Some say his last words were, "Then I am safe," in response to his chaplain who assured him that, "once in grace is always in grace."
CROME (John, English landscape painter), 1766-1821. "_O Hobbima, Hobbima, how I do love thee!_"
CROSBY (Howard, Presbyterian clergyman, Chancellor of the University of New York, and a man of great classical learning), 1826-1891. "_My heart is resting sweetly with Jesus, and my hand is in his._"
CULLEN (William, distinguished physician), 1712-1790. "_I wish I had the power of writing, for then I would describe to you how pleasant a thing it is to die._"
CUMMINGS (George David, first Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church), 1822-1876. "_Jesus! precious Saviour!_"
His last message to his church was: "_Tell them to go forward and do a good work_."
CUSHMAN (Charlotte Saunders, distinguished American actress), 1816-1876. Her last words are not recorded, but on the night before her death she asked to have Lowell's poem "Columbus" read to her, and from time to time she prompted the reader when a word or line was missing.
CUVIER (George Chrétien Léopold Frédéric Dagobert, Baron, one of the greatest naturalists of modern times, and founder of the science of comparative anatomy), 1769-1832. "_It is delightful to see those whom I love still able to swallow_," to his daughter-in-law, to whom he handed a glass of lemonade he found himself unable to swallow.
CYPRIAN (Thascius Cæcilius Cyprianus, "Saint," Bishop of Carthage, Latin Father and martyr. He is the author of numerous epistles and tracts), 200-258. "_Thanks be to God_," to the heathen judge, on hearing from him the sentence of death.
CYRUS (Cyrus the Elder, surnamed "the Great," founder of the Persian empire, and the greatest of Persian monarchs. He appears in Sacred History as the conqueror of Belshazzar. Herodotus represents him as killed in battle, but Xenophon records that he died a natural death),--B. C. 559.
Xenophon (Cyropædia B. viii. 7) gives the speech which Cyrus is said to have made upon his death-bed. These are the closing sentences in that speech:
"_When I am dead, my children, do not enshrine my body in gold, or in silver, or in any other substance; but restore it to the earth as soon as possible; for what can be more desirable than to be mixed with the earth, which gives birth and nourishment to everything excellent and good? I have always hitherto borne an affection to men, and I feel that I should now gladly be incorporated with that which is beneficial to men. And now my soul seems to be leaving me, in the same manner as, it is probable, it begins to leave others. If, therefore, any one of you is desirous of touching my right hand, or is willing to see my face, while it has life, let him come near me; but when I shall have covered it, I request of you, my sons, let no man, not even yourselves, look upon my body. Summon, however, all the Persians, and the allies, to my tomb, to rejoice for me, as I shall then be safe from suffering any evil, whether I be with the divine nature, or be reduced to nothing. As many as come, do not dismiss until you have bestowed on them whatever favors are customary at the funeral of a rich man. And remember this, as my last admonition: by doing good to your friends, you will be able also to punish your enemies. Farewell, dear children, and say farewell to your mother as from me; farewell, all my friends, present and absent._"