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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 298

 
 
Joseph Addison. (1672–1719) (continued)
 
3223
    ’T ’s pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul;
I think the Romans call it stoicism.
          Cato. Act i. Sc. 4.
3224
    Were you with these, my prince, you ’d soon forget
The pale, unripened beauties of the north.
          Cato. Act i. Sc. 4.
3225
    Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover,
Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.
The virtuous Marcia towers above her sex.
          Cato. Act i. Sc. 4.
3226
    My voice is still for war.
Gods! can a Roman senate long debate
Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?
          Cato. Act ii. Sc. 1.
3227
    Great Pompey’s shade complains that we are slow,
And Scipio’s ghost walks unaveng’d amongst us!
          Cato. Act ii. Sc. 1.
3228
    A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty
Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.
          Cato. Act ii. Sc. 1.
3229
    The woman that deliberates is lost.
          Cato. Act iv. Sc. 1.
3230
    Curse all his virtues! they ’ve undone his country.
          Cato. Act iv. Sc. 4.
3231
    What a pity is it
That we can die but once to save our country!
          Cato. Act iv. Sc. 4.
3232
    When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honour is a private station. 1
          Cato. Act iv. Sc. 4.
3233
    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,
 
Note 1.
Give me, kind Heaven, a private station,
A mind serene for contemplation!
Title and profit I resign;
The pot of honour shall be mine.
John Gay: Fables, Part ii. The Vulture, the Sparrow, and other Birds. [back]