all future ages: and that so he shall be his mate no more, which is his great trouble.
“The howlings of forgotten fields”
is probably a classical allusion to those “fields” of mystic horror, over which the spirits of the departed were supposed to range, uttering wild shrieks and cries. Has Dante no such allusion?[26]
This Poem intimates the idea of progress and advancement after death.
XLII.
He reproaches himself for these fancies; for inasmuch as it was only unity of place which gave them the semblance of equality here—Hallam being always really ahead—why may not “Place retain us still,”[27] when I too am dead, and can be trained and taught anew by this “lord of large experience?”
“And what delights can equal those
That stir the spirit’s inner deeps,
When one that loves but knows not, reaps
A truth from one that loves and knows?”
There are no pleasures so sweet, as the imbibings of instruction from the lips of those who are both superior and dear to us.
It is evident that Hallam’s translation in death, had exalted his friend’s estimation of him whilst living, for see the Poet’s note at the end of Poem xcvii.
XLIII.