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
FICHTE (Johann Gottlieb, distinguished German philosopher whose name is
forever associated with those of Kant, Schelling, and Hegel as worthy of
a place with the greatest thinkers of modern times), 1762-1814. "_Indeed
no more medicine; I am well._"
The following, purporting to be the "Dying Confession of Fichte," has
been frequently published, but upon what authority the compiler of this
book has been unable to discover:
"I know absolutely nothing of any existence, not even of my own. Images
there are, and they constitute all that apparently exists. I am myself
one of those images; nay, not so much, but only a confused image of an
image. All reality is converted into a marvellous dream, without a life
to dream of, or a mind to dream; into a dream itself made up only of a
dream. Perception is a dream; and thought, the source of all the
existence, the reality of which I imagine to myself, is but the dream of
that dream."
For eleven days he lingered, with but few intervals of clear
consciousness, his sleep being ever deeper till on the night of the 27th
of January all sign of life vanished. He was buried in the first
churchyard before the Oranienburg gate in Berlin; at his side now lie
the remains of Hegel and Solger. Five years later his wife was laid at
his feet. On the tall obelisk which marks his grave is the inscription
from the Book of Daniel: "The teachers shall shine as the brightness of
the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars
that shine for ever and ever."
_Adamson: "Life and Philosophy of Fichte."_
FILLMORE (Millard, thirteenth President of the United States),
1800-1874. "_The food is palatable._"
FLAVEL (John, distinguished nonconformist clergyman and author),
1627-1691. "_I know that it will be well with me._"
A man of beautiful Christian character and great learning who was
ejected from his charge at Dartmouth in 1662 for nonconformity. The
Episcopalians were not satisfied to persecute this servant of God during
his life, but ordered his monument removed from the Church of St.
Saviour.
FONTENELLE DE (Bernard le Bovier, author of "Conversations on a
Plurality of Worlds," "Dialogues of the Dead" and "History of the
Academy of Science"), 1657-1757. "_I suffer nothing, but feel a sort of
difficulty of living longer._"
Voltaire calls him, "The most universal genius of the age of Louis XIV."
FORDYCE (George, distinguished Scottish physician, Author of "Elements
of Agriculture and Vegetation"), 1736-1802. "_Stop, go out of the room;
I am about to die_," to his daughter who was reading to him.
FORSTER (Johann Reinhold, a Polish Prussian naturalist, geographer and
philologist), 1729-1798. "_This is a beautiful world._"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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