midnight
It was intellectual . It was based on concept and history ; it was the philosophy of action of the strong and the pride of the strong in their own strength . Now at last I knew Nietzsche . I knew the rightness of the books , the relation of high thinking to high-conduct , the transmutation of midnight thought into action in the high place on the poop of a coal - carrier in the year nineteen-thirteen , my woman beside me , my ancestors behind me , my slant-eyed servitors under me , the beasts beneath me and beneath the heel of me . God ! I felt kingly . I knew at last the meaning of kingship .