For in this "visionary" world one can't be sure at all;
And when I reached the great man's house he shook me by the hand,
And talked, as only Stead can talk, of Spooks and Borderland,
I own that I was tired of men who live upon the earth,
They hadn't recognised, I felt, my full and proper worth;
"They'll judge me much more fairly," I reflected, "when they're dead,—
So I'll go and seek an interview with William Thomas Stead."
The reason why I went to Stead is this: the great and good
Has lately found that English ghosts are much misunderstood;
Substantial man may swagger free, but, spite of all his boasts,