THE "LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 85, 12 December 1874, Page 10

THE "LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT."

HNothing ought to be more solemn than the " last will and testa* ment" of a dying man — his last wish in reference to the things of this world with which he has been so long intermixed, but which are now falling out of the feeble grasp of his dying hands. How is it then that human frivolity can dare to trifle even on the edge of the abyss ? We have just received from Philadelphia the intelligence that a rich planter named Eiber has died, leaving behind him the following bequest :—": — " To nay faithful dog Shock £4XX), to my monkey Arthur .£3000., to my cat Tiban annual pension of fire thousand pounds sterling. After the death of these three I wish, my fortune should come to my niece, Eliza Nikely, who is very poor." We should trust that such a •will (even were there no Eliza, Nikely, who is very poor) would be set aside by any government on on the ground of insanity in the fool who made it. For if not absolutely insane in the usual interpretation of the word, the man who could make such a will as the above, seriously, proves sufficiently well that he is utterly incapable of disposing in an intelligent manner of anything, the appropriation of which will affect his own species. If the idiot Biber was merely (too much, we fear, after the manner of many of his countrymen) trifling with mankind, then it would be well that such peculiar geniuses should know beforehand that a "last will and testament" must, before all things, exhibit the qualities of an ordinary human intelligence under the penalty of being set aside. We are afraid, however, that the ridiculous prejudice in favor of a man's last wish, no matter how atrocious, is too strong as yet, and that therefore the dog, the monkey and the cat will enjoy the fortune of Mr Biber, while his niece Eliza, "who," he says, "is very poor," will continue to starve upon her prospect. Let us hope that some friend of humanity, some second Wilberforce,|will poison Shock, strangle Arthur, and drown Tib before each shall be a week older. Fools of the race of Mr Biber are not so scarce as one would willingly believe. There was the eccentric Count Mirandola, who, in 1825, left all his fortune to a favorite carp, which for twenty years he had. fed daily with his own hand; there was Madame Dupuis, who bequeathed her estate to thirty-six cats, leaving most minute directions as to the manner in which they were to be fed. Blakely, when dying, ordered his four dogs to be placed in armchairs around his bed ; he then made them a last affecting speech and gave up his soul in the midst of their howlings. He left them all his wealth, and ordered that their likenesses should be carved at the four corners of his tombstone. The Chevalier dv Chatelet wrote his will as follows: — I desire to be buried in one of the columns of the church at Neufchateau, so that none of the common people may walk over my body. I deeply regret that I cannot take my money away with me. However, I leave it to my nephew, who has every vice that will compel him to get through it as speedily as posible. The wellknown Dr Chritian left to his favorite dog Cyans 6000 florins and his library. All this may be amusing, but it is nevertheless exceedingly sad. It displays not only the sublime height of frivolity, but the most shocking spirit of irreligion. For a man with the pallor and moisture of death upon Mm to be able to play the mountebank, to • go into the terrible mystery of the next -world as to a comedietta, with a grin upon the countenance and a jest upon the lips, is either folly or atheism, and ought to meetjwitb. universal execration. Thank Heaven, that by the side of the egotist, the fool and the infidel, we can still find generosity, wisdom and the Catholic faith. Thus we saw the other day Tisserand, the Christian and Catholic, bequeathing two million francs "for comfortable homes for the aged poor in the fourteenth arrondissement of Paris." And we have always the satisfaction of knowing that the annals of Catholic piety exceed beyond all comparison the meagre record of the eccentricities and crimes of those who, having " said in their hearts there is no God," act, after all, with some degree of reason in raising pyramids to monkeys and leaving endowments to carps and to cats. — ' Universe.'