Samuel Johnson, the English writer, lexicographer, critic, wit and subject of Boswell's Life of Johnson, died on this day in 1784. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
"The goal of all life is death." -- Sigmund Freud.
For some of Johnson's thoughts on the subject of death (and life leading up to it), visit farewells.blogspot.com.
Lately, however, his days and nights on the barstool had been preoccupied with strolls down memory lane. Perhaps that signaled a new interest in life. Or a fascination with death. His summing up. Whatever it was, he’d found that the most insignificant of events, the meagerest of impressions, could trigger them, these images and their associated narratives. Just to be alive was to remember, but heretofore the buzz and hum of everyday thought had held his memories at bay, for the most part. Had the reoccurrence of desire prompted, in some way, these waves, these floods of recollections? -- Chapter 29, The Misforgotten.
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