Page:Heroines of freethought (IA cu31924031228699).pdf/296

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
288
FRANCES POWER COBBE.

cumstances, deeply affecting. The disciple, however, thus gained a glorious opportunity of seeing for herself how sincere the teacher's faith was in that which he had taught. Much conversation was impossible, from Parker’s weakness, but she found him calm, serene, peacefully happy — not desirous of death, but resigned to the inevitable. She remembered his well known passion for flowers, and brought him a lovely bouquet of fresh tea-roses and lilies, with which he was very much pleased. He presented her in return with a beautiful bronze inkstand, from whose depths the inspiration which guided her "Intuitive Morals" may possibly have arisen.

I think she had only that one interview with him; he failed rapidly, and, within a few days, the active mind, the large heart, of the earnest teacher were at rest forever. Miss Cobbe was among those who followed him — sincere mourners, all — to his grave in the Protestant burial-ground at Florence. She afterward evidenced her great