The Last Words of Distinguished Men and Women.
by Frederic Rowland Marvin.
ADAM (Alexander, Dr., headmaster at the High School in Edinburgh, and the author of "Roman Antiquities"), 1741-1809. "_It grows dark, boys.
You may go._"
"It grows dark, boys. You may go."
(Thus the master gently said, Just before, in accents low, Circling friends moaned, "He is dead.")
Unto him, a setting sun Tells the school"s dismissal hour, Deeming not that he alone Deals with evening"s dark"ning power.
All his thought is with the boys, Taught by him in light to grow; Light withdrawn, and hushed the noise, Fall the pa.s.swords, "You may go."
Go, boys, go, and take your rest; Weary is the book-worn brain: Day sinks idly in the west, Tired of glory, tired of gain.
Careless are the shades that creep O"er the twilight, to and fro; Dusk is lost in shadows deep: _It grows dark, boys. You may go._ _Mary B. Dodge._
ABD-ER-RAHMAN III. (surnamed An-Nasir-Lideen-Illah or Lidinillah, that is to say, "the defender of the religion of G.o.d," eighth Sultan and first Caliph of Cordova. Under Abd-er-Rahman III. the Mohammedan empire in Spain attained the height of its glory), 886-961. "_Fifty years have pa.s.sed since I became Caliph. Riches, honors, pleasures--I have enjoyed all. In this long time of seeming happiness I have numbered the days on which I have been happy. Fourteen._" Though these sad words correctly express the spirit of the man who is reported to have spoken them, they are purely traditional.
ADAMS (John, second President of the United States), 1735-1826.
"_Independence forever!_"
He died on the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; and it is thought that his last words were suggested by the noise of the celebration. Some say his last words were, "Jefferson survives;" if so, he was mistaken, for Jefferson pa.s.sed away at an earlier hour the same day.
ADAMS (John Quincy, sixth President of the United States), 1767-1848.
"_It is the last of earth! I am content!_" On the twenty-first of February, 1848, while in his seat in the Capitol, he was struck with paralysis, and died two days later.
ADDISON (Joseph, poet and essayist), 1672-1719. "_See in what peace a Christian can die!_" These words were addressed to Lord Warwick, an accomplished but dissolute youth, to whom Addison was nearly related.
ADRIAN or HADRIAN (Publius aelius, the Roman Emperor), 76-138. "_O my poor soul, whither art thou going?_"
Adrian wrote both in Greek and Latin. Among his Latin poems (preserved by Spartia.n.u.s, who wrote his life), are these lines addressed to his own soul:
Animula vagula blandula, Hospes comesque corporis, Quae nunc abibis in loca?
Pallidula, rigida, nudula, Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos.
Soul of me! floating and flitting, and fond!
Thou and this body were house-mates together; Wilt thou begone now, and whither?
Pallid, and naked, and cold; Not to laugh, nor be glad, as of old.
Adrian is known in history as one of the greatest of the Roman Emperors.
It is hardly too much to say that, by his progress through all the provinces and his policy of peace, he was the consolidater of the empire founded a century and a half before by Augustus. He was the author of the Roman Wall between England and Scotland; he beautified the city of Athens; he founded the modern Adrianople; he built for his own mausoleum what is now the Castle of St. Anglo at Rome. He was also a patron of the fine arts and of literature.
Of the famous lines, "The Dying Adrian"s Address to His Soul," no fewer than one hundred and sixteen translations into English have been collected, the translators including Pope, Prior, Byron, Dean Merivale, and the late Earl of Carnarvon. It should be added that Pope"s familiar version, beginning "Vital spark of heav"nly flame," is a paraphrase rather than a translation. I quote Prior"s version:
"Poor little, quivering, fluttering thing, Must we no longer live together?
And dost thou prune thy trembling wing, To take thy flight thou know"st not whither?
"Thy humorous vein, thy pleasing folly Lie all neglected, all forgot: And pensive, wavering, melancholy, Thou dread"st and hop"st thou know"st not what."
This is the only certain composition of Adrian that has been preserved, though he is reported to have attempted many forms of literature. The authenticity of a letter ascribed to him with a reference to the Christians, is open to grave doubt. But now the sands of Egypt, which are daily yielding up so many secrets of antiquity, have given us what purports to be a private letter addressed by the Emperor Adrian to his successor, Antoninus Pius, and--what is more interesting--it is written, like the address to his soul, in view of his approaching death.
Unfortunately the papyrus is very fragmentary, but its general meaning seems clear. We have evidently only the commencement of an elaborate epistle. After the a.s.sertion that his death is neither unexpected, nor lamentable, nor unreasonable, he says that he is prepared to die, though he misses his correspondent"s presence and loving care. He goes on:
"I do not intend to give the conventional reasons of philosophy for this att.i.tude, but to make a plain statement of facts.... My father by birth died at the age of forty, a private person, so that I have lived more than half as long again as my father, and have reached about the same age as that of my mother when she died."
All this accords with the known facts about Adrian. He died at the age of sixty-two, after a long illness, during which he was a.s.siduously tended by Antoninus. Just before the end he withdrew to Baiae, leaving Antoninus in charge at Rome. His father had died when his son was ten years old; of his mother we know nothing. _Prima facie_, there is no improbability that letters of Adrian should be in circulation in Egypt, which he visited at least once. His freedman Phlegon is reported to have published a collection of them after his death.
On the other hand, it should be frankly admitted that some suspicious circ.u.mstances attach to the letter. Of the antiquity of the papyrus there is no doubt, for the handwriting cannot be later than the end of the second century A. D., bringing it within sixty years (at farthest) from Adrian"s death. But it is written as a school exercise on the back of a taxing-list, which naturally gives rise to the suspicion that it may be merely the composition of the schoolmaster. The actual form of the doc.u.ment is interesting. At the top are about fifteen lines, written in a clear cursive, or running, hand. Below, the first five lines are repeated in large, irregular uncials, or capital letters. It is impossible not to recognize here an exercise set by a schoolmaster and a copy begun by a pupil.
The papyrus is one of the many found by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt while excavating in the Fayoum on account of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and appears in the volume issued by the Graeco-Roman Branch of Egypt Exploration Fund, called "Fayoum Towns and Their Papyri."
_J. S. Cotton in Biblia for November, 1900._
AGIS (King of Lacedaemonia, strangled by order of the Ephori. He was charged with subverting the laws of his country, but was in reality a brave and good man according to the light of the age in which he lived.
He died with great calmness and courage),--240. "_Weep not for me._"
AGRIPPA (Henricus Cornelius, German physician, theologian and astrologer, skilled in alchemy and occult sciences), 1486-1535.
"_Begone, thou wretched beast, which hast utterly undone me._" The story is that he was always accompanied by a devil in the shape of a black dog. When he perceived that death was near he wished, by repentance, to free his soul from the guilt of witchcraft, and so took off the collar from his dog"s neck. This collar was covered with magical characters. As he removed the collar he muttered these, his last words: "Begone, thou wretched beast, which hast utterly undone me." The familiar dog disappeared with Agrippa"s death, and was never more seen. This curious story was for a long time believed by the common people, and is to be found in one form or another in many old books.
Agrippa lectured on theology at Cologne, Pisa, Turin, and Pavia, and practiced medicine in France. Henry VIII. invited him to England, but he preferred the court of Margaret of Austria, regent of the Low Countries.
He died poor, leaving behind him a number of books, and among them "On the Vanity of the Sciences," which has been translated into English and other languages.
AGRIPPINA (mother of the Emperor Nero. She was one of the worst of women, and was condemned to death by her own son),--60. "_Strike here!
Level your rage against the womb which gave birth to such a monster._"
These words she said, placing her hand over her womb, to the man sent to dispatch her.
ALBERT (Francis-Augustus-Charles-Emmanuel, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He married Queen Victoria, his cousin, the tenth of February, 1840), 1819-1861. "_I have had wealth, rank and power, but if these were all I had, how wretched I should be!_" A few moments later he repeated the familiar lines:
Rock of Ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.
Inscription on the "Memorial Cairn" on a high mountain overlooking Balmoral Palace: "To the beloved memory of Albert the great and good Prince Consort, erected by his broken-hearted widow, Victoria R., 21 August, 1862." Upon another dressed slab, a few inches below the above, is this quotation: "He being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time: for his soul pleased the Lord, therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked."
_Wisdom of Solomon, chap. iv: 13, 14._
One year after Prince Albert died, the Queen erected a costly mausoleum in the grounds of Frogmore House, which is legally a part of the domain of Windsor Castle. The mausoleum is cruciform, eighty feet long, with transepts of seventy feet. As soon as it was completed and consecrated by the Bishop of Oxford, the remains of the Prince Consort were there deposited. Over the entrance is a Latin inscription, which in English reads as follows:
WHAT WAS MORTAL OF PRINCE ALBERT HIS MOURNING WIDOW, QUEEN VICTORIA, HAS CAUSED TO BE DEPOSITED IN THIS SEPULCHER.
FAREWELL, MY WELL BELOVED!
HERE AT LAST SHALL I REST WITH THEE.
WITH THEE IN CHRIST SHALL RISE AGAIN.