Note 18 — MEMOIR OF KEATS.

This seems to contradict the phrase in Adonais (stanza 20) 'Nought we know dies.' Probably Shelley, in the prose passage, does not intend 'perishes' to be accepted in the absolute sense of 'dies,' or 'ceases to have any existence;' he means that all things undergo a process of deterioration and decay, leading on to some essential change or transmutation. The French have the word 'dêpérir' as well as 'périr': Shelley's 'perishes' would correspond to 'dépérit.'