about six o'clock
It is singular to think what a strong authority vanity has over the principles and passions in the weakest and strongest moments of both ; I never was remarkable , at that open , ingenuous period of my life , for secrecy ; yet did I now take especial care not to invest either this attempt at the miraculous , or its concomitant failure , with anything like narration . It was , however , an act of devotion that had a vile effect on my lungs , for it gave me a cough that was intolerable ; and I never felt the infirmities of humanity more than in this ludicrous attempt to get beyond them ; in which , by the way , I was nearer being successful than I had intended , though in a different sense . This happened a month before I started for Lough Derg . It was about six o'clock of a delightful morning in the pleasant month of July , when I set out upon my pilgrimage , with a single change of linen in my pocket , and a pair of discarded shoes upon my bare feet ; for , in compliance with the general rule , I wore no stockings . The sun looked down upon all nature with great good humor ; everything smiled around me ; and as I passed for a few miles across an upland country which stretched down from a chain of dark rugged mountains that lay westward , I could not help feeling , although the feeling was indeed checked -- that the scene was exhilarating . The rough upland was in several places diversified with green spots of cultivated land , with some wood , consisting of an old venerable plantation of mountain pine , that hung on the convex sweep of a large knoll away to my right , -- with a broad sheet of lake that curled to the fresh arrowy breeze of morning , on which a variety of water-fowl were flapping their wings or skimming along , leaving a troubled track on the peaceful waters behind them ; there were also deep intersections of precipitous or sloping glens , graced with hazel , holly , and every description of copse-wood . On other occasions I have drunk deeply of pleasure , when in the midst of this scenery , bearing about me the young , free , and bounding spirit , its first edge of enjoyment unblunted by the collision of base minds and stony hearts , against which experience jostles us in maturer life .