ten o’clock
For , certain it is , that on entering middle life , he who would keep his brain clear , his step elastic , his muscles from fleshiness , his nerves from tremor , -- in a word , retain his youth in spite of the register , -- should beware of long slumbers . Nothing ages like laziness . The hours before breakfast Darrell devoted first to exercise , whatever the weather ; next to his calm scientific pursuits . At ten o'clock punctually he rode out alone and seldom returned till late in the afternoon . Then he would stroll forth with Lionel into devious woodlands , or lounge with him along the margin of the lake , or lie down on the tedded grass , call the boy 's attention to the insect populace which sports out its happy life in the summer months , and treat of the ways and habits of each varying species , with a quaint learning , half humorous , half grave . He was a minute observer and an accomplished naturalist . His range of knowledge was , indeed , amazingly large for a man who has had to pass his best years in a dry and absorbing study : necessarily not so profound in each section as that of a special professor ; but if the science was often on the surface , the thoughts he deduced from what he knew were as often original and deep .