The Last Words (Real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and WomenMarvin, Frederic Rowland
History
The Last Words (Real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and Women
Marvin, Frederic Rowland
Last words
BOLEYN or BULLEN (Anne, wife of Henry VIII), 1507-1536. Just before she
knelt to lay her head on the block she clasped her neck with her hands,
and said: "_It is small, very small indeed._"
BOLINGBROKE (Henry St. John, Viscount, English author, orator, and
politician), 1678-1751. At last, though the precise words are not
preserved, he gave directions that no clergyman should visit him, and
avowed his adherence to the deistical principles to which he had held
through his life.
His last words to Lord Chesterfield were: "_God, who placed me here,
will do what he pleases with me hereafter, and he knows best what to do.
May he bless you._"[6]
The dreadful malady under which Bolingbroke lingered, and at length
sank--a cancer in the face--he bore with exemplary fortitude, a
fortitude drawn from the natural resources of his mind, and unhappily
not aided by the consolation of any religion; for, having early cast off
the belief in revelation, he had substituted, in its stead, a dark and
gloomy naturalism, which even rejected those glimmerings of hope as to
futurity not untasted by the wiser of the heathens.--_Lord Brougham._
[6] It is too early for the last words of John Burroughs (may it be
yet many years before they are spoken), but we are struck with the
wonderful accord between the last words of Bolingbroke and the
closing paragraph to the preface with which Burroughs introduces
his, "The Light of Day:" "I am content to let the unseen powers go
their own way with me and mine without question or distrust. They
brought me here, and I have found it well to be here; in due time
they will take me hence, and I have no doubt that will be well for
me too."
BOOTH (John Wilkes, American actor, the assassin of President
Lincoln),--1865. _"Useless! useless!"_ Said to the officer who demanded
that he should surrender.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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