BOERHAAVE (Herman, Dutch physician and philosopher), 1668-1738. "_He that loves God ought to think nothing desirable but what is pleasing to the Supreme Goodness._"
The reputation of Boerhaave as a physician and a man of learning is perhaps without a parallel in history. His fame extended not only to every part of Christendom, but to the farthest bounds of Asia. A Chinese mandarin addressed a letter to him with this superscription, "To Boerhaave, Physician in Europe," and the missive was duly received.... His intense application to study, and the exposure incident to his professional duties, had brought upon him (in 1732) a severe illness, which confined him to his bed for several months. When he recovered, the inhabitants of Leyden celebrated the joyful event by a public illumination.--_Lippincott._
BOILEAU (Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas, eminent French poet and satirist), 1636-1711. "_It is a great consolation for a dying poet to have never written a word against morality._"
BOLEYN or BULLEN (Anne, wife of Henry VIII), 1507-1536. Just before she knelt to lay her head on the block she clasped her neck with her hands, and said: "_It is small, very small indeed._"
BOLINGBROKE (Henry St. John, Viscount, English author, orator, and politician), 1678-1751. At last, though the precise words are not preserved, he gave directions that no clergyman should visit him, and avowed his adherence to the deistical principles to which he had held through his life.
His last words to Lord Chesterfield were: "_God, who placed me here, will do what he pleases with me hereafter, and he knows best what to do. May he bless you._"[6]
The dreadful malady under which Bolingbroke lingered, and at length sank--a cancer in the face--he bore with exemplary fortitude, a fortitude drawn from the natural resources of his mind, and unhappily not aided by the consolation of any religion; for, having early cast off the belief in revelation, he had substituted, in its stead, a dark and gloomy naturalism, which even rejected those glimmerings of hope as to futurity not untasted by the wiser of the heathens.--_Lord Brougham._
[6] It is too early for the last words of John Burroughs (may it be yet many years before they are spoken), but we are struck with the wonderful accord between the last words of Bolingbroke and the closing paragraph to the preface with which Burroughs introduces his, "The Light of Day:" "I am content to let the unseen powers go their own way with me and mine without question or distrust. They brought me here, and I have found it well to be here; in due time they will take me hence, and I have no doubt that will be well for me too."