Farinato (Paolo, Italian painter), about 1525-1606. "Now I am going." These words he cried out as he lay upon his death bed. His wife who was sick in the same room, hearing him, answered, "I will bear you company, my dear husband;" and she did so, for as he drew his last breath she also expired.
Fichte (Johann Gottlieb, distinguished German philosopher whose name is forever associated with those of Kant, Schelling, and Hegel as worthy of a place with the greatest thinkers of modern times), 1762-1814. "Indeed no more medicine; I am well."
The following, purporting to be the "Dying Confession of Fichte," has been frequently published, but upon what authority the compiler of this book has been unable to discover:
"I know absolutely nothing of any existence, not even of my own. Images there are, and they constitute all that apparently exists. I am myself one of those images; nay, not so much, but only a confused image of an image. All reality is converted into a marvellous dream, without a life to dream of, or a mind to dream; into a dream itself made up only of a dream. Perception is a dream; and thought, the source of all the existence, the reality of which I imagine to myself, is but the dream of that dream."
For eleven days he lingered, with but few intervals of clear consciousness, his sleep being ever deeper till on the night of the 27th of January all sign of life vanished. He was buried in the first churchyard before the Oranienburg gate in Berlin; at his side now lie the remains of Hegel and Solger. Five years later his wife was laid at his feet. On the tall obelisk which marks his grave is the inscription from the Book of Daniel: "The teachers shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars that shine for ever and ever."
Adamson: "Life and Philosophy of Fichte."
Fillmore (Millard, thirteenth President of the United States), 1800-1874. "The food is palatable."
Flavel (John, distinguished nonconformist clergyman and author), 1627-1691. "I know that it will be well with me."
A man of beautiful Christian character and great learning who was ejected from his charge at Dartmouth in 1662 for nonconformity. The Episcopalians were not satisfied to persecute this servant of God during his life, but ordered his monument removed from the Church of St. Saviour.
Fontenelle de (Bernard le Bovier, author of "Conversations on a Plurality of Worlds," "Dialogues of the Dead" and "History of the Academy of Science"), 1657-1757. "I suffer nothing, but feel a sort of difficulty of living longer."