He found especial pleasure in persuading friends and acquaintances to take a trip on the Continent for a change of air and scene, and often presented them with as large a sum even as £100 to enable them to do so. Even persons who could hardly have expected such a favour were sometimes indebted to him in this way.
To those whom he entrusted with the carrying out of his orders, he would say, "I wish to continue doing just as I have always done with regard to benevolent institutions and individuals."
His weakness, however, often manifested itself to a degree which caused considerable uneasiness to his relatives and friends, and, by the advice of his medical attendant, additional nurses were engaged, so that he might be attended by them day and night, and never left alone for a moment.
He now gave special orders "never to allow any of his letters to leave the house before an exact copy had been made of them, however insignificant they might have been."
He still signed all his cheques, and added his usual motto, "Think and thank," on the face of them. He took special care never to express his immediate agreement with any suggestion made to him, and would say, "I will consider it," or, "I will do it to-morrow;" but it often happened that the person counting on this promise was disappointed, as Sir Moses frequently altered his mind upon consideration.
Speaking sometimes to me on his own advanced age, he would say, "I have endeavoured to do the best I could; no doubt I have often failed, but I rely on God's goodness; He forgives those who approach Him with a contrite heart." "Death," he would say, "is like going to sleep for a while, to awake again spiritually invigorated. When I pass the mausoleum of Judith I always read the Hebrew inscription above the entrance—
'Into His hands my Spirit I consign, Whilst wrapt in sleep that I again awake, And with my spirit, my body I resign; The Lord with me, no fears my soul can shake.'
"Let my mortal remains be taken through the grounds to my last resting-place quietly by the way I always used to go to my Synagogue with my dear wife."
After a long pause he would talk of more cheerful subjects. "Do you remember," he said, "when we crossed the Dwina near Riga, and the ice broke under our feet? We had many a narrow escape on our missions; praised be God for His numerous mercies."