[21] It has been suggested that Franklin was helped to his famous epitaph upon himself by Benjamin Woodbridge's funeral elegy upon John Cotton, preserved in Mather's Magnalia: "A living, breathing Bible; tables where Best covenants at large engraven were; Gospel and law in his heart had each its column; His head an index to the sacred volume; His very name a title-page; and next His life a commentary on the text. O, what a monument of glorious worth, When in a new edition he comes forth, Without erratas, may we think he'll be In leaves and covers of eternity." FREDERICK WILLIAM I. (Friedrich Wilhelm I., King of Prussia, son of Frederick I.), 1688-1740. "_Herr Jesu, to thee I live; Herr Jesu, to thee I die; in life and in death thou art my gain._" "Feel my pulse, Pitsch," said he, noticing the Surgeon of his Giants: "tell me how long this will last." "Alas! not long," answered Pitsch. "Say not, alas; but how do you know?" "The pulse is gone!" "Impossible," said he, lifting his arm: "how could I move my fingers so, if the pulse were gone?" Pitsch looked mournfully steadfast. "Herr Jesu, to thee I live; Herr Jesu, to thee I die; in life and in death thou art my gain (_Du bist mein Gewinn_)." These were the last words Friedrich Wilhelm spoke in this world. He again fell into a faint. Eller gave a signal to the Crown Prince to take the Queen away. Scarcely were they out of the room when the faint deepened into death; and Friedrich Wilhelm, at rest from all his labors, slept with the primeval sons of Thor.[22]--_Carlyle._ [22] Mr. Carlyle may well call it a "characteristic trait" in his favorite Friedrich Wilhelm, as that "wild son of Nature" lay a-dying, that on a certain German hymn which he "much loved" being sung to him, or along with him,--when they came to the words, "Naked I came into the world, and naked shall I go out,"--"No," said he, with vivacity, "not quite naked; I shall have my uniform on." After which the singing went on again with vivacity, akin to that with which the mother of Henri Quatre--not left the world, but brought her son into it; for historians, without romancing, tell us she sung a gay Bearnais song as her brave boy was coming into the world at Pau. FREDERICK II. (of Prussia, called Frederick the Great), 1744-1786. "_Throw a quilt over it._" He referred to one of his dogs that sat on a stool near him, and was shivering from cold. These were his last conscious words, but later, in delirium, he said, "_La montagne est passee, nous irons mieux._"