A fact within the coming year;
And tho' the months, revolving near,
Should prove the phantom-warning true,

They might not seem thy prophecies,
But spiritual presentiments,
And such refraction of events
As often rises ere they rise."


The author thus shows himself difficile as to recognising the
personal identity of a phantasm; nor is it easy to see what mode of
proving his identity would be left to a spirit. The poet, therefore,
appeals to some perhaps less satisfactory experience:-


"Descend, and touch, and enter; hear
The wish too strong for words to name;
That in this blindness of the frame
My Ghost may feel that thine is near."


The third poem is the crown of In Memoriam, expressing almost such
things as are not given to man to utter:-


And all at once it seem'd at last
The living soul was flash'd on mine,

And mine in this was wound, and whirl'd