Midnight
In his enchanted castles we are disturbed by an uneasy suspicion that the inhabitants are merely allegorical characters , and that the spectre of a moral lurks in some dim recess ready to spring out upon us suddenly . Dr. Drake 's mind was as a house divided against itself : he was a moralist , emulating the `` sage and serious Spenser '' in his desire to exalt virtue and abase vice , he was a critic working out , with calm detachment , practical illustrations of the theories he had formulated , and he was a romantic enthusiast , imbued with a vague but genuine admiration for the wild superstitions of a bygone age . His stories exhibit painful evidence of the conflict which waged between the three sides of his nature . In the essay prefixed to _ Henry Fitzowen , a Gothic Tale _ , he distinguishes between the two species of Gothic superstition , the gloomy and the sportive , and addresses an ode to the two goddesses of Superstition -- one the offspring of Fear and Midnight , the other of Hesper and the Moon . In his story the spectres of darkness are put to flight by a troop of aerial spirits . Dr. Drake knew the Gothic stories of Walpole , Mrs. Barbauld , Clara Reeve and Mrs. Radcliffe ; and traces of the influence of each may be found in his work . Henry Fitzowen loves Adeline de Montfort , but has a powerful and diabolical rival -- Walleran -- whose character combines the most dangerous qualities of Mrs. Radcliffe 's villains with the magical gifts of a wizard .