midday
If you care to listen to me , I will tell you a story which will explain this by an example . I came here from China on an English steamer which had been round the world . We stopped for fresh water , and landed on the east coast of the island of Sumatra . It was midday , and some of us , having landed , sat in the shade of some cocoanut palms by the seashore , not far from a native village . We were a party of men of different nationalities . As we sat there , a blind man approached us . We learned afterwards that he had gone blind from gazing too long and too persistently at the sun , trying to find out what it is , in order to seize its light .