Where an equal poise of hope and fear Does arbitrate the event, my nature is That I incline to hope, rather than fear. Milton.Comus. Spenser.Book IV. Canto VI. Stanza 37.
Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; Wait the great teacher, Death; and God adore, What future bliss he gives not thee to know, But gives that hope to be thy blessing now. Pope.Essay on Man, Epi. I. Line 91.
The wretch condemnd with life to part, Still, still on hope relies, And every pang that rends the heart Bids expectation rise. Hope, like the glimmering tapers light, Adorns and cheers the way; And still, as darker grows the night, Emits a brighter ray. Goldsmith.Song from the Captivity.
Races, better than we, have leaned on wavering promise, having nought else but hope. Longfellow.Tegners Children of the Lords Supper. (Races of People.)
I beheld his body half wasted away with long expectation and confinement; and felt what kind of sickness of heart it was which arises from hope deferred. Sterne.Sent. Journey; the Captive.
While there is life, theres hope, he cried, Then why such haste?so groand and died. Gay.Fable 27. Colley Cibber.The Double Gallant, Act V. Scene 1.