John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
3233 Joseph Addison 1672-1719 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 3233 |
| AUTHOR: | Joseph Addison (1672–1719) |
| QUOTATION: | It must be so,—Plato, thou reasonest well! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread and inward horror Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? ’T is the divinity that stirs within us; ’T is Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought! |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Cato. Act v. Sc. 1. |