midnight
But there must come a solemn time to all who live . Death is upon our track , and will surely soon overtake us , and our decaying bodies must be hid forever from sight beneath the clods of the valley : but these minds shall then live , and happy they who , by a cultivation of the best principles of our nature , have an antepast of heaven while upon earth . May this be our happy case , gentle reader , if we meet not again on earth , we shall meet in heaven , `` for we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ . '' I have spread out before you the secret musings of many a midnight hour , and I feel that I am responsible for what I have written . May God grant forgivness for the wrong . And thus we part , gentle reader , to toss yet a little longer upon the stream of time , ere its waves and its billows pass over us forever . `` When midnight o'er the moonless skies , Her shades of mimic death has spread , When mortals sleep , when spectres rise ; And nought is wakeful but the dead .