When reading the account in full, the toga request seems more to do with practicality, or perhaps diminished lucidity, than any grand symbolic gesture. Russell was apparently in a great deal of pain and wanted to be comfortable. But it is revealing to note the readiness with which his followers ascribed profound spiritual meaning to a repurposed bed sheet—even borrowing prose from Roman poets in their eagerness to put a few final, grand words in the mouth of their deceased hero.
