midnight
Now , nothing is of a more heavenly delight than to enter into a dusky room in the house of your friend , and there , with a blow of the heavenly rod , draw light from the dark wall -- open a window , a fountain of the eternal light , and let in the truth which is the life of the world . Joyously would a man spend his life , right joyously even if the road led to the gallows , in showing the grandest he sees -- the splendid purities of the divine religion -- the mountain top up to which the voice of God is ever calling his children . Yes , I can understand even how a man might live , like the good hermits of old , in triumphant meditation upon such all satisfying truths , and let the waves of the world 's time wash by him in unheeded flow until his cell changed to his tomb , and his spirit soared free . But to spend your time in giving little lessons when you have great ones to give ; in teaching the multiplication table the morning after you made at midnight a grand discovery upon the very summits of the moonlit mountain range of the mathematics ; in enforcing the old law , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself when you know in your own heart that not a soul can ever learn to keep it without first learning to fulfil an infinitely greater one -- to love his neighbour even as Christ hath loved him -- then indeed one may well grow disheartened , and feel as if he were not in the place prepared for , and at the work required of him . But it is just then that he must go back to school himself and learn not only the patience of God who keeps the whole dull obstinate world alive , while generation after generation is born and vanishes , and of the mighty multitude only one here and there rises up from the fetters of humanity into the freedom of the sons of God -- and yet goes on teaching the whole , and bringing every man who will but turn his ear a little towards the voice that calls him , nearer and nearer to the second birth -- of sonship and liberty -- not only this divine patience must he learn , but the divine insight as well , which in every form spies the reflex of the truth it can not contain , and in every lowliest lesson sees the highest drawn nearer , and the soul growing alive unto God . '' The next day at noon , mounted on Kelpie , Malcolm was in attendance upon his mistress , who was eager after a gallop in Richmond Park . Lord Liftore , who had intended to accompany her , had not made his appearance yet , but Florimel did not seem the less desirous of setting out at the time she had appointed Malcolm .