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
CARLYLE (Thomas, essayist, translator, and historian), 1795-1881. His
mind was wandering when Froude went to his bedside, but he recognized
him and said: "_I am very ill. Is it not strange that these people
should have chosen the very oldest man in all Britain to make suffer in
this way?_" Froude answered, "We do not know exactly why those people
act as they do. They may have reasons we cannot guess at." "_Yes_," said
Carlyle, "_it would be rash to say that they have no reasons_." When
Froude saw him next, his speech was gone.[10]
[10] On February 5th, 1881, in the tranquil exhaustion of a ripe old
age, this true SAGE of modern times passed away at his home in
Cheyne Row, Chelsea, where he had lived for fifty years: and,--as
the _Times_ remarked,--the world seemed duller, colder, and darker,
in that this one grey old man had left it.
No time was lost in collecting funds to provide for a public
monument of the philosopher. The work was entrusted to Mr. J. E.
Boehm, R. A., with the result of a most admirable statue in bronze,
life-size, representing Carlyle as he was in his latter days, in an
attitude of thought, seated in an arm-chair, and wearing his
well-known dressing-gown. "For this noble piece of portraiture," Mr.
Ruskin wrote of it, "I cannot trust myself to express my personal
gratitude, or to speak at all of the high and harmonious measure in
which it seems to me to express the mind and features of my dear
master." It is appropriately placed in the little public garden, at
the end of Great Cheyne Row, Chelsea, where Carlyle had spent the
last forty years of his life. There, on October 26th, 1882, in
presence of many of those who were his attached friends in life, it
was unveiled by Professor Tyndall, who delivered an eloquent address
on the occasion. Among those who assisted were Lord Houghton, Mrs.
Oliphant, Miss Swanwick, Moncure D. Conway, Robert Browning, Dr.
Martineau, Mr. W. E. H. Lecky, and others. A simple inscription on
the massive pedestal, of Aberdeen granite, records the dates of the
birth and death of the remarkable man in whose honour it is
erected.--_William Bates._
CARNOT (Marie Francois Sadi-Carnot, President of the French Republic,
assassinated by Cesare Giovanni Santo in Lyons, June 24, 1894),
1837-1894. "_I am grateful for your presence._" These words were in
response to those of Dr. Poncet who leaned over the bed on which the
President was lying, and said, "Your friends are here, Monsieur le
President."
CARY (Alice, American poetess and magazine writer), 1820-1871. "_I want
to go away._"
CAVOUR (Camillo Benso, Count de, Italian statesman), 1810-1861. "_No,
your Majesty, to-morrow you will not see me here_," to Victor Emmanuel,
who, as he turned away in tears, said to Cavour, "I shall come to see
you again to-morrow."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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