Ancient, Curious, and Famous WillsHarris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
History
Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills
Harris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
Wills
inaccessible, and admission to which could only be obtained by those
whom he had initiated into a peculiar knock. In this little den he lived
like a hermit, sleeping in a hammock slung from the roof, for the room
was so crowded with dusty books that there was no space for a bedstead
or even for a table on which to take his food. He stated that his object
in living in this condition and depriving himself of all comforts was to
enable him to leave as much money as possible for charitable and
educational purposes. He resided in this miserable place for several
years; but his health failing him, he was induced, later, to remove, and
died at a tradesman’s house in Duke street, Douglas. Public attention
was directed to M. Baume’s affairs in London, in consequence of
proceedings taken by him to evict a number of squatters who had located
themselves on his Colney-hatch property, which was popularly known as
“The Frenchman’s Farm.” M. Baume took out letters of naturalization,
which enabled him to enjoy the rights and privileges of an Englishman,
and to dispose of his property as he thought best. He left the whole of
his real and personal property, valued at £54,000, in trust for
charitable purposes in the Isle of Man, on his death.
“LOUIS AGASSIZ, TEACHER”
The will of Agassiz, probated in June, 1874, begins thus: “The last will
and testament of Louis Agassiz, of Cambridge, in the County of Middlesex
and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, teacher.”
Of him the _Boston Globe_ said: “We should think the heart of every
schoolmaster and schoolmistress in the land should bound at reading this
simple announcement. The great naturalist, the peer of Aristotle,
Linnæus, Cuvier, and Von Baer, calls himself, in the most solemn of all
documents, ‘a teacher.’ There is, to us, something inspiring in this
designation. All teachers, whether they are professors in colleges or
directors in the commonest village schools, must be thrilled and
invigorated by the statement that Agassiz is proud to enroll himself in
their ranks. The good, grand, noble man, the apostle of pure science,
the investigator and discoverer, the person who was preëminently a
scientific force as well as a scientific intelligence dies with the
feeling that his occupation was that of a ‘teacher.’ He, of course,
leaves little or no property to his family; the noble woman, the
bereaved wife, the constant companion of his intellect as well as of his
heart, she who followed him whithersoever he was led by the spirit of
scientific research, is, we suppose, the executrix of little but his
glory; but the will is sublime, because it records the fact that Louis
Agassiz was ‘a teacher.’ That was his occupation on earth. What it may
be above, we do not pretend to know. One thing we know is this, that the
simple preamble to his will must kindle into a generous flame every soul
engaged in the great cause of education. ‘Louis Agassiz, teacher!’ but
what a teacher! We preserve many memories of precious conversations with
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