Today in 1709, the poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, “the most distinguished man of letters in English history," was born.
Lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words—Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language
After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley’s ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, ‘I refute it thus.’–James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson