Yet had there never been the truth, I say,
The very lies themselves had died away.”
“True,” said a friend; “Heaven doubtless may dispense
A kind of dark and clouded evidence;
God has not promised that he will not send
A spirit freed to either foe or friend;
He may such proof, and only such, bestow,
Though we the certain truth can never know;
And therefore, though such floating stories bring
No strong or certain vouchers of the thing, 180