Delaware State journal and statesman., 1862-05-06
LIST WORDS.

Judging by the various recorded utterances OF
our great men when they lay a-dying, the sub
iects which occupied their last thoughts were as
diverse as those which occupied their lives. Oft
times, the last broken exclamations recorded of
our great men contain the dim foreshadOwiugs
of things to come as often however, they are
merely expressiee of happiness and resignation,
or of despair and weariness of life. In other
cases, again, we see {" the ruling passion strong
in death" We find warriors thanking God, with
their last breath, that they had done their duty /;
aud martyrs, whilst ascending the scatfold, re-
siguing their souls to Heaven, feeling assured
that their deeds would live after them, and
would he their truest monument to all future
time Occasionally, too, we have men poking
jokes at the grisly King of Terrors himself and
passing behind the dark curtains with jest
upon their lips
Surely, there is something very pathetic in
those last words Of DR.. Adam of Edinburgh, the
High School head master : " 1t grows dark,
boys you may CO." As the shades Of death
were fast closing around him, the masters
thoughts were still with his work; and thus re-
gardug the shades of death as but the waning
twilight of the earthly day, he gave the signal of
dismissal to his imaginary scholars, and was
himself at the same instant " dismissed" from
work to his eternal rest Every one knows that
the two last words which Goethe uttered were
truly memorable: a. Draw back the curtains"
said he, and let in more light"
General Washington's last words were firm,
cool and reliant as himself am about to die"
said he, "and am not afraid to die" Noble
words these There is something in them which
reminds us of Addisons celebrated request to
those around him ''to mark how Christian could
die"
Poor Oliver Goldsmith's farewell words are
also very plaintiye. D." is your mind at ease ?"
asked his doctor. "No, it is not" was poor
Goldsmith's melancholy reply. This was the
last sentence he ever uttered, and it is sorrowfu
like his life.
One of Keats latest utterances is full of sin
gular pathos and beauty al feel" he said on
his death bed" feel the flowers growing over
me p Tasso's last words" In mdRus hiqS
Domino" )Into thy hands, o Lord, do commit
my spirit)-are eminenily religious. They were
uttered by him with extreme difficulty, and i'm
mediately afterwards expired
That great man and incorrigible joker, Sir
Thomas More, perished it will be recollected,
upon the scaffold. Observing, as he was ascend
ing the scaffod, that it appeared very weak, he
turned to the lieutenant, and said to him mer-
rily: 81 pray you, Mr.. Lieutenant, that you
see me safe up and as fot my coming down,
why, let me SHIFT for myself" Thus speaking,
passed away one of the bravest spirits of that
age Surely it was men like him that iirst won
for our land the title of Merry England"
In Snorro Sturleson's matchless-H HeimrkTiHgld
"A work whose every line should be read by all
lovers Of deeds of Morse daring-there is to be
found an account of the last words Of an old
Morse hero named Thormod. This worthy had
been mortally wounded by the shaft of an arrow
striking him in battle. He retired to barn,
where a woman servant tried to pull the shaft of
the arrow out of his wound with the help Of a
pair Of tongs Not succeeding in her attempt,
however, Thormod reproved the girl for her ten
derness in using the tongs; took them himself,
and, by main force, pulled the arrow out Of the
wound Upon it there hung some morsels of
flesh from his heart, some red, some white
When Tbormod saw then, he said grimly: "Ihe
king hes fed us we'll | am fat, even at the
heart roots" "And so saying" says SturlesOu,
"he leaned back and was dead" We imagine
that there can be found but few Instances of last
words which imply such q thorough scorn OF
physical pain as do these of Ihormod In the
Heimskrilgla, too there will be found an account
of the last words and actions of another old Morse
king This hero, feeling that his time was at
hand, and being sternly resolved not to die q
natural death, ordered his war galley 10 bo
brought out. This being done, he proceeded on
board set it on fire. and slowly drifted out to sea,
chanting his war song with his last gasp Surely
the gates of the Walhalla of the Norsemen would
fly open to welcome to such heroes as this old
Morse king and Thormod.
Zwingle, the great German reformer, was
killed in battle in the year 1881. His last words
are cool and brave. Gazing calmly, and with
undaunted courage, at the blood trickling from
his death wounds, he calmly exclaimed; "What
matters this misfortune They may indeed kill
the body, but they cannot kill the soul"