XX11 



been prolonged, it is probable that ho would still have left behind 

 him rich legacies of thought (for who so capable ?), in which rigidly 

 exact definitions of scientific trnth would have been seen to be in 

 truest harmony with the most exquisite sensibility to every form of 

 beauty, natural or artistic. 



Bat the joy of anticipation was a perilous joy, and could not be 

 long supported. Pathetic were the circumstances of the last fatal 

 seizure, for in the intervals of illness he knew and weighed as in a 

 balance of the laboratory all its phases, with unimpassioned serenity 

 and resignation, though not without sadness, while witnessing the 

 grief of those who loved him, and recalling the scenes in which he 

 had acted so conspicuous a part. He rallied sufficiently to be able to 

 return home under the escort of his brother-in-law, who had been 

 summoned to his bedside in England. But relapses recurred, with 

 varying alternations and pauses. During these weeks of suspense, so 

 agonizing to his friends, he often spoke of the insoluble riddle of exist- 

 ence, and of the hope of a future reunion. One afternoon he had walked 

 with assistance in front of his house (it was his last walk), and he 

 seemed refreshed. " We have had a nice walk, and you are better," 

 said one. " Yes," he replied, " a beautiful walk is it not a beautiful 

 walk ? to Eternity ! " He died on the 24th March, 1889, within a 

 year of his jubilee. 



The day of his burial was indeed one of gloom in Utrecht. 



The second wife of Donders was Bramine, daughter of Mr. P. F. 

 Hnbrecht, Secretary of the Home Office at the Hague, sister of Pro- 

 fessor Hubrecht, of Utrecht, a lady of noble disposition and of wide 

 culture. We owe to her remarkable talent several fine portraits of 

 him, for one of which, a three-quarter length, painted for his jubilee, 

 she received the award of a gold medal at Munich in 1888. It is 

 destined for the National Museum at Amsterdam. Others are, a half- 

 length, with his decorations, in the Hall of the Professors at the 

 University ; one at the Ophthalmic Hospital, representing him as in 

 1864, soon after the foundation of the hospital ; and a fourth, as 

 seated in his study, with the bust of von Helmholtz at his side, in 

 the last year of his life, painted for his twin grandchildren, Frans 

 and Paula Engelmann. There ar also two life-size heads by Mr. 

 Watts, R.A., painted in 1873-75, during some of his brief visits to 

 England. One of these, never completed, but remaining a grand 

 sketch, forms one of Mr. Fred. Hollyer's series of Mr. Watts's por- 

 traits, and has been reproduced as the frontispiece to the present 

 volume of the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society ' by Mr. Dew- 

 Smith, of the Cambridge Engraving Company. Both this and the 

 jubilee portrait were exhibited at the Royal Society Conversazione, 



