Research source

I am still near, Watching the smiles I prized on earth, Your converse mild, your blameless mirth.[64

Date of account: Late nineteenth-century compilation
Source: The Ghost World
Reference: The Ghost World · selected passage 233
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Indeed, it has been the current opinion for centuries that places of burial are haunted with spectres and apparitions

Published source text

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Source passage

Source text · mention only

Indeed, it has been the current opinion for centuries that places of burial are haunted with spectres and apparitions. Ovid speaks of ghosts coming out of their sepulchres and wandering about, and Virgil,[285] too, quoting the popular opinion of his day, tells us how 'Moeris could call the ghosts out of their tombs.' In short, the idea of the ghost remaining near the corpse is of world-wide prevalence, and, as Dr. Tylor remarks,[286] 'through all the changes of religious thought from first to last in the course of human history, the hovering ghosts of the dead make the midnight burial-ground a place where man's flesh creeps with terror.' We may further compare Hamlet's words (Act iii. sc.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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