Transcriber's Note: Changes made to the originaltext are underlinedwith a thin dotted line. By hovering with your mouse pointer over theword, you will be able to see the spelling before change.
A full list of errata can also be viewed at theend of the book.
THE
LAST WORDS OF DISTINGUISHED
MEN AND WOMEN
THE LAST WORDS
(REAL AND TRADITIONAL)
OF DISTINGUISHED
MEN AND WOMEN
COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES
BY
FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN
Enforce attention like deep harmony;
Where words are scarce they're seldom spent in vain,
For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.
—Shakspeare
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
1901
Copyright 1901
by
Frederic Rowland Marvin
(June)
To my Wife
this Book is most Lovingly
Dedicated
Neither is there anything of which I am soinquisitive, and delight to inform myself, as the manner of men's deaths,their words, looks, and bearing; nor any places in history I am sointent upon; and it is manifest enough, by my crowding in examples ofthis kind, that I have a particular fancy for that subject. If I were awriter of books, I would compile a register, with a comment, of thevarious deaths of men: he who should teach men to die, would at the sametime teach them to live.—Montaigne.
1LastWords of Distinguished Men and Women.
Adam (Alexander, Dr.,headmaster at the High School in Edinburgh, and the author of "RomanAntiquities"), 1741-1809. "It grows dark, boys. You may go."
(Thus the master gently said,
Just before, in accents low,
Circling friends moaned, "He is dead.")
Tells the school's dismissal hour,
Deeming not that he alone
Deals with evening's dark'ning power.