"I recline upon the still unwithered grass, and whisper to myself: -- 'Oh, perfect day! -- Oh, beautiful world! -- Oh, beneficent God!' And it is the promise of a blissful Eternity; for our Creator would never have made such lovely days, and given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal. This sunshine is the golden pledge thereof. It beams through the gates of Paradise, and shows us glimpses far inward." 

-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

    Preface to Mosses from an Old Manse