When to her husband Arria gave the steel,
Which from her chaste, her bleeding breast she drew;
She said—"My Pætus, this I do not feel,
But, oh! the wound that must be given by you!"[1]
Martial.
Augustine ("Saint," Latin Father, able controversialist and eloquent preacher, author of "On the City of God," "Confessions," and many other books of value), 354-430. "Oh, Lord, shall I die at all? Shall I die at all? Yes! Why, then, oh, Lord, if ever, why not now?"
His mother, Monica, was a woman of the most devoted piety. His father was a pagan, and from him Augustine inherited a vehement and sensual disposition. While a mere youth he gave way to his unbridled passions and sensual propensities. His mother's patient prayerfulness for both husband and son, which was at last crowned with success, has passed into a touching type of womanly saintliness for all ages.—A. H. Gottschall.
Augustus (Caius Julius Cæsar Octavianus, first Emperor of Rome), b. c. 63-14. "Vos plaudite," after asking how he had acted his part in life. These reputed last words of Augustus rest upon the authority of Cicero.
Suetonius gives his last words thus: "Live mindful of our wedlock, Livia, and so farewell."
Babington (Anthony, English gentleman devoted to the cause of Mary Stuart. Executed for having conspired against the life of Queen Elizabeth),—1586. "The murder of the Queen had been represented to me as a deed lawful and meritorious. I die a firm Catholic." Said on the scaffold.
Bacon (Francis, Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans), 1561-1626. "Thy creatures, O Lord, have been my books, but Thy Holy Scriptures much more. I have sought Thee in the fields and gardens, but I have found Thee, O God, in Thy Sanctuary—Thy Temple."
"In March, 1626, he came to London, and one day near Highgate was taken with a desire to discover whether snow would act as an antiseptic. He stopped his carriage, got out at a cottage, purchased a fowl, and with his own hands assisted to stuff it with snow. He was seized with a sudden chill and became so seriously unwell that he had to be conveyed to Lord Arundel's house near by. There his illness increased, and he died of bronchitis after a few days of suffering."—Encyclopedia Britannica.
For my burial, I desire it may be in St. Michael's Church, St. Albans; there was my mother buried, and it is the parish church of my mansion-house of Gorhambury, and it is the only Christian Church within the walls of Old Verulam. For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations and the next ages.
From the Will of Lord Bacon.