It is Zanoni.
You observe those two men seated together, conversing earnestly.

Years long and many have flown away since they met last,--at least, bodily, and face to face.

But if they are sages, thought can meet thought, and spirit spirit, though oceans divide the forms.

Death itself divides not the wise.

Thou meetest Plato when thine eyes moisten over the Phaedo.
May Homer live with all men forever! They converse; they confess to each other; they conjure up the past, and repeople it; but note how differently do such remembrances affect the two.