my quick succession of busy nothings

Thus, does the lover consider the extinction of his passion, with the same horror as the libertine looks upon annihilation; the one would rather live hereafter (though in all the tortures with which his future state is described) than cease to exist; so there are no tortures a lover would not suffer, rather than cease to love.

-

Inchbald, Elizabeth (1791). A Simple Story. p 94

 (edited because I wrote the sorce wrong)