Aphorism #229 Plan out your Life wisely,

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Aphorism #229 Plan out your Life wisely,

not as chance will have it, but with prudence and foresight. Without amusements it is wearisome, like a long journey where there are no inns: manifold knowledge gives manifold pleasure. The first day's journey of a noble life should be passed in conversing with the dead: we live to know and to know our-selves: hence true books make us truly men. The second day should be spent with the living, seeing and noticing all the good in the world. Everything is not to be found in a single country. The Universal Father has divided His gifts, and at times has given the richest dower to the ugliest. The third day isentirely for oneself. The last felicity is to be a philosopher.http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cRQnU28DuU-KjW8Kh_kmrZVJ5X4/0/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cRQnU28DuU-KjW8Kh_kmrZVJ5X4/0/da)
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[firedup121]

what does he mean by conversing with the dead?

[gruntingslime]

While I can't be completely certain, I would assume that it refers to familiarizing yourself with death philosophically. A lot of religions and philosophical practices would have one become comfortable with the notion of one's own mortality. It's a memento mori perhaps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori

[Climacus]

The ars moriendi didn't occur to me. I would've interpreted the metaphor, 'conversing with the dead,' as reading the works of long-dead authors. For he goes on to say 'true books make us truly men.'