noon
This delighted him so much that he fairly beamed with pleasure . But even then he gave himself no rest . He took the elixir which he had made the day before into the library , and there he wrote and wrote . At noon he allowed a morsel of food to be brought to him , and ate it seated at his desk . When he had finished he continued his work with his pen , sealing-wax and seal , until the notary , Herr Winckler , called towards evening . For the first time in the course of their long friendship he fell on the notary 's neck , and told him with wet eyes , and broken voice that he had reached the happiest hour of his life , for the great work to which he had already dedicated himself while yet in Padua and Bologna , was completed , and that only the preceding evening he had achieved the most marvellous discovery of all times . One of whose effects would be that a new epoch would dawn for the profession to which Herr Winckler belonged -- that of the law .