34 MEMOIR OF GESNER. 



These matters arranged, his whole thoughts were 

 turned to futurity, and he conversed calmly with 

 Henry Bellinger and John Simler (two clergymen 

 with whom he had lived on terms of the most inti- 

 mate friendship), using words of hope and resig- 

 nation. The fifth day after the commencement of 

 his disorder, his medical attendants saw that death 

 was near ; but he thought himself better, and de- 

 clined having any one to sit by his bed-side during 

 the night. About eleven o'clock, however, of the 

 same night, he became conscious that his strength 

 could hold out very little longer against the violence 

 of the disease ; and calling his attendants, he re- 

 quested that they would carry him into his museum, 

 where he had caused a bed to be prepared for him 

 the day before. It was in this place, the scene of 

 many a laborious study, and among the objects 

 which he had collected with such indefatigable zeal, 

 that he breathed his last, in the arms of his wife, 

 on the 13th December, 1565, not having quite com- 

 pleted his fiftieth year. 



The whole city was thrown into mourning by 

 Gesner's death, and his funeral, which took place on 

 the following day, was attended by a large con- 

 course of people of all ranks. He was interred in 

 the cloister of the great church of Zurich, near the 

 tomb of his intimate friend Frisius, who died the 

 preceding year. His funeral oration was pronounced 

 by Simler, who afterwards became his biographer. 

 Many verses, both Greek and Latin, were written 

 in his praise ; and among the authors of these we 



