midnight
As Apuleius says , pardon must be granted to novelty of words , when it serves to illustrate the obscurity of things . '' These words came from the lips of the lion-like philosopher , who has been noticed before in these pages . He was sitting with Flemming , smoking a long pipe . As the Baron said , he was indeed a strange owl ; for the owl is a grave bird ; a monk , who chants midnight mass in the great temple of Nature ; -- an anchorite , -- a pillar saint , -- the very Simeon Stylites of his neighbourhood . Such , likewise , was the philosophical Professor . Solitary , but with a mighty current , flowed the river of his life , like the Nile , without a tributary stream , and making fertile only a single strip in the vast desert . His temperament had been in youth a joyous one ; and now , amid all his sorrows and privations , for he had many , he looked upon the world as a glad , bright , glorious world .