THE LAST WORDS OF DISTINGUISHED MEN AND WOMEN
Reading edition
THE LAST WORDS
(REAL AND TRADITIONAL)
OF DISTINGUISHED MEN AND WOMEN
COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES
BY
FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN
The tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony; Where words are scarce they're seldom spent in vain, For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain. —Shakspeare
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
1901
Copyright 1901 by Frederic Rowland Marvin (June)
To my Wife this Book is most Lovingly Dedicated
Neither is there anything of which I am so inquisitive, and delight to inform myself, as the manner of men's deaths, their words, looks, and bearing; nor any places in history I am so intent upon; and it is manifest enough, by my crowding in examples of this kind, that I have a particular fancy for that subject. If I were a writer of books, I would compile a register, with a comment, of the various deaths of men: he who should teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live.—Montaigne.