In the _Memoirs_ of Baroness von Suttner may be located the first intimations of Nobel’s motives which led to the Nobel prizes, especially the specific form which was known as “the Peace Prize.” It will be recalled that the Baroness von Suttner was one of the early winners of this prize by her widely-read romance, _Die Waffen nieder_ (_Lay Down Your Arms!_). In 1890, after the publication of this story, advocating world peace, Nobel wrote letters of high commendation. On another occasion he said to her, “I wish I could produce a substance or a machine of such frightful efficacy for wholesale devastation that wars should thereby become altogether impossible.”[4] He contended, with the mind of a prophet, that a day might come when “two army corps may mutually annihilate each other in a second”; then he believed that “all civilized nations will recoil and disband their troops.” On January 7, 1893, three years before his death, he wrote to the Baroness from Paris.[5] “I should like to dispose of a part of my fortune by founding a prize to be granted every five years--say six times, for if in thirty years they have not succeeded in reforming the present system they will infallibly relapse into barbarism.... If the Triple Alliance, instead of comprising only three states, should enlist all states, the peace of the centuries would be assured.” Affirming his belief in “reasonable Socialism,” he deplored the custom of leaving large fortunes to heirs; too often the results were lapses in mental ambitions and industry. On December 10, 1896, Alfred Nobel died suddenly in his workshop at San Remo. For a long time he had realized his condition of reduced vitality. He consulted doctors unwillingly and heeded their counsel with reluctance. He kept a record of his own pulse and heart action but he never desisted from a full day’s work in his laboratory. His last letters have a sad note that is sometimes sarcastic yet he kept faith in and with humanity to the last. He had been carefully considering the disposal of his fortune, determined that it should contribute to progress in science and literature, for the welfare of mankind and the education towards world peace. His will startled the civilized world by its originality and idealism. The man who had been most successful in inventing elements of destruction, by a paradox, had left most of his large fortune to constructive, creative purposes.