four in the morning
Of journeys ending in lovers ' meetings . The whole related by Mr Peter Burns , gentleman of leisure , who forfeits that leisure in a good cause . Peter Burns 's Narrative I am strongly of the opinion that , after the age of twenty-one , a man ought not to be out of bed and awake at four in the morning . The hour breeds thought . At twenty-one , life being all future , it may be examined with impunity . But , at thirty , having become an uncomfortable mixture of future and past , it is a thing to be looked at only when the sun is high and the world full of warmth and optimism .