midnight
There was a sickle moon in the sky , a tender sword whose radiance stayed in its own high places and did not at all illumine the heavy world below ; the glimmer of infrequent stars could also be seen with spacious , dark solitudes between them ; but on the earth the darkness gathered in fold on fold of misty veiling , through which the trees uttered an earnest whisper , and the grasses lifted their little voices , and the wind crooned its thrilling , stern lament . As the travellers walked on , their eyes , flinching from the darkness , rested joyfully on the gracious moon , but that joy lasted only for a little time . The Thin Woman spoke to them curiously about the moon , and , indeed , she might speak with assurance on that subject , for her ancestors had sported in the cold beam through countless dim generations . `` It is not known , '' said she , `` that the fairies seldom dance for joy , but for sadness that they have been expelled from the sweet dawn , and therefore their midnight revels are only ceremonies to remind them of their happy state in the morning of the world before thoughtful curiosity and self-righteous moralities drove them from the kind face of the sun to the dark exile of midnight . It is strange that we may not be angry while looking on the moon . Indeed , no mere appetite or passion of any kind dare become imperative in the presence of the Shining One ; and this , in a more limited degree , is true also of every form of beauty ; for there is something in an absolute beauty to chide away the desires of materiality and yet to dissolve the spirit in ecstasies of fear and sadness . Beauty has no liking for Thought , but will send terror and sorrow on those who look upon her with intelligent eyes .