_

VILLARS DE (Claude Louis Hector, famous French general), 1653-1734. "_I always deemed him more fortunate than myself._" Said to his confessor, who told him that the Duke of Berwick had perished by a cannon ball.

VILLIERS (George, First Duke of Buckingham. He was assassinated by John Felton in 1628), 1592-1628. "_God's wounds! the villain hath killed me._"

John Felton, gentleman, having watched his opportunity, thrust a long knife, with a white heft, he had secretly about him, with great strength and violence, into his breast, under his left pap, cutting the diaphragma and lungs, and piercing the very heart itself. The Duke having received the stroke, and instantly clapping his right hand on his sword-hilt, cried out, "God's wounds! the villain hath killed me."--_Book of Death._

VIRGIL (Publius Virgilius Maro, most illustrious of Latin poets), B. C. 70-19.

Upon a visit to Megara, a town in the neighborhood of Athens, he was seized with a languor, which increased during the ensuing voyage; and he expired a few days after landing at Brundisium, on the 22d of September in the fifty-second year of his age. He desired that his body might be carried to Naples, where he had passed many happy years; and that the following distich, written in his last sickness, should be inscribed upon his tomb:

Mantua me genuit: Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc
Parthenope, Cecerie pascua, rura, duces.

VITELLIUS (Aulus, Emperor of Rome), 15-69. "_Yet I was once your emperor_," to the soldiers of Vespasian who were putting him to death by a lingering torture whilst they were dragging him by a horse into the Tiber.

VOLTAIRE (a name capriciously assumed by Francois Marie Arouet, and made by him more celebrated than any other of which we read in the literary history of the eighteenth century), 1694-1778. "_Adieu my dear Marand; I am dying_," said to his valet.

According to a document discovered by Mr. Schuyler, American Consul at Moscow, bearing on the death of Voltaire, and which was forwarded to M. Taine, and published in the _Journal des Debats_, the last words of Voltaire were, "Take care of Maria," meaning his niece, Madame Denys. These words were addressed to one of his servants.

It has also been said that his last words were: "For the love of God, don't mention that Man--allow me to die in peace!" to one who called his attention to our Saviour.

There are several widely divergent accounts of the last hours of Voltaire, and perhaps it is not possible to know just what measure of truth is to be found in any one of them. It is said that on his death-bed he cursed D'Alembert and denounced his infidel associates; that he made in the presence of Abbe Gaultier, the Abbe Mignot, and the Marquis de Villeveille a declaration of his wish to be reconciled to "the church;" that he spent much time in alternately praying and blaspheming. These facts, if facts they really are, rest upon the statements of Mons. Tronchin, the Protestant physician from Geneva, who attended him almost to the last, and who was so horrified at what he witnessed that he said, "_Pour voir toutes les furies d'Oreste, il n'y avait qu'a se trouver a la mort de Voltaire._" The Marechal de Richelieu, also, was terrified at what he saw and heard, and left the bed-side of Voltaire declaring that his nerves were not strong enough to endure the strain. Tronchin's statements are denied by Vilette and Monke, who represent the last hours of the great Frenchman as calm and peaceful. The exact truth will, it is most likely, never be known beyond all question, and yet, to the compiler of this book, the weight of evidence seems to be with Tronchin rather than with those who have impeached his testimony.

WAGNER (Richard Wilhelm, German composer, among whose works are "Rheingold," "Valkyria," "Siegfried" and "The Twilight of the Gods"), 1813-1883. "_Mir ist sehr schlecht._"

At three o'clock he went to dinner with the family, but just as they were assembled at table and the soup was being served he suddenly sprang up, cried out, "Mir ist sehr schlecht (I feel very bad)," and fell back dead from an attack of heart disease.

WALLER (Edmund, English poet), 1605-1687. He died repeating lines from Virgil.

WARHAM (William, Archbishop of Canterbury), 1450-1532. "_That is enough to last till I get to Heaven._" Said to his servant who told him he had still left thirty pounds.

WARNER (Charles Dudley, author and lecturer), 1829-1900. "_I am not well, and should like to lie down--will you call me in ten minutes? Thank you. You are very kind--in ten minutes--remember!_"

Among Mr. Warner's acquaintances was a colored man, to whom he gave books to encourage his desire to read, particularly books connected with the history of the colored race, upon which Mr. Warner was an authority.

Mr. Warner probably intended to call on this man, as he was in the neighborhood of his house when he was stricken. Feeling ill, he asked permission at a house to sit down, then to lie down, requesting to be called in ten minutes. When the woman of the house went to call him he was dead.

WASHINGTON (George, "the Father of His Country,"[51] and the first President of the United States), 1732-1799. "_It is well._" Some say his last words were, "I am about to die, and I am not afraid to die."

Washington said to Mr. Lear, his secretary. "I am just going; have me decently buried, and do not let my body be put into the vault until three days after I am dead--do you understand me?" On his secretary's replying that he did, the dying man added, "It is well." About an hour later he quietly withdrew his hand from Mr. Lear's, and felt his own pulse, and immediately expired without a struggle.

A coffin of mahogany, lined with lead and covered within and without with black velvet, was made on the following day at Alexandria. On a plate at the head of the coffin was inscribed "_Surge ad Judicium_;" on another, in the middle, "_Gloria Deo_," while on a small silver plate in the form of an American shield appeared the inscription:

GEORGE WASHINGTON.
BORN FEB. 22, 1732.
DIED DEC. 14, 1799.

His body was first placed in the family vault on the Mount Vernon estate. In his will, Washington left directions and plans for a new vault, which was built afterward, and to which his remains were transferred in 1832. The front of his tomb has an ante-chamber, built of red brick, about twelve feet in height, with a large iron gateway. It was erected for the accommodation of two marble coffins, or sarcophagi, one for Washington, the other for Mrs. Washington; they stand in full view of the visitor. Over the gateway, upon a marble slab, are the words:

"Within this enclosure rest the remains of General GEORGE
WASHINGTON."

Over the vault door inside, are the words:

"HE THAT BELIEVETH IN ME, THOUGH HE WERE DEAD, YET SHALL HE
LIVE AGAIN."

Napoleon, who was then First Consul of the French, issued the following order under date of February 18, 1800: "Washington is no more! That great man fought against tyranny. He firmly established the liberty of his country. His memory will be ever dear to the French people, as it must be to every friend of freedom in the two worlds, and especially to the French soldiers, who, like him and the Americans, bravely fight for liberty and equality. The First Consul in consequence orders that, for ten days, black crepes shall be suspended to all the standards and flags of the Republic."

[51] "And Meonothai begat Ophrah: and Seraiah begat Joab, _the
father of the Valley of Charashim_; for they were craftsmen."--_1
Chronicles iv: 14_; Julius Caesar was called the Father of his
country; Cosmo de Medici is so described on his tombstone; Andrea
Doria has upon his statue at Genoa, _Pater Patriae_; and Louis XVIII.
of France was commonly called the Father of the Country.

WATTS (Isaac, English divine and sacred poet. He is the author of many beautiful and popular hymns), 1674-1748. "_It is a great mercy to me that I have no manner of fear or dread of death. I could, if God please, lay my head back and die without terror this afternoon._"

WEBSTER (Daniel), 1782-1852. "_I still live!_" This was his last coherent utterance. Later he muttered something about poetry, and his son repeated to him one of the stanzas of "Gray's Elegy." He heard it and smiled.[52]

He inquired whether it were likely that he should again eject blood from his stomach before death, and being told that it was improbable, he asked, "Then what shall you do?" Being answered that he would be supported by stimulants, and rendered as easy as possible by the opiates that had suited him so well, he inquired, at once, if the stimulant should not be given immediately; anxious again to know if the hand of death were not already upon him. And on being told that it would not be then given, he replied, "_When_ you give it to me, I shall know that I may drop off at once."

Being satisfied on this point, and that he should, therefore, have a final warning, he said a moment afterwards, "I will, then, put myself in a position to obtain a little repose." In this he was successful. He had intervals of rest to the last; but on rousing from them he showed that he was still intensely anxious to preserve his consciousness, and to watch for the moment and act of his departure, so as to comprehend it. Awaking from one of these slumbers, late in the night, he asked distinctly if he were alive, and on being assured that he was, and that his family was collected around his bed, he said in a perfectly natural tone, as if assenting to what had been told him, because he himself perceived that it was true, "I still live." These were his last coherent and intelligible words. At twenty-three minutes before three o'clock, without a struggle or a moan, all signs of life ceased to be visible. --_Louis Gaylord Clark._

[52] The United States has produced no greater orator than Daniel
Webster; nevertheless, in the minds of many, he fell from his most
exalted station as the interpreter of the public conscience, when he
delivered, March 7, 1850, his famous speech, assenting to the
Fugitive Slave Law. It was this speech that called forth Whittier's
poem "Ichabod," which has been often compared with Browning's "Lost
Leader."

WEBSTER (Thomas, Professor of Geology in the London University, and author of "Encyclopaedia of Domestic Economy"), 1773-1844. "_Examine it for yourself._"

WEBSTER (William, English clergyman and author of "The Life of General Monk"), 1689-1758. "_Peace._"

WEED (Thurlow, American journalist and politician. He wrote "Letters from Europe and the West Indies," and for many years edited with marked ability, "_The Albany Evening Journal_"), 1797-1882. "_I want to go home._"

During his last hours his mind wandered, and he thought himself in conversation with President Lincoln and General Scott with regard to the Southern Confederacy.

WESLEY (Charles, English hymn-writer whose sacred songs are sung, in original or translation, all over the Christian world. He is the author of "Love divine, all love excelling," "Jesus, lover of my soul," and "Christ, the Lord, is risen to-day"), 1708-1788. "_I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness--satisfied!_"

WESLEY (John, founder of the Methodist Episcopal Church), 1703-1791. "_The best of all is God is with us._"

His body lay in a kind of state in his chapel at London the day previous to his interment, dressed in his clerical habit, with gown, cassock, and band, the old clerical cap on his head, a Bible in one hand, and a white handkerchief in the other. The funeral service was read by one of his old preachers. When he came to the part of the service, "Forasmuch as it hath pleased God to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother," his voice changed, and he substituted the word "father;" and the feeling with which he did this was such, that the congregation, who were shedding silent tears, burst at once into loud weeping.--"_Southey's Life of Wesley._"

WESLEY (Sarah, wife of Charles Wesley). "_Open the gates! Open the gates!_"

WHITAKER (William, English theologian, professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and translator of the "Liturgy of the Church" and "Nowell's Catechism" into Greek), 1547-1595. "_Life or death is welcome to me; and I desire not to live, but so far as I may be serviceable to God and His church._"

WHITE (Joseph Blanco. In Spain, where he was born, he was called Blanco, which he exchanged for its English equivalent. He wrote many interesting and useful books, but will be remembered longest for his exquisite sonnet, entitled "Night"), 1775-1841. "_Now I die._"