midnight
This would certainly not forward my quest , and prudence , or cowardice -- two things easily confused when one is in peril -- counseled discretion , and discretion seemed to counsel flight . `` Discretion ! Discretion to perdition ! '' I cried , springing up from a midnight reverie in my hut . Every selfish argument for my own safety had passed in review before my mind , and something so akin to judicious caution , which we trappers in plain language called `` cowardice , '' was insidiously assailing my better self , I cast logic 's sophistries to the winds , and dared death or torture to drive me from my post . Whence comes this sublime , reasonless _ abandon _ of imperiled human beings , which casts off fear and caution and prudence and forethought and all that goes to make success in the common walks of life , and at one blind leap mounts the Sinai of duty ? To me , the impulse upwards is as mysterious as the impulse downwards , and I do not wonder that pagans ascribe one to Ormuzd , the other to Ahriman .