b

d

furt time pretoks is departure, wrote these Luca rese, Vici are so fall of Christian hope and I am but insert them.

2 ISOLA DIN sua fata ruentem,

murensing; he was advised by

te liste Suler age is temporal affairs. my solemnle about them, and with

one. is I have written, so have I

mi mast bereafter feel. As to

sa tra I wmmend them to your care Darmans and I pray that ye may be quers und protectors to them." Haller mikroun to perform this last request is vad de love and esteem he enHead world naturally require. para as a TA SALI ANT Neturned his thanks, and felt no temas socia a ur behalf. As patience had best to chokerste during life, so did it accompung him in the hour of death. Whatever he said

was dignified by the gravity of age, prudence and piety. Haller was sitting on the bed of his departing friend, bemoaning the frailty of human life; when he said, "Ah, what is human life?" to this his dying friend replied, "it is a transient rapour." Recovering a little, he was raised on his couch, and took some refreshment provided by his daughter. Soon afterwards, reposing on his bed, he slept a short time, but his breathings were interrupted, and he evidently appeared as one dying, thus renewing the fear and solicitude of his friends for his recovery. By degrees his strength failed him, the beating of his pulse began to falter, his extremities to grow colder and colder, his respiration to become more difficult and slower, his sight to fail, and every thing in short to portend his dissolution. He extended his hands, and said to those around him, "Peace be with you." Haller repeated over him, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." They who were then standing around the bed, falling on their knees, implored the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would mitigate the pains of their departing friend, and make his journey into the world of spirits as little distressing as possible. While they were praying, his spirit quitted the body, without much commotion. He crossed his hands over his bosom, and thus expired. Haller closed the eyes of his departed friend *.

66

• Ex narratione de vitâ et obitu, &c. Adami Vitæ, fol. 185, &c.

CONRAD GESNER.

Born 1516. Died 1565, aged 49.

The uncertainty of human life is a great proof of the divine wisdom, for it imposes a weighty obligation on every man to be always on his guard, and diligent in his duties.-BELLARMIN. An illustrious scholar, physician, and philosopher, born at Zurich, in Switzerland, For the variety of his attainments and his erudition, he has been deservedly called the German Pliny. He was the forerunner of Linnæus, and was the first to class flowers and plants according to their properties. When the Plague was raging at Zurich, among others, the illustrious Theodore Bibliander fell a victim to its fury. Gesner was beginning to entertain a presentiment of his own death,-when he dreamed that he was bitten by a serpent. Awaking, he concluded that this serpent was an emblem of the plague, and wrote in a book the account of this dream. He now conjectured that his decease was nigh at hand, and daily prepared himself for a happy departure from this to a better life. "I am about to be called hence," said he, " and I return my thanks to God, who hath blessed me with a mind most willing to obey the summons. I pray that he will strengthen me with his Holy Spirit." Calling his friends around him, he made his will, and conversed with the physician on his own history of plants, and others of his works, which he commended to the care of his

friends. The ministers of the Church frequently visited him; he listened to their consolations, and conversed with them in the language of Scripture, on the blessed hope proposed to us in Christ.

The day before his departure from life, having conversed with his attached friend, the celebrated Henry Bullinger, in his presence he repeated the articles of his faith, and in a serious discourse declared that he died in that belief. On the fifth day from that on which he was first taken ill, he told some friends who were desirous to remain with him during the night, that as he was a little better, he needed not their assistance. Thus he, who during life had blessed many, and injured none, feared lest his disorder should inconvenience his attendants. Led to his couch, where he was wont to sleep, he poured forth his most ardent prayers to Almighty God, and then composed himself to rest. But at the eleventh hour of the night, perceiving that the force of his disorder had overpowered his feeble nature, calling up his wife, he requested to be led into his study, where the day before he had directed a little bed to be laid out, there he gently expired while leaning on the arm of his wife, and uttering fervent prayers.

During this illness his eternal salvation had been his chief and almost only care*.

Thuani, 2. fol. 352. Ghilinus, fol. 40. Lorenso Crasso elogii, fol. 28.

ROGER ASCHAM.

Born 1515. Died December 30, 1568, aged 53.

Tell those (said Sir William Forbes, when on his death-bed) that are drawing down to the bed of death, from my experience, that it has no terrors; that in the hour, when it is most wanted, there is mercy with the Most High; and that some change takes place which fits the soul to meet its God.

PRECEPTOR to Queen Elizabeth. With a constitution subject to attacks of fever, and enfeebled by frequent returns of it, he imprudently sat up late, intent upon finishing a copy of verses, as a new year's gift for the queen, as well as letters to his friends; when he contracted a cold, which brought on a dangerous malady in the beginning of December. The celebrated Dr. Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, often visited him during his illness, and supported and comforted him, by setting before him the sufferings of earth, and the prospects of heaven; but in a strain and manner so divine, that when he had left the room, the sick man declared with joy, that the excellent dean had sustained his soul with

food that would never die! His disease grew more oppressive, but his rich and happy memory did not forsake him, and he rehearsed on his death-bed before the dean and other surrounding friends, a variety of passages expressive of the mercy and love of God to mankind, and of his blessings bestowed on them.