twelve
o'clock
But man is higher than his place . He looks up and spreads the wings of his soul , and when the sixty minutes , which we call sixty years , have finished striking , he then lifts himself up , and kindles himself as he rises , and the ashes of his plumage fall back , and the unveiled soul rises alone , free from earth , and pure as a musical tone . But here , in the midst of dark life , he sees the mountains of the future world standing in the morning gold of a sun that does not arise here . Thus , the inhabitant of the North Pole in the long night , when the sun has ceased to rise , discerns at twelve o'clock , a dawn gilding the highest mountains , and he thinks of his long summer , when it will set no more . -LSB- 1 -RSB- Or , perhaps , `` angelic garden , '' meaning a church-yard . The reading given above is most probably correct . On the 20th of November , 1815 , Albert von B -- , lieutenant-colonel in the Prussian service , found himself on the road from Liège to Aix-la-Chapelle .