Samuel Johnson on Death
From The Life of Johnson:
When we were alone, I introduced the subject of death, and
endeavoured to maintain that the fear of it might be got over. I
told him that David Hume said to me, he was no more uneasy to
think he should not be after his life, than that he had
not been before he began to exist. JOHNSON. "Sir, if he
really thinks so, his perceptions are disturbed; he is mad; if he
does not think so, he lies. He may tell you, he holds his finger
in the flame of a candle, without feeling pain; would you believe
him? When he dies, he at least gives up all he has." BOSWELL.
"Foote, Sir, told me, that when he was very ill he was not afraid
to die." JOHNSON. "It is not true, Sir. Hold a pistol to Foote's
breast, or to Hume's breast, and threaten to kill them, and
you'll see how they behave." BOSWELL. "But may we not fortify our
minds for the approach of death" -- Here I am sensible I was in
the wrong, to bring before his view what he ever looked upon with
horrour; for although when in a celestial frame of mind in his
"Vanity of Human Wishes," he has supposed death to be "kind
Nature's signal for retreat," from this state of being to "a
happier seat," his thoughts upon this awful change were in
general full of dismal apprehensions. His mind resembled the vast
amphitheatre, the Colisaeum at Rome. In the centre stood his
judgement, which like a mighty gladiator, combated those
apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena,
were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a
conflict, he drives them back into their dens; but not killing
them, they were still assailing him. To my question, whether we
might not fortify our minds for the approach of death, he
answered, in a passion, "No, Sir, let it alone. It matters not
how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of
importance, it lasts so short a time." He added, (with an earnest
look,) "A man knows it must be so, and submits. It will do him no
good to whine."
I attempted to continue the conversation. He was so provoked,
that he said: "Give us no more of this;" and was thrown into such
a state of agitation, that he expressed himself in a way that
alarmed and distressed me; shewed an impatience that I should
leave him, and when I was going away, called to me sternly,
"Don't let us meet to-morrow."
From The Life of Johnson, pp. ???:
I expressed a horrour at the thought of death. MRS. KNOWLES.
"Nay, thou should'st not have a horrour for what is the gate of
life." JOHNSON. (Standing upon the hearth rolling about, with a
serious, solemn, and somewhat gloomy air:) "No rational man can
die without uneasy apprehension." MRS. KNOWLES. "The Scriptures
tell us, 'The righteous shall have hope in his death.'"
JOHNSON. "Yes, Madam; that is, he shall not have despair. But,
consider, his hope of salvation must be founded on the terms on
which it is promised that the mediation of our SAVIOUR shall be
applied to us, -- namely, obedience; and where obedience has
failed, then, as suppletory to it, repentance. But what man can
say that his obedience has been such, as he would approve of in
another, or even in himself upon close examination, or that his
repentance has not been such as to require being repented of? No
man can be sure that his obedience and repentance will obtain
salvation." MRS. KNOWLES. "But divine intimation of acceptance
may be made to the soul." JOHNSON. "Madam, it may; but I should
not think the better of a man who should tell me on his deathbed,
he was sure of salvation. A man cannot be sure himself that he
has divine intimation of acceptance; much less can he make others
sure that he has it." BOSWELL. "Then, Sir, we must be contented
to acknowledge that death is a terrible thing." JOHNSON. "Yes,
Sir, I have made no approaches to a state which can look on it as
not terrible." MRS. KNOWLES, (seeming to enjoy a pleasing
serenity in the persuasion of benignant divine light:) "Does not
St. Paul say, 'I have fought the good fight of faith, I have
finished my course; henceforth is laid up for me a crown of
life'?" JOHNSON. "Yes, Madam; but here was a man inspired, a man
who had been converted by supernatural interposition." BOSWELL.
"In prospect death is dreadful; but in fact we find that people
die easy." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, most people have not
thought much of the matter, so cannot say much, and
it is supposed they die easy. Few believe it certain they are
then to die; and those who do, set themselves to behave with
resolution, as a man does who is going to be hanged: -- he is not
the less unwilling to be hanged." MISS SEWARD. "There is one mode
of the fear of death, which is certainly absurd: and that is the
dread of annihilation, which is only a pleasing sleep without a
dream." JOHNSON. "It is neither pleasing, nor sleep; it is
nothing. Now mere existence is so much better than nothing, that
one would rather exist even in pain, than not exist." BOSWELL.
"If annihilation be nothing, then existing in pain is not a
comparative state, but is a positive evil, which I cannot think
we should choose. I must be allowed to differ here, and it would
lessen the hope of a future state founded on the argument, that
the Supreme Being, who is good as He is great, will hereafter
compensate for our present sufferings in this life. For if
existence, such as we have it here, be comparatively a good, we
have no reason to complain, though no more of it should be given
to us. But if our only state of existence were in this world,
then we might with some reason complain that we are so
dissatisfied with our enjoyments compared with our desires."
JOHNSON. "The lady confounds annihilation, which is nothing, with
the apprehension of it, which is dreadful. It is in the
apprehension of it that the horrour of annihilation consists."
From The Life of Johnson, pp. ???:
His great fear of death, and the strange dark manner in which Sir
John Hawkins imparts the uneasiness which he expressed on account
of offences with which he charged himself, may give occasion to
injurious suspicions, as if there had been something of more than
ordinary criminality weighing upon his conscience. On that
account, therefore, as well as from the regard to truth which he
inculcated, * I am to mention, (with all possible respect and
delicacy, however,) that his conduct after he came to London, and
had associated with Savage and others, was not so strictly
virtuous, in one respect, as when he was a younger man. It was
well known, that his amorous inclinations were uncommonly strong
and impetuous. He owned to many of his friends, that he used to
take women of the town to taverns, and hear them relate their
history. -- In short, it must not be concealed, that like many
other good and pious men, among whom we may place the apostle
Paul upon his own authority, Johnson was not free from
propensities which were ever "warring against the law of his
mind." -- and that in his combats with them, he was sometimes
overcome.
From The Life of Johnson, pp. ???:
I mentioned to him that I had seen the execution of several
convicts at Tyburn, two days before, and that none of them seemed
to be under any concern. JOHNSON. "Most of them, Sir, have never
thought at all." BOSWELL. "But is not the fear of death natural
to man?" JOHNSON. "So much so, Sir, that the whole of life is but
keeping away the thoughts of it." He then, in a low and earnest
tone, talked of his meditating upon the awful hour of his own
dissolution, and in what manner he should conduct himself upon
that occasion: "I know not (said he,) whether I should wish to
have a friend by me, or have it all between GOD and myself."