midnight
It rose in the breathless air , straight as a column , high and majestic ; and Thyrsis thought of that line . It carried him out into the heavens , and he knew that a flash of poetry such as that is the meeting of man 's groping hand with God 's . It was about here that a strange adventure came to him . It was midwinter , and he went out , long after midnight , to walk in a beautiful garden . A dry powdery snow crunched beneath his feet , and overhead the stars gleamed and quivered , so bright that he felt like stretching out his hands to them . The world lay still , and awful in its beauty ; and here suddenly , unsuspected -- unheralded , and quite unsought -- there came to Thyrsis a strange and portentous experience , the first of his ecstasies . He could not have told whether he walked or sat down , whether he spoke or was silent ; he lost all sense of his own existence -- his consciousness was given up to the people of his dreams , the companions and lovers of his fancy .