The Last Words Of Distinguished Men And Women Part 29

SERVETUS (Michael. He calls himself _Serveto alias Reves_, adding his family name to his own, in the t.i.tle of his earliest book. For twenty years of his life, during his residence in France, he was known only as _Michael de Villanova.n.u.s_, from the a.s.sumed name of his birthplace), 1509 or 1511-1553. "_Jesus, Son of the eternal G.o.d, have mercy on me!_"

The sentence was drawn out at great length on the 26th of October.

Servetus did not know it till the next day, Friday, two hours before the execution. On a rising ground near the lake, a little to the eastward of the city, he was chained to a stake, and, the oldest account (that in _Sandius_) says, for more than two hours, while stifling in the fumes of straw and brimstone, suffered the torture of a fire of "green oak f.a.gots, with the leaves still on," the wind blowing the flame so that it would only scorch, not kill, till the crowd, in horror, heaped the fuel closer. His last cry was, "Jesus, Son of the eternal G.o.d, have mercy on me!" Farel's retort was, "Call rather on the Eternal Son of G.o.d!" "I know well," he had written not long before, "that for this thing I must die, but not for that does my heart fail me that I may be a disciple like the Master."

_Joseph Henry Allen in the New World, Dec. 1892._

SETON (Elizabeth Ann, philanthropist, foundress and first Superior of the Sisters of Charity in the United States), 1774-1821. "_Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water out of the side of Christ, strengthen me._" A few moments after she had spoken these words she murmured, "_Jesus, Mary, Joseph_,"

and expired.

SEVERUS (Bishop of Ravenna),--390. "_My dear one, with whom I lived in love so long, make room for me, for this is my grave, and in death we shall not be divided._" The last words of Severus are purely traditional.

Severus, Bishop of Ravenna, prepared a tomb for himself in his church.

In it he placed the bodies of his wife, Vincentia, and of his daughter, Innocentia. After some years he was premonished that his time to die had come. He held service with the people, dismissed them and closed the cathedral doors. Then, clothed in his episcopal robes, with one attendant, he went to the sepulchre of his family. They raised the stone from the tomb, and Severus, looking in, said: "My dear one, with whom I lived in love so long, make room for me, for this is my grave, and in death we shall not be divided." Immediately he descended into the tomb, laid himself down beside his wife and daughter, crossed his hands upon his breast, looked up to heaven in prayer, gave one sigh and fell asleep.

SHEPPARD (Jack, the noted highwayman, the hero of many a chap-book of his day, and the hero and t.i.tle of a novel by Defoe, and one by Ainsworth), 1701-1724. "_I have ever cherished an honest pride; never have I stooped to friends.h.i.+p with Jonathan Wild, or with any of his detestable thief-takers; and though an undutiful son I never d.a.m.ned my mother's eyes._"

Jack Sheppard was a popular idol followed by praise and applause even to the gallows. "There was scarce a beautiful woman in London who did not solace him during his prison hours with her condescension, and enrich him with her gifts. Not only did the President of the Royal Academy deign to paint his portrait, but (a far greater honor) Hogarth made him immortal. Even the King displayed a proper interest, demanding a full and precise account of his escapes. The hero himself was drunk with flattery; he bubbled with ribaldry; he touched off the most valiant of his contemporaries in a ludicrous phrase. But his chief delight was to ill.u.s.trate his prowess to his distinguished visitors, and nothing pleased him better than to slip in and out of his chains."

Not a few of the highwaymen of the day were "gentlemen" and "c.o.xcombs."

We have from Swift a picture of one such in his sketch of "Clever Tom Clinch," who

While the rabble were bawling, Rode stately through Holborn to die of his calling; He stopped at the George for a bottle of sack, And promised to pay for it--when he came back.

His waistcoat and stockings and breeches were white, His cap had a new cherry ribbon to tie't: And the maids at doors and the balconies ran And cried "Lac-a-day! he's a proper young man!"

SHERIDAN (Richard Brinsley), 1751-1816. "_Did you know Burke?_" He referred to Edmund Burke, the celebrated orator, statesman and philosopher.

SHERMAN (John, distinguished American statesman, United States senator, and secretary of state), 1823-1900. "_I think you had better send for the doctor--I am so faint._"

At three o'clock yesterday morning, Mr. Sherman took a decided turn for the worse. At that hour he complained of feeling faint and asked that his physician be called. During the next hour the patient had several fainting spells and during the day these continued at short intervals.

His doctor found him very weak and prescribed a stimulant, but the medicine had very little effect, and the patient sank slowly. All day his condition grew worse, but he retained consciousness till about nine o'clock last night. From time to time, yesterday, Mr. Sherman attempted to speak, but his words were not intelligible.

_Albany Evening Journal, Oct. 22, 1900._

SICKINGEN (Franz von, Protestant leader and a brave German soldier. He championed the cause of learning and protected Ulrich von Hutten, Reuchlin, and others from the rage and oppression of Romish ecclesiastics), 1481-1523. "_I have already confessed my sins to G.o.d_,"

to his chaplain who inquired whether he desired to confess. He was killed while defending his castle of Neustall.

SIDNEY (Algernon, English republican patriot), 1622-1683. "_Not till the general resurrection: strike on!_" to the executioner who, asked him if he would like to rise again, after laying his head on the block.

SIDNEY (Sir Philip, English gentleman, soldier and author), 1554-1586.

"_In me behold the end of the world with all its vanities._"

He was mortally wounded at Zutphen, September, 1586. After he was wounded he called for some drink, which was brought, but before he had tasted it, he gave the bottle to a wounded soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is greater than mine."

SMALRIDGE (George, Bishop of Bristol), 1663-1719. "_G.o.d be thanked, I have had a very good night._"

SMITH (Joseph, founder and first prophet of the Mormon Church), 1805-1844. "_That's right, Brother Taylor; parry them off as well as you can_," to the Mormon Apostle John Taylor who was defending Smith and endeavoring to drive back the mob.

Smith ama.s.sed a large fortune, a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of lieutenant-general and president of the church, and exercised absolute authority over his "saints." He provoked the popular indignation by attempts to seduce the wives of other men, and was arrested and confined in jail at Carthage.

In June, 1844, a mob broke into the jail and killed Joseph Smith.

_Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary._

"I was sitting at one of the front windows of the jail, when I saw a number of men, with painted faces, coming round the corner of the jail and aiming toward the stairs.

"As Hyrum fell he cried, 'I am a dead man,' and spoke and moved no more.

As he fell Joseph leaned over him, and in tones of deep and sad sympathy exclaimed, 'Oh! my poor, dear brother Hyrum!' While I was engaged in parrying the guns, Brother Joseph said, 'That's right, Brother Taylor; parry them off as well as you can.' These were the last words I ever heard him speak on earth."

_Martyrdom of Smith, by Apostle John Taylor._

It was believed that sacred as the tomb is always considered to be, there were persons capable of rifling the grave in order to obtain the head of the murdered Prophet for the purpose of exhibiting it, or placing it in some phrenological museum--the skull of Joseph Smith was worth money. This apprehension, in point of fact, proved true, for the place where the bodies were supposed to be buried was disturbed the night after the interment. The coffins had been filled with stones, etc., to about the weight which the bodies would have been. The remains of the two brothers were then secretly buried the same night by a chosen few, in the vaults beneath the temple. The ground was then levelled, and pieces of rock and other _debris_ were scattered carelessly over the spot. But even this was not considered a sufficient safeguard against any violation of the dead, and on the following night a still more select number exhumed the remains, and buried them beneath the pathway behind the Mansion House. The bricks which formed the pathway were carefully replaced and the earth removed was carried away in sacks and thrown into the Mississippi. If this last statement is true, the bodies must have been removed a third time, as, since writing the above, the author has it on unquestionable authority that they now repose in quite a different place. Brigham Young has endeavored to obtain possession of the remains of the Prophet, that they might be interred beneath the temple at Salt Lake.

_"Early Days of Mormonism" by J. H. Kennedy._

SOCRATES, 470-400 B. C. "_Crito, I owe a c.o.c.k to aesculapius, will you remember to pay the debt?_"

He walked about until, as he said, his legs began to fail; and then he lay on his back, according to the directions, and the man who gave him the poison now and then looked at his feet and legs, and after awhile he pressed his foot hard and asked him if he could feel, and he said "No;"

and then his leg, and so upward and upward, and showed us that he was cold and stiff. And he felt them himself, and said, "When the poison reaches the heart that will be the end." He was beginning to grow cold about the groin, when he uncovered his face, for he had covered himself up, and said (they were his last words)--he said: "Crito, I owe a c.o.c.k to aesculapius, will you remember to pay the debt?" "The debt shall be paid," said Crito. "Is there anything else?" There was no answer to this question, but in a minute or two a movement was heard and the attendants uncovered him; his eyes were set, and Crito closed his eyes and mouth.

_From Jowett's "Dialogues of Plato."_

SOPHONISBA (the wife of Syphax, King of Numidia). "_If my husband has for his new wife no better gift than a cup of death, I bow to his will and accept what he bestows. I might have died more honorably if I had not wedded so near to my funeral._"

Sophonisba was taken prisoner by Masinissa who had been formerly her lover. He married her, but, yielding to Scipio, who feared that she would influence her husband in favor of Carthage, he sent her a cup of poison, bidding her remember her birth and estate.

SOUTHCOTT (Joanna, a religious impostor who was probably of unsound mind), 1750-1814. "_If I have been deceived, doubtless it was the work of a spirit; whether that spirit was good or bad I do not know._" Last recorded words.

In the last year of her life she secluded herself from the world, and especially from the society of the other s.e.x, and gave it out that she was with child of the Holy Ghost; and that she would give birth to the s.h.i.+loh promised to Jacob, which should be the second coming of Christ.

Her prophecy was that she was to be delivered on the 19th of October, 1814, at midnight; being then upwards of sixty years of age.

This announcement seemed not unlikely to be verified, for there was an external appearance of pregnancy; and her followers, who are said to have amounted at that time to 100,000, were in the highest state of excitement. A splendid and expensive cradle was made, and considerable sums were contributed in order to have other things prepared in a style worthy of the expected s.h.i.+loh. On the night of the 19th of October a large number of persons a.s.sembled in the street in which she lived, waiting to hear the announcement of the looked-for event; but the hour of midnight pa.s.sed over, and the crowd were only induced to disperse by being informed that Mrs. Southcott had fallen into a trance.

_Chambers' Miscellany._

After the death of Joanna Southcott, her followers refused to believe her dead, and consented to a postmortem examination of her body, only when decomposition had actually commenced. After her burial they formed themselves into a religious society which they called the Southcottian church, and professed to believe that she would rise from the dead and bring forth the promised s.h.i.+loh.

SPINOZA (Baruch, his Hebrew name which he translated into Latin as Benedictus), 1632-1677. There can be no certainty with regard to the last hours of Spinoza. There was with him at the time of his death but one friend who refused to make any disclosure, and who chose to pa.s.s to his own grave in silent possession of the secret. Nevertheless a report prevailed, and was for a time believed, that Spinoza died in great fear and distress of mind, and that with his last breath he cried out: "_G.o.d have mercy upon me, and be gracious to me, a miserable sinner!_" Another report, equally without foundation, represented the great Dutch philosopher as resorting to suicide when he saw death drawing near.

Spinoza is regarded as the ablest of modern pantheistic philosophers.

Dugald Stewart goes so far as to call him an Atheist: "In no part of Spinoza's works has he avowed himself an Atheist; but it will not be disputed by those who comprehend the drift of his reasonings, that, in point of practical tendency, Atheism and Spinozism are one and the same." During his life he awakened in the minds of some of the ablest men of letters and religion a bitter hatred it is now difficult to understand. It is but fifty years ago that Karel Luinman, at that time minister of the Reformed church at Middleburg, said: "Spit on that grave--there lies Spinoza." Later Froude, Lewes and Maurice have described him as a calm, brave man who lived n.o.bly, and confronted disease and death with a deeply religious faith. Coleridge p.r.o.nounced the Pantheism of Spinoza preferable to modern Deism, which he held to be but "the hypocrisy of Materialism." Schleiermacher vindicated the memory of the great philosopher after the following fas.h.i.+on: "Offer up reverently with me a lock of hair to the manes of the rejected but holy Spinoza! The great Spirit of the Universe filled his soul; the Infinite to him was beginning and end; the Universal his sole and only love.

Dwelling in holy innocence and deep humility among men, he saw himself mirrored in the eternal world, and the eternal world not all unworthily reflected back in him. Full of religion was he, full of the Holy Ghost; and therefore it is that he meets us standing alone in his age, raised above the profane mult.i.tude, master of his art, but without disciples and the citizen's rights." Probably the truth of the matter is that Spinoza was a man of pure, brave and simple life; of gentle disposition; and of rare philosophical abilities and attainments; but whose system, though possessed of much that is true and good, is yet essentially opposed to G.o.d's revelation of himself in the sacred Scriptures, and in the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.