Produced by Therese Wright, Larry B. Harrison and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) 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 The tongues of dying men 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 so inquisitive, and delight to inform myself, as the manner of men's deaths, their words, looks, and bearing; nor any places in history I am so intent upon; and it is manifest enough, by my crowding in examples of this kind, that I have a particular fancy for that subject. If I were a writer of books, I would compile a register, with a comment, of the various deaths of men: he who should teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live.--MONTAIGNE. Last Words of Distinguished Men and Women. 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 All his thought is with the boys, Taught by him in light to grow; Light withdrawn, and hushed the noise, Fall the passwords, "You may go."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 God," 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 passed 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.