Samuel Johnson on Dealing With Death

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum
and Bookshop, located in Lichfield, England.

It's never easy to accept the passing of a friend or family member. Suddenly, you know that the time of parting has come, and you will never see that person again. The grief that accompanies this realization can be devastating. Yet we all have to accept that someone we admired, respected, and (hopefully) loved has died, and move forward with our lives.

Recently, I've had to accept the death of two friends, neither of whom I was currently close to, but both of which figured prominently in my past. As an aspiring author, death has also dwelt in my thoughts due to the passing of Jay Lake, a celebrated Science Fiction and Fantasy author. Jay Lake wrote hundreds of short stories, and several novels during his short but brilliant career. While he was about my age, he exhibited the energy and enthusiasm of a much younger man. He lent laughter and interest to any convention or event he attended, and will be greatly missed by SF/F readers and fans.

While my recent experiences with death have been palpable, they have been minor compared with that of an extended family member, who has lost two brothers within the past eight months. She is reeling from that double loss, and I grieve with her, even though I cannot physically stand alongside her. The longer we live, the more Death seems a constant companion, someone to be dodged but never really lost or evaded. This forces each of us to accept these deaths, and reclaim the joy of living. If we fail in this, we carry our losses with us into the future, always walking forward while looking backward, and unable to appreciate the joys that tomorrow can bring.

Author Samuel Johnson is renowned for his writings, from his reinterpretations of Shakespeare, to his important English dictionary, to his short novel The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. But he was no stranger to death. As a young man, he had to deal with such notable losses as those of his father Michael Johnson, his friend Harry Porter, and childhood friend and tutor Cornelius Ford. While working on his dictionary, his wife Elizabeth (affectionally known as Tetty) passed away. Then, in his late forties, he had to deal with the death of his mother Sarah. Despite his contributions to literature, Samuel Johnson was not a rich man. In order to pay his mother's funeral costs, he wrote Rasselas. The short novel exploded onto the literary landscape with innumerable editions and translations. Popular authors referenced it in their stories. It's an entertaining story, loaded with observations on life, and Samuel Johnson wrote in a week to pay the costs of his mother's funeral. There's a tremendous energy that comes with grief, and Samuel Johnson channeled that to create a story that entertained his generation, and continues to touch readers' lives.

Death touches all of us at one time or another, and how we deal with our grief determines the course of our lives. Samuel Johnson used his grief to craft a story that celebrates life, and brought joy to people all over the world. Grief can have a positive side, if instead of getting lost in it, we can somehow use it to enrich the lives of others. It's not easy to work through pain, to turn loss into gain, but Samuel Johnson's example shows us that it is possible. That helps me deal with the small yet tangible grief I'm currently feeling. Perhaps, if you're also suffering the pain of loss, his example can help you too.

Dragon Dave 

Samuel Johnson on the Transcendent Power of Friendship

Friendship & Fellowship in Lichfield, England
Samuel Johnson's hometown

In Samuel Johnson's story The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, Imlac, Rasselas, and Nekayah have traveled to the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. When Pekuah pleads for them not to enter, Nekayah could have ordered her servant to accompany them. Instead, her heart softens, and allows the frightened woman to remain outside. Then she follows Imlac and Rasselas inside the pyramid. 

While the men muse on what prompted the ancient rulers to build a feat of engineering comparable only to the Great Wall of China, Nekayah studies the sarcophagi, and all the other features of the richly furnished galleries. She tries to store away all the marvels she has seen, so she can tell Pekuah all about them later.

She and the men leave the Great Pyramid, and find the tents in disarray. A servant tells them that during their exploration, a group of Arabs arrived, “seized the Lady Pekuah with her two maids, and carried them away.” The Arabs might have taken the entire party, had it not been for a party of Turks who were chasing them. The servant advises them that all they can do now is wait, and hope the Turks return with the Lady Pekuah and her maids. But the Turks do not return with Pekuah, and so after awhile the party returns to Cairo, where Rasselas makes inquiries, petitions the Bassa (an Egyptian governor), and hires people to discover Pekuah’s location.

Nekayah, meanwhile, sinks into gloom that her favorite companion is gone. She blames herself for her kindness in allowing Pekuah to remain outside the pyramid. She spends her days reliving all the good times she spent with her servant, and clutches those memories to her heart. She loses interest in Cairo, and nothing that occurs in their household seems as enjoyable as what happened when Pekuah was with her. After two months have passed, she announces that she wishes to shut herself away, and join a convent. Imlac and Rasselas convince her to wait a year before she makes such a monumental decision, but she only agrees if the two pledge to continue their inquiries, and pursue any reasonable means of finding her.

Rasselas and Imlac continue paying informants and private investigators, and after seven months they learn that Pekuah is being held by an Arab chief in an Egyptian castle. Nekayah doesn't flinch at the large ransom the Arab demands, and by this time, the men know better than to deny her this. So Imlac and Rasselas arrange for her release, and take strategic precautions to ensure that the Arab chief holding her neither swindles nor captures them during the handoff. 

In addition to his famous dictionary, Samuel Johnson wrote nonfiction books and newspaper articles. For two years, he even sold a biweekly periodical called "The Rambler" directly through newsagents, in which he addressed issues and topics that concerned the rising middle-class of the 18th Century. Some critics view The History of Rasselas, The Prince of Abyssinia, as a condensed version of the latter, cloaked in a thin fictional veil. At times, the story certainly leans toward the didactic, and some might argue that reading it is pointless, as we know that there is no perfect place or situation that can grant any person a maximum of pleasure and a minimum of pain. But I enjoyed Johnson's story, and my favorite part of it was seeing how much Nekayah loved her servant Pekuah, as well as the lengths Imlac and Rasselas went to secure her release.

Truly, friendship knows no bounds, regardless of how often we differentiate ourselves based on race, religion, politics, behavior, or other such important factors.

Dragon Dave

Samuel Johnson on the Power of Superstition

A statue of the Egyptian goddess Hathor,
courtesy of the British Museum in London

After Imlac, Rasselas, and his sister Nekayah return to Cairo with the hermit in Samuel Johnson’s novella The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, the prince and princess divide their efforts to observe every aspect of city life. When they come together, they compare notes, and argue the merits of a country versus city life, and domestic matters such as the ideal age for marital partners. Then Imlac approaches them with a suggestion.

“You wander about a single city, which, however large and diversified, can now afford few novelties, and forget that you are in a country famous among the earliest monarchies for the power and wisdom of its inhabitants. The old Egyptians have left behind them monuments of industry and power before which all European magnificence is confessed to fade away. To see men, we must see their works, that we may learn what reason has dictated or passion has excited.”

The royal siblings dismiss this suggestion at first. Rasselas argues that his “business is with man, not with piles of stone or mounds of earth.“ But gradually Imlac makes his case to the prince and princess.

“Let us visit them to-morrow,” said Nekayah. “I have often heard of the Pyramids, and shall not rest till I have seen them, within and without, with my own eyes.”

The trio travel to the Great Pyramid, and as their servants erect tents, they marvel at this structure that has defied time and nature’s efforts to sweep away all monuments to human civilization. But when they prepare to go inside, Nekayah’s servant Pekuah begs them not to enter. “The original possessors of these dreadful vaults will start up before us, and perhaps shut us in for ever.” Pekuah is anything but a simple-minded servant. Among Nekayah’s staff, she is called Lady Pekuah, and has maids that personally attend her. She converses easily with the princess, and readily takes charge when the situation demands. In many ways, she seems to have benefitted as much from Imlac's counsel (as well as the other educators from their days in the Happy Valley) as Nekayah and Rasselas. Yet she shakes with fear while warning of the ghosts that await them inside, intent on imprisoning their bodies and corrupting their souls. 

The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the seven great wonders of the world. For nearly four thousand years, no one built anything taller. Even back as far as the fifth century BC, people of importance such as the Greek historian Herodotus traveled to Egypt, and discovered its wonders. Despite centuries of looting, exquisite Egyptian architecture, sarcophagi, decorations and furnishings await her. It is a place that, both then and now, most people would love to visit. Yet Lady Pekuah elects to remain outside the Great Pyramid, along with the other servants, their supplies, and of course, the camels.

That is the power of superstition.

Dragon Dave

Samuel Johnson on the Virtues of Country Life

The sylvan splendors of Lichfield, England
Samuel Johnson's hometown

In The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson, Rasselas’ advisor Imlac has counseled the prince on the value of knowing his own mind. Disturbed by his recent experiences in the city, Rasselas travels into the country. He has heard of a hermit whose virtue has won praise for miles around. Perhaps this man can teach him principles and disciplines that can lead to lasting happiness.

Accompanied by Imlac and the princess Nekayah, Rasselas treks through verdant fields, where sheep feed without concern, and the shepherds guard them. Such idyllic splendor overwhelms Imlac. “This,” said the poet, “is the life which has been often celebrated for its innocence and quiet; let us pass the heat of the day among the shepherds’ tents, and know whether all our searches are not to terminate in pastoral simplicity.”

When they question the shepherds, they realize that peace and tranquility do not necessarily accompany such a simple existence. The shepherds resent their lowly status, and curse the aristocracy, whom they blame for their economic hardship, exile from society, and political impotency. Their vitriol astounds Imlac and Rasselas. Still, the princess holds out hope that she might find joy and satisfaction among people who grow their own flowers, who love to wander through the fields and woods, breathe in the cool, fresh breeze, listen to a gentle stream coursing over stones, and adore the sheep they tend.

Her wish is soon granted. Their journey to the hermit leads them into the woods, where they find twisting walkways cut through tall, healthy trees. Flowers tussle in a riot of colors from well tended planting beds. Tree limbs have been artfully woven together. Water from a nearby stream babbles over rocks. Then, in a scene reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, in which Bilbo and the dwarves discover the woodland elves in Mirkwood Forest, Rasselas, Imlac, and the princess enter a grove where young men and women dance to spritely music. 

They are welcomed into a stately palace, where the master offers them every luxury. After several days there, the master confides that a powerful man known as the Bassa envies his prosperity. Up until now, the princes of Egypt have sheltered him, but he knows this cannot last forever, as the princes need money to sustain their power and the splendor of their courts. Thus, the master has sent the majority of his wealth into another country. The instant his spies report that royal favor has turned from him to the Bassa, he will flee from his fine palace, and consign himself to exile.

Troubled by this discovery, Rasselas, Imlac, and Nekayah continue their journey. Soon they reach the hermit, who tells them that he was once a great warrior. When he tired of the constant clash of battle, he fled his enemies for the silence and seclusion of this cave. For many years he found serenity there, but now he is bored, and wishes to leave! Or, as he puts it: I am sometimes ashamed to think that I could not secure myself from vice but by retiring from the exercise of virtue, and begin to suspect that I was rather impelled by resentment than led by devotion into solitude. The hermit digs up what treasures he brought with him, and accompanies the trio back to Cairo.

England overflows with scenic splendor. Bewitching woods, rich pasturelands, and forbidding caves beckon the visitor. Her landscape suggests that, outside the larger cities, life might consist of nonstop tranquility. Yet one of her favorite sons, Samuel Johnson, tells us that, even there, life in the country can never be carefree. 

Still, Samuel Johnson wrote The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia in 1759. A lot can change in two hundred-and-fifty years, right?

Dragon Dave

Samuel Johnson on Pleasure and Reason

The pursuit of life in Lichfield, England,
Samuel Johnson's hometown.

In Samuel Johnson’s novella, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, we follow young Rasselas on his quest for a lasting happiness and fulfillment. Along with his sister and advisor, the prince has escaped the unsatisfying diversions of the Happy Valley, and traveled to Cairo. Amid the rich social strata of this bustling metropolis, he expects to find ample opportunities to discover the people and situation in which he truly belongs.

Rasselas rose the next day, and resolved to begin his experiments upon life. “Youth,” cried he, “is the time of gladness: I will join myself to the young men whose only business is to gratify their desires, and whose time is all spent in a succession of enjoyments.”

Like Arthur Huntington in Anne Bronte’s novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, he joins Cairo’s equivalent of London’s gentleman’s clubs. Time passes swiftly in such society, but his hilarity and mirth evaporate when he returns home, leaving him feeling empty and depressed. This hardly seems like the foundation for a life of happiness and fulfillment.

Nonetheless, he cannot deny that he enjoyed their company. Perhaps he could help spur his new friends on to forge a purpose for their lives that would provide them all with lasting happiness and satisfaction. So he returns to reason with them. “Perpetual levity must end in ignorance,” he argues, “and intemperance, though it may fire the spirits for an hour, will make life short or miserable.” His friends listen to him, and study each other’s features. Then, just as Arthur Harrington responds to Helen's reproaches, the room erupts with laughter.

Of course, cities not only provide ample opportunities for relaxation and indulgence, but also for discourse and instruction. Having tried the former, Rasselas seeks out the latter. In a grand hall choked with people, he listens to an old man preach that everyone should direct his life by reason alone, and ignore fancies and passions. He compared reason to the sun, of which the light is constant, uniform, and lasting; and fancy to a meteor, of bright but transitory lustre, irregular in its motion and delusive in its direction.

Given his recent experience among the rich gentlemen his age, Rasselas welcomes the old man’s teaching. Yet when he seeks out the sage later, he finds the teacher overwhelmed by sadness, as his daughter has just died. Rasselas gently reminds him that death is a part of life, the inevitable consequences of which should not divert the man from following reason's straight, guiding course. The man responds that reason has abandoned him, and his daughter’s death has stripped his life of meaning. The man's teachings had seemed so wise, yet the man's philosophy has failed to insulate him against unhappiness and despair. Rasselas, not wishing to bring the man greater pain, leaves him to his mourning.

Perhaps Rasselas can be blamed for seeking out frivolity, as he spent his youth in the Happy Valley, where servants catered to his every whim. But given his altered status, we can understand his desire to seek out others who occupy a similar position in society. We can also understand his excitement in seeking out a man who had discovered the key to lasting happiness, and his disappointment in realizing that the sage is not the equal of his teachings. We may come from different backgrounds, and occupy different social and economic strata, but who doesn’t wish to find others who share their interests and concerns? Which one of us doesn’t seek the best ideology, or principles, along which to order our lives? Thus Samuel Johnson reminds us that pleasure and reason can perform useful roles, but neither should rule our lives.

Dragon Dave

Samuel Johnson on Finding Your Place in Society

Mingling with the locals in Lichfield, England:
Samuel Johnson's hometown.

In The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, Samuel Johnson introduces us to Imlac, a man of uncommon learning. In his long life, he has traveled over much of the known world, and met people from many countries and cultures. While he failed to gain acclaim as a poet, his desire to master that art led him to study nature, individuals, and society in all their varied forms. Then, when the rigors of his life caught up with him, and he realized that he had no home to return to, and no place he truly belonged, he applied to the king of Abyssinia for admission into the Happy Valley. There he spent his days and nights enjoying the comfort and luxuries of the royal palace, and shared with the princes and princesses of the realm all he had learned and experienced. 

After awhile, he realizes that one prince in particular shows interest in him. Prince Rasselas has grown bored with life in the Happy Valley, and wishes to see the world. While he's enjoyed his period of rest, Imlac realizes how static life in the Happy Valley is, where every aspect of life is centered around the interests and comfort of the royal family. He feels the itch to travel again, to continue to learn and grow. Yet the king keeps the one entrance to this valley guarded and gated for a reason: to preserve his family against all harm, so that one of them can take his place on the throne when he dies. Imlac knows it will not be easy, but he agrees to help Rasselas search for a way out that the royal security contingent have overlooked. If they find one, he will accompany the prince, and serve as his advisor and guide. 

Unlike the brilliant mechanist, whose knowledge was mostly theoretical, Imlac's years of observing human societies and nature in minute detail proves valuable immediately. 

As they were walking on the side of the mountain they observed that the coneys, which the rain had driven from their burrows, had taken shelter among the bushes, and formed holes behind them tending upwards in an oblique line. “It has been the opinion of antiquity,” said Imlac, “that human reason borrowed many arts from the instinct of animals; let us, therefore, not think ourselves degraded by learning from the coney. We may escape by piercing the mountain in the same direction. We will begin where the summit hangs over the middle part, and labour upward till we shall issue out beyond the prominence.”

They spend several days searching, and finally discover a small cavern amid the shrubs and plants. This time, Rasselas doesn't have to wait a year for his instructor to construct a fabulous new invention. They procure readily available tools, and dig deeper into the cavern. When Princess Nekayah discovers their efforts, Imlac and Rasselas agree to take her with them, as she likewise desires escape.

After a few days, they emerge on the other side of the valley. Bringing gold and gems to pay their way in the world, Rasselas and Nekayah feel ready to begin their adventure. Yet, after she grows tired of walking, the princess begins to look for another palace, where the attendants can satisfy all her desires. Rasselas discovers that those he meets don’t leap to obey him, or pay him proper obeisance. Imlac watches them carefully, cautions them against actions that might betray their identities, and eventually forces them to remain in one village for several weeks until they grow accustomed to their lowered status in the world. Then they set off for Cairo

As they approached the city, which filled the strangers with astonishment, “This,” said Imlac to the Prince, “is the place where travellers and merchants assemble from all corners of the earth. You will here find men of every character and every occupation. Commerce is here honourable. I will act as a merchant, and you shall live as strangers who have no other end of travel than curiosity; it will soon be observed that we are rich. Our reputation will procure us access to all whom we shall desire to know; you shall see all the conditions of humanity, and enable yourselves at leisure to make your choice of life.”

While Imlac warned them what to expect, as they walk the streets, the prince and princess are overwhelmed by the noise and the crowds. Why should merchants and beggars accost them in the street, while the aristocracy pass them by? Bewildered, they allow Imlac to help them trade in an appropriate portion of their gems for a house, servants, food, and clothes. Imlac teaches Rasselas and Nekayah the value of the riches they have brought with them, so that they cannot be cheated and do not squander it. Imlac orders their house and lifestyles in a sufficiently impressive manner that their neighbors seek them out. Slowly, Rasselas and Nekayah begin to understand how a society works that does not revolve around them. They learn the local language. They observe how people conduct themselves with members of their own class, as well as individuals occupying higher and lower levels.  They witness the rich variety of humankind, and see all the sides of people’s personalities that they would never have observed from their royal subjects.

After two years in Cairo, Rasselas realizes that Imlac's oversight and tutelage have given him the skills and abilities to fulfill his original purpose: to understand how others live outside the Happy Valley. Now he can walk amongst strangers, and by careful observation and study, find his place among them. His time in the classroom may be over, but his education has only begun.

Dragon Dave

Samuel Johnson on the Value of Education

A statue of Samuel Johnson,
in his hometown of Lichfield, England

In The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, Samuel Johnson introduces us to Imlac, the son of a successful merchant. Although his father desires for him to follow the family trade, Imlac yearns to increase his knowledge and understanding of the world. When his school years end, his father gives him ten thousand gold pieces and charges him to travel, to buy and sell, and to return within four years, having doubled his original investment. Imlac travels with a caravan, but soon discovers that his fellow merchants, for no better reason than that they envy his greater wealth, conspire to cheat him. Disgusted with the world of commerce, Imlac discards all serious intentions of being a trader, and travels with the aim of increasing his knowledge of the world.

Imlac realizes that the education his father provided him was of great value. In Agra, the emperor grants him an interview, and afterwards welcomes him into the royal court. In Persia, he discovers people with drastically different lifestyles and social customs, and their openness gives him more insights into the diversity of human nature. In time, he realizes that humans prize one ability above all others: despite different languages, cultures, and outlooks, people regard poetry as the greatest achievement of mankind.

As Imlac tells his student Prince Rasselas, this inspires him to become a poet.

“I read all the poets of Persia and Arabia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes that are suspended in the mosque of Mecca. I saw everything with a new purpose; my sphere of attention was suddenly magnified; no kind of knowledge was to be overlooked. I ranged mountains and deserts for images and resemblances, and pictured upon my mind every tree of the forest and flower of the valley.” 

The calling of a poet dovetailed nicely with Imlac's interest in traveling. Surely the poet needed the extensive understanding of human nature that he craved! So he made it his goal to assess how and why people were happy or miserable with their lives, at each rung on the social ladder. He determined to understand their motivations, and how their outlook changed as they aged, regardless of their social position. Along the way, he strived to discard the prejudices associated with his childhood and homeland, study the sciences, and observe how people conducted themselves in the various strata of each society.

Imlac's travels took him to Syria and Palestine, where he interacted with the locals and travelers from all over Europe. He ranged throughout Asia, sometimes as a trader, and other times as a pilgrim. He spent time in Egypt, and finally returned to Goiama. There he learned that his father had been dead for fourteen years, and his brothers had all split the family money and moved away. Most of the friends he had grown up with had died, or barely remembered him. The rest thought him corrupted, rather than benefitted, from having spent so much time in different cultures and countries. 

Still, Goiama was his homeland. If he no longer had an actual home to return to, Imlac determined to make a new one for himself there. "I forgot, after a time, my disappointment, and endeavoured to recommend myself to the nobles of the kingdom; they admitted me to their tables, heard my story, and dismissed me. I opened a school, and was prohibited to teach. I then resolved to sit down in the quiet of domestic life, and addressed a lady that was fond of my conversation, but rejected my suit because my father was a merchant."

If Imlac ever actually got around to writing poetry, he never gained much money from selling it, nor did it afford him an entry into society. Certainly all his other attempts to reenter Goiaman society were repulsed. So he applied for entrance to the Happy Valley. The king of Abyssinia recognized his worth, and selected him to help train, teach, and prepare his sons and daughters for the most important task of all: to rule the kingdom in his stead. So Imlac received a pension of sorts: admittance to the Happy Valley, fine clothes and food, good company, and a position of esteem. He might have started off as a merchant's son, but he became an advisor to the son of a king. Thus Samuel Johnson reminds us that education is never wasted, and a life devoted to continual learning will often pay rich dividends, if not in the way we initially expected.

Dragon Dave