JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir,
that is an affecting consideration. I remember Swift, in one of his
letters to Pope, says, "I intend to come over, that we may meet once
more; and when we must part, it is what happens to all human beings."'
BOSWELL. 'The hope that we shall see our departed friends again must
support the mind.' JOHNSON. 'Why yes, Sir.' BOSWELL. 'There is a strange
unwillingness to part with life, independent of serious fears as to
futurity. A reverend friend of ours (naming him) tells me, that he
feels an uneasiness at the thoughts of leaving his house, his study, his
books.' JOHNSON. 'This is foolish in *****. A man need not be uneasy on
these grounds; for, as he will retain his consciousness, he may say with
the philosopher, Omnia mea mecum porto.' BOSWELL. 'True, Sir: we may
carry our books in our heads; but still there is something painful in
the thought of leaving for ever what has given us pleasure. I remember,
many years ago, when my imagination was warm, and I happened to be in
a melancholy mood, it distressed me to think of going into a state of
being in which Shakspeare's poetry did not exist.
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