noons
`` Then strange things -- soft , sad , and faint , I saw or heard ; as , when , in sunny , summer seas , down , down , you dive , starting at pensive phantoms , that you can not fix . '' ` These , ' breathed my guide , ` are spirits in their essences ; sad , even in undevelopment . With these , all space is peopled ; -- all the air is vital with intelligence , which seeks embodiment . This it is , that unbeknown to Mardians , causes them to strangely start in solitudes of night , and in the fixed flood of their enchanted noons . From hence , are formed your mortal souls ; and all those sad and shadowy dreams , and boundless thoughts man hath , are vague remembrances of the time when the soul 's sad germ , wide wandered through these realms . And hence it is , that when ye Mardians feel most sad , then ye feel most immortal . `` Like a spark new-struck from flint , soon Mardi showed afar .