The Last Words Of Distinguished Men And Women Part 12

FRANCIS ("Saint," of a.s.sisi, founder of an order of mendicant friars called Franciscans or Cordeliers, from the cord with which they girded their coa.r.s.e tunics), 1182-1226. "_The righteous wait expectant till I receive my recompense._"

Members of his order were kneeling around his bed, awaiting his death.

FRANCKE (August Hermann, professor of Oriental languages at Halle, author of "Methodus Studii Theologiae;" and other works, and founder of the orphan asylum and college for the poor which were known as Francke's Inst.i.tutions), 1660-1727. "_Yes_," to his wife who asked him if his Saviour was still with him.

So long as he was able to speak he would repeat from time to time in both Hebrew and German, "G.o.d will continue to support me. My soul has cast itself upon him; Lord, I wait for thy salvation."

FRANKLIN (Benjamin, moralist, statesman, and philosopher), 1706-1790.

"_A dying man can do nothing easy._" He endured in later years a complication of diseases, which brought the extremity of physical suffering, but courage was strong, and he worked on almost to the last.

Worn with pain, he welcomed the end. His last look was on the picture of Christ which had hung for many years near his bed, and of which he often said, "That is the picture of one who came into the world to teach men to love one another." The resolute repression of all signs of suffering, every indication of the long conflict, pa.s.sed at once. He lay smiling in a quiet slumber, and the smile lingered when the coffin lid shut him in. His grave is in the heart of the city he loved, and even the careless pa.s.serby pauses a moment to read the simple legend.

An epitaph, written by him in 1729, holds his chief characteristics, his humor, his quiet a.s.surance of better things to come, whether for this world or the next:

THE BODY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, PRINTER, (LIKE THE COVER OF AN OLD BOOK, ITS CONTENTS TORN OUT, AND STRIPT OF ITS LETTERING AND GILDING), LIES HERE, FOOD FOR WORMS.

YET THE WORK ITSELF SHALL NOT BE LOST, FOR IT WILL, AS HE BELIEVES, APPEAR ONCE MORE, IN A NEW AND MORE BEAUTIFUL EDITION, CORRECTED AND AMENDED BY THE AUTHOR.[21]

[21] It has been suggested that Franklin was helped to his famous epitaph upon himself by Benjamin Woodbridge's funeral elegy upon John Cotton, preserved in Mather's Magnalia:

"A living, breathing Bible; tables where Best covenants at large engraven were; Gospel and law in his heart had each its column; His head an index to the sacred volume; His very name a t.i.tle-page; and next His life a commentary on the text.

O, what a monument of glorious worth, When in a new edition he comes forth, Without erratas, may we think he'll be In leaves and covers of eternity."

FREDERICK WILLIAM I. (Friedrich Wilhelm I., King of Prussia, son of Frederick I.), 1688-1740. "_Herr Jesu, to thee I live; Herr Jesu, to thee I die; in life and in death thou art my gain._"

"Feel my pulse, Pitsch," said he, noticing the Surgeon of his Giants: "tell me how long this will last." "Alas! not long," answered Pitsch.

"Say not, alas; but how do you know?" "The pulse is gone!" "Impossible,"

said he, lifting his arm: "how could I move my fingers so, if the pulse were gone?" Pitsch looked mournfully steadfast. "Herr Jesu, to thee I live; Herr Jesu, to thee I die; in life and in death thou art my gain (_Du bist mein Gewinn_)." These were the last words Friedrich Wilhelm spoke in this world. He again fell into a faint. Eller gave a signal to the Crown Prince to take the Queen away. Scarcely were they out of the room when the faint deepened into death; and Friedrich Wilhelm, at rest from all his labors, slept with the primeval sons of Thor.[22]--_Carlyle._

[22] Mr. Carlyle may well call it a "characteristic trait" in his favorite Friedrich Wilhelm, as that "wild son of Nature" lay a-dying, that on a certain German hymn which he "much loved" being sung to him, or along with him,--when they came to the words, "Naked I came into the world, and naked shall I go out,"--"No," said he, with vivacity, "not quite naked; I shall have my uniform on." After which the singing went on again with vivacity, akin to that with which the mother of Henri Quatre--not left the world, but brought her son into it; for historians, without romancing, tell us she sung a gay Bearnais song as her brave boy was coming into the world at Pau.

FREDERICK II. (of Prussia, called Frederick the Great), 1744-1786.

"_Throw a quilt over it._" He referred to one of his dogs that sat on a stool near him, and was s.h.i.+vering from cold. These were his last conscious words, but later, in delirium, he said, "_La montagne est pa.s.see, nous irons mieux._"

The king had always about him several small English greyhounds; but of these only one was in favor at a time, the others being taken merely as companions and playmates to the fondling. As these greyhounds died they were buried on the Terrace of Sans Souci, with the name of each on a gravestone; and Frederick, in his will, expressed his desire that his own remains might be interred by their side--a parting token of his attachment to them, and of his contempt for mankind! On this point, however, his wishes have not been complied with.[23]

_Lord Mahon's Historical Essays._

[23] Mr. Berkley, of Knightsbridge, who died in 1805, left a pension of 25 per annum to his four dogs. This man, when he felt his end approaching, called for his four dogs. These were placed by his side; and he reached them his trembling hand, caressed them, and breathed his last between their paws. The four dogs were sculptured, according to his last wish, upon the corners of his tomb.

FREDERICK V. (of Denmark), 1723-1766. "_It is a great consolation to me, in my last hour, that I have never wilfully offended anyone, and that there is not a drop of blood on my hands._"

FULLER (Andrew, English Baptist clergyman, first secretary of the English Baptist Missionary Society, and an author of great repute in his day. He has been called the "Franklin of Theology"), 1754-1815. "_I have no religious joys; but I have a hope, in the strength of which I think I could plunge into eternity_," said to a young minister who stood by his bedside.

FUSELI or FUESSLI (John Henry, historical painter), 1741-1825. "_Is Lawrence come--is Lawrence come?_"

He looked anxiously round the room--said several times, "Is Lawrence come--is Lawrence come?" and then appeared to listen for the sound of the chariot wheels which brought his friend once a day from London to his bedside. He raised himself up a little, then sank down and died, on the 16th of April, 1825, and in the 84th year of his age.

_Life of Fuseli_

GAINSBOROUGH (Thomas, eminent portrait and landscape painter), 1727-1788. "_We are all going to heaven, and Vand.y.k.e is of the company._"

GALBA (Servius Sulpicius, Roman Emperor), 3 B. C. 69 A. D. "_Strike, if it be for the Roman's good._"--_Plutarch._

"Ferirent si ita e republica videretur," are the words of Tacitus, who says, however, that there were many different stories of what he said; those who killed him could not be expected to care what it was; "non interfuit occidentium quid diceret."--_Clough._

GAMBETTA (Leon Michel, French statesman. He was a brilliant and courageous agitator, and it is to his efforts in large measure that the French Republic owes its existence. It was reported at the time of his death that he met with an accident in handling a revolver, but there are those who insist that he was deliberately shot by his mistress, with whom he had quarreled), 1838-1882. "_I am lost, and there is no use to deny it._"

GARDINER (James, a Scottish officer distinguished for piety and courage), 1688-1745. "_You are fighting for an earthly crown; I am going to receive a heavenly one._" These words he is reported to have spoken to an officer upon the opposite side after the battle against the Pretender at Prestonpans, in which he was mortally wounded, but there is some doubt in the minds of his biographers as to the trustworthiness of the report.

See Rev. Dr. Philip Doddridge's "Life of Colonel James Gardiner," and the account of Colonel Gardiner's death in Scott's "Waverley."

GARDINER (Stephen, Bishop of Winchester), 1483-1555. "_Erravi c.u.m Petro, sed non flevi c.u.m Petro._"

GARDNER (Thomas, Colonel in the American army, killed at the battle of Bunker Hill), 1724-1775. His precise words are not preserved, but the last desire that he expressed was that he might have sufficient strength to continue the fight against the British one half hour longer.

Colonel Gardner is represented, in a dramatic production called "The Battle of Bunker Hill" which was printed at Philadelphia in 1776, as saying immediately after receiving the wound of which he died:

"A musket ball, death-winged, hath pierced my groin, And widely oped the swift current of my veins.

Bear me then, soldiers, to that hollow s.p.a.ce A little hence, just on the hill's decline.

A surgeon there may stop the gus.h.i.+ng wound, And gain a short respite to life, that yet I may return and fight one half hour more.

Then shall I die in peace, and to my G.o.d Surrender up the spirit which he gave."

GARFIELD (James A., twentieth President of the United States: a.s.sa.s.sinated by Charles Julius Guiteau), 1831-1881. "_The people my trust._"

GARIBALDI (Giuseppe, Italian patriot and general, author of "Cantoni the Volunteer" and "The Rule of the Monk"), 1807-1882. As he lay dying two small birds alighted on the window-sill and looked into his room. He noticed them, and said, "_Those are the spirits of my little girls, Rosa and Annita, who have come to see their father die. Be kind to them, and feed them when I am dead._" It is thought that his mind was wandering.

He gave minute and positive orders to be cremated immediately after death. The urn containing his ashes was to be placed under the orange tree that shaded the tombs of his two little girls. But this wish, cherished for years, was disregarded. He was embalmed and exposed to the gaze of the crowds who hastened to Caprera on hearing of his death. The excuse was, that it would have been impossible to have burned his body in the way he indicated, with the aromatic woods that grow near the spot he had chosen, as the ashes would have been mixed with the burned wood.

But this was only an excuse and nothing more, for Dr. Praudina, to whom Garibaldi wrote on this subject five years before his death, had prepared the sheet of asbestos that would have kept together the precious ashes. The true reason for this violation of the great man's order was the desire of the Republican party to have the remains brought to Rome and buried on the Janiculum, where from time to time political demonstrations might be made. When once a man is dead it is very uncertain what degree of respect will be paid to his expressed wishes by those who survive.

GARTH (Sir Samuel, English physician and poet), --1718. "_Dear gentlemen, let me die a natural death_," to his physicians whom he saw consulting together just before his death. After receiving extreme unction he said, "I am going on my journey: they have greased my boots already."

Ga.s.sENDI or Ga.s.sEND (Pierre, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and metaphysician), 1592-1655. "_You see what is man's life._"