End of the world -- Fiction; Epidemics -- Fiction; Science fiction; Twenty-first century -- Fiction
“Alas, for us,” I cried, “who have lost this latest honour of the
world! Beloved Raymond! He is gone to the nations of the dead; he has
become one of those, who render the dark abode of the obscure grave
illustrious by dwelling there. He has journied on the road that leads
to it, and joined the mighty of soul who went before him. When the
world was in its infancy death must have been terrible, and man left
his friends and kindred to dwell, a solitary stranger, in an unknown
country. But now, he who dies finds many companions gone before to
prepare for his reception. The great of past ages people it, the
exalted hero of our own days is counted among its inhabitants, while
life becomes doubly ‘the desart and the solitude.’
“What a noble creature was Raymond, the first among the men of our
time. By the grandeur of his conceptions, the graceful daring of his
actions, by his wit and beauty, he won and ruled the minds of all. Of
one only fault he might have been accused; but his death has cancelled
that. I have heard him called inconstant of purpose—when he deserted,
for the sake of love, the hope of sovereignty, and when he abdicated
the protectorship of England, men blamed his infirmity of purpose. Now
his death has crowned his life, and to the end of time it will be
remembered, that he devoted himself, a willing victim, to the glory of
Greece. Such was his choice: he expected to die. He foresaw that he
should leave this cheerful earth, the lightsome sky, and thy love,
Perdita; yet he neither hesitated or turned back, going right onward to
his mark of fame. While the earth lasts, his actions will be recorded
with praise. Grecian maidens will in devotion strew flowers on his
tomb, and make the air around it resonant with patriotic hymns, in
which his name will find high record.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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