midnight
He counts his power of loving most sacred of all his powers , and guards it from harm as he guards his life itself ; he gives all his soul to the dreaming of that dream , and lays all his prayer before it ; and when he meets with the maiden who will honor such effort , he forgets everything else in his life , and gives her all his heart , and studies to ` worship her by years of noble deeds . ' For a woman who loves love , the heart of such a man is a lifetime 's treasure ; for his passion is of the soul , and does not die ; and all that he has done has been really but a training of himself for that great consecration . If he be a true artist , all his days have been spent in learning to wrestle with himself , to rouse himself and master his own heart ; until at last his very being has become a prayer , and his soul like a great storm of wind that sweeps everything away in its arms . Perhaps that hunger has possessed him so that he never even wakens in the dead of night without finding it with him in all its strength ; it rouses him in the morning with a song , and when midnight comes and he is weary , it is a benediction and a hand upon his brow . All the time , because he has a man 's heart and knows of his life 's great glory , his longing turns to a dream of love , to a vision of the flying perfect for which all his life is a search . There is a maiden who dwells in all the music that he hears , and who calls to him in the sunrise , and flings wide the flowers upon the meadows ; she treads before him on the moonlit waters and strews them with showers of fire . If his soul be only strong enough , perhaps he waits long years for that perfect woman , that woman who loves not herself , but loves love ; and all the time the yearning of his heart is growing , so that those who gaze at him wonder why his eyes are dark and sunken .