The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Foreword
• Introduction
• The Life of Joseph Addison
• Addison the Essayist
• Cato, a Tragedy
• Editors’ Note
• Acknowledgments
• Cato: a Tragedy
• Prologue By Mr. Pope 2
• Dramatis Personae
• Act I —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv
• Scene V
• Scene Vi
• Act Ii —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv
• Scene V
• Scene Vi
• Act Iii —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv
• Scene V
• Scene Vi
• Scene Vii
• Act Iv —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv —
• Act V —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv
• Epilogue By Dr. Garth. 1
• Selected Essays
• Tatler, No. 161
• Tatler, No. 162
• Whig Examiner, No. 5
• Spectator, No. 55
• Spectator, No. 125
• Spectator, No. 169
• Spectator, No. 215
• Spectator, No. 219
• Spectator, No. 231
• Spectator, No. 237
• Spectator, No. 243
• Spectator, No. 255
• Spectator, No. 256
• Spectator, No. 257
• Spectator, No. 287
• Spectator, No. 293
• Spectator, No. 349
• Spectator, No. 446
• Spectator, No. 557
• Guardian, No. 99
• Guardian, No. 161
• Freeholder, No. 1
• Freeholder, No. 2
• Freeholder, No. 5
• Freeholder, No. 10
• Freeholder, No. 12
• Freeholder, No. 13 1
• Freeholder, No. 16
• Freeholder, No. 29
• Freeholder, No. 34
• Freeholder, No. 39
• Freeholder, No. 51
• The Life and Character of M. Cato of Utica [ ]

SCENE I

Cato, solus, sitting in a thoughtful posture: in his hand Plato’s Book on the Immortality of the Soul.1

A drawn sword on the table by him.

• It must be so—Plato, thou reason’st well!—
• Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
• This longing after immortality?
• Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
• Of falling into nought? why shrinks the soul

• Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
• ’Tis the divinity that stirs within us;
• ’Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter,
• And intimates eternity to man.
• Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!

• Through what variety of untried being,
• Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
• The wide, the unbounded prospect, lies before me;
• But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it.
• Here will I hold. If there’s a power above us,

• (And that there is all nature cries aloud
• Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue;
• And that which he delights in, must be happy.2
• But when! or where!—This world was made for Caesar.
• I’m weary of conjectures—This must end ’em.

•     [Laying his hand on his sword.]
•     Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life,
• My bane and antidote, are both before me:
• This in a moment brings me to an end;
• But this informs me I shall never die.
• The soul secured in her existence, smiles

• At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
• The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
• Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years,
• But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
• Unhurt amidst the wars of elements,

• The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.
•   What means this heaviness that hangs upon me?
• This lethargy that creeps through all my senses?
• Nature, oppressed and harassed out with care,
• Sinks down to rest. This once I’ll favour her,

• That my awakened soul may take her flight,
• Renewed in all her strength, and fresh with life,
• An offering fit for heaven. Let guilt or fear
• Disturb man’s rest: Cato knows neither of ’em,
• Indifferent in his choice to sleep or die.

[1. ]Plato’s Phaedo contains Socrates’ death scene and three arguments for the immortality of the soul.

[2. ]The “argument from design” position begins from the observation that some design is visible in nature and uses that observation as proof of a divine designer or creator. This is also the source for the motto selected by Benjamin Franklin for the handbook for self-improvement in his Autobiography.