Goar (Saint, "Patron Saint of the Rhine"), "My children, these fearful forests and these barren rocks shall be adorned with cities and temples, where the name of Jesus shall be openly adored. Ye shall abandon your precarious and hard chase, and assemble together under temples lofty as those pines, and graceful as the crown of the palm.
"Here shall my Saviour be known in all the simplicity of his doctrines. Ah! would that I might witness it; but I have seen those things in a vision. But I faint! I am weary! My earthly journey is finished! Receive my blessing. Go! and be kind one to another."
Robert Blakey: "Christian Hermits."
Goethe or Göthe (Johann Wolfgang von, greatest of German poets), 1749-1831. "More light! more light!" He mistook the shadow of death for evening twilight.
He continued to express himself by signs, drawing letters with his fore-finger in the air, while he had strength, and finally, as life ebbed, drawing figures slowly on the shawl which covered his legs. At half past twelve he composed himself in the corner of the chair. The watcher placed a finger on her lip to intimate that he was asleep. If sleep it was it was a sleep in which a great life glided from this world.
Lewes's Story of Goethe's Life.
Coudray, who was present when the poet died, left a manuscript on "The Last Days and the Death of Goethe," which has been published. Goethe was seated in the bed-room, in an arm-chair standing beside the bed. Thinking that he saw paper lying on the floor, he said: "Why is Schiller's correspondence permitted to lie here?" Immediately, thereupon, he uttered his last audible words: "Do open the shutter in the bed-room, in order that more light may enter." (Macht doch den Fensterladen im Schlafgemach auf, damit mehr Licht herein komme.)
Goldsmith (Oliver), 1728-1774. "No, it is not," to a physician who asked if his mind was at ease.
Gough (John Bartholomew, distinguished American temperance advocate), 1817-1886. "Young man, keep your record—" the last word was inaudible, but was probably "clean."[25]
Grant (Ulysses Simpson, eighteenth President of the United States, and one of the most distinguished of American generals), 1822-1885. "Water," said to an attendant who inquired if he wished for anything.