midnight
`` Why , you blockhead , there is no such thing in _ rerum naturâ _ . I have come three thousand miles , and am resolved to set my foot on every peak of these mountains and poke my head into every chasm for the sole purpose of demonstrating to the satisfaction of any man one whit less an ass than thyself that the Great Carbuncle is all a humbug . '' Vain and foolish were the motives that had brought most of the adventurers to the Crystal Hills , but none so vain , so foolish , and so impious too , as that of the scoffer with the prodigious spectacles . He was one of those wretched and evil men whose yearnings are downward to the darkness instead of heavenward , and who , could they but extinguish the lights which God hath kindled for us , would count the midnight gloom their chiefest glory . As the cynic spoke several of the party were startled by a gleam of red splendor that showed the huge shapes of the surrounding mountains and the rock-bestrewn bed of the turbulent river , with an illumination unlike that of their fire , on the trunks and black boughs of the forest-trees . They listened for the roll of thunder , but heard nothing , and were glad that the tempest came not near them . The stars -- those dial-points of heaven -- now warned the adventurers to close their eyes on the blazing logs and open them in dreams to the glow of the Great Carbuncle .