The Last ACT; Being the Funeral Rites of Nations and Individuals (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876. Excerpt: ... the suits of black usually worn by me. The body so clothed, together with the chair and the staff in my later years borne by me he will take charge of, and for containing the whole apparatus he will cause to be prepared an appropriate box or case, and will cause to be engraved in conspicuous characters on a plate to be affixed thereon, and also on the glass cases in which the preparations of the soft parts of my body shall be contained, as, for example, in the manner used in the case of wine decanters; my name at length with the letters ob: followed by the day of my decease. If it should so happen that my personal friends and other disciples should be disposed to meet together on some day or days of the year for the purpose of commemorating the founder of the Greatest Happiness System of Morals and Legislation, my Executor will, from time to time, cause to be conveyed to the room in which they meet the said box or case, with the contents, there to be stationed in such part of the room as to the assembled company shall seem meet." The directions given in the Paper entitled "Auto Icon" are: --The head to be prepared according to a specimen seen and approved by Mr. Bentham. The body to be used as the means of illustrating a series of lectures; the lecturer to expound the situation, structure and functions of the different organs. The object of the lectures was two-fold: to show that the prevailing terror at dissection Originates in ignorance, and is kept up by misconception; and, that the human body, when dissected, instead of being an object of disgust, is as much more beautiful than any other piece of mechanism, as it is more curious and wonderful. Jeremy Bentham's remains have for some years past been deposited in University College, Gower Street. Died 183...