Berkeley (George, Bishop of Cloyne, metaphysical philosopher and author), 1684-1753.
The last words of Berkeley are not recorded, but the peacefulness and suddenness of his death are interesting. One evening he and his family were sitting and drinking tea together; he on one side of the fire, and his wife on the other, and his daughter making the tea at a little round table just behind him. She had given him one dish which he had drunk. She had poured out another which he left standing some time. "Sir," said she, "will you not take your tea?" Upon his making no kind of an answer, she stooped forward and looked at him, and found that he was dead.
Life of Bishop Berkeley.
Berkeley directed in his will that his body should be kept above ground more than five days, and until it became "offensive by the cadaverous smell, and that during the said time it lye unwashed, undisturbed and covered by the same bedclothes, in the same bed, the head raised upon pillows."
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