94 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS ‘‘ LITTLE ANIMALS ”’ 
has never been published, and even its existence has hitherto 
been overlooked. Yet it is a document of the greatest 
interest: for it not only announced Leeuwenhoek’s death, but 
also recorded the exact date thereof, and gave a few particulars 
regarding his last illness and the cause of his decease —as 
determined by his medical advisors. I shall therefore give 
this letter in its entirety. The original is written in Latin, 
and addressed to Dr James’ Jurin, Secretary of the Royal 
Society. Dated from Delft, 30 August 1723, it runs as 
follows > 
I venture to interrupt you, most distinguished Sir, in 
your very urgent engagements and duties, solely because 
I am moved thereto by the tears of Maria, the only 
daughter of her great father Antony van Leeuwenhoek ; 
who, while he neither feared nor desired his last day, 
peacefully concluded it upon the 26th of August; being 
then over ninety, and thus, having reached arare old age, 
neither unripe nor half-ripe, though verily more than 
mature. For ’tis with man as with pear or apple, on a 
tree laden with fruits, some whereof it letteth fall thickly 
and perforce, while others, when they be more than ripe, 
drop singly of their own accord.’ As the Poet’ elegantly 
saith : 
Kijpes ebeotaciw Oavaroto 
Moupia, ds ovK gore huyeiv Bpotov, odd’ vroAnEat.” 
" Gribius wrongly addressed him as “John” (Nobilissimo Viro Joanni 
Jurin Regiae Societati a secretis Illustrissimo). 
* MS. Roy. Soc., No. 1214; G.2.3. The translation of this letter has 
been by no means easy: for it contains several classical quotations and 
veiled allusions, and some unusual words and expressions—designed, 
apparently, to show off the writer’s scholarship. Nevertheless, its latinity 
seems not altogether irreproachable. In tracing the references to Homer 
and Statius I have been greatly assisted by Prof. D’Arcy Thompson, F.R.S. 
° The foregoing lines in the MS. are apparently a paraphrase of Cicero: 
“quasi poma ex arboribus, cruda si sunt, vi avelluntur, si matura et cocta, 
decidunt’’ (de Sen. lib. XIX, § 71 ad finem). Some modern texts read “ vix 
evelluntur,’ but Gribius’s words indicate that he was familiar with the 
older version. 
* Homer, Ilias XII, 326-7. 
° “Ten thousand fates of death do every way beset us, and these no 
