Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-04-30
PREMoNITIoNs OF DEATH.
Men Who Have Torctold the Coming OF
Their Own End.

U
nIen Who Have Torctold the Coming OF
Their Own End.
Tho first symptom of approaching
death with some is the strong presenti-
ment that they are about to die.
Ozanam, the mathematician, while
in apparent health rejected pupils from
the feeling that he was on the eve Of
resting from his labors, and no expired
soon after of an apoplectio. stroke.
Fletcher, tho divine, had dream
whicl5shadowed out his impending dis
solution, and believing it to be the
mercilul warning of heaven be sent for
sculptor and ordered his tomb. BE
gin your work forthwith, he said ut
parting. There is no time to lose. !"
And unless the artist had obeyed the
admonition, death would have proved
the quicker workman of the two. Mo-
Fart wrote his Requiem under the
conviction that the monument he was
raising to his genius would, by the power
of association prove a universal monu-
ment to his remains. When life was
heeting very fast, he called for the score
and musing over it said, Ibid not
tell you truly that it was for myself
that composed that death chant?"
Another great artist in different
department, convinced that his hand
was about to lose it's cunning, chose a
subject emblematical of the coming
event. His friends inquired the nature
of his coming design, aud Hogarth re-
piled, "The end of all things. In
that CASE !" rejoined one, There will be
an end of the painter" What was ut
tered in jest was answered i'll earnest,
with solemn look and heavy sigh.
"Thero will, :" he said, "apd the sooner
my work is done the better" Hc COM
menced next day, labored upon the
drawing with unremitting diligence,
and when he had given it the last touch
seized his palette, broke it in pieces
and said, 81 have finished. The print
was published in March under the title
of "Finis, and in October the curious
eyes which saw the manners in the face
were closed in the dust. Our ancestors
who were prone to look in the air for
causes which were to be found upon the
earth, attributed these intimations to
various supernatural agencies.
John Hunter has solved the mystery,
if mystery it can be called, in single
sentence. eve sometimes, he says,
"feel within ourselves that we shall
not live, for the living powers become
weak, and the nerves communicate the
intelligence to the brain "
His own case has often been quoted
among the marvels of which he offered
this rational explanation. He intimated,
on leaving home, that if discussion
which awaited him at the hospital took
al angry turn it would prove his death.
A colleague gave him the lie, the coarse
word verified the prophecy, and he ex-
pired almost Immediately in an adjoin-
ing room. There was everything to Ia
ment in the circumstance, but nothing
ut which to woEder
Circumstances which ut another time
would excite no attention are accepted
for an omen when health is failing.
The order for the requiem with Mozart,
the dream with Fletcher, turned the
current of their thoughts to the grave.
Foote, prior to his departure for the
continent, stood contemplating the pic
ture of IA brother author and exclaimed,
his eyes full of tears, Poor Weston!'
In the same detected tone he added, aft
er a pause, "Soon others shall say
Poor Foote 5" And to the surprise of
his friends few days proved the justice
of his prognostication. The expectation
of the event had share in producing it,,
for slight shock completes the destruc-
tion of PROSTATE energies.
The case of Wolsoy was singular. The
morning before he died he asked of Cav
endish the hour and was answered,
"Past s." Eight of the clock?" re-
piled Wolsey. "That cannot be. Eight
OF tho clock-nay, nay, it cannot be .
OF tho clock, for by Of the clock you
shall lose your master y
The day he mlscalculated; the nour
came true. On the following morning,
as the clock struck S, his troubled spirit
passed from life. Cavondish and the by
ISLANDERS thought he must have had q
revelation of the time of his death, and
from tho way in which the fact had
taken possession of his mind we suspect
that he relied on astrological prediction,
which had the credit of revelation i'll
his own esteem Household Words.