six o'clock
His reason for this was , that the atmospheric air , being thus carried round by a longer circuit , and reaching the lungs , therefore , in a state of less rawness , and at a temperature somewhat higher , would be less apt to irritate them . By a steady perseverance in this practice , which he constantly recommended to his friends , he flattered himself with a long immunity from coughs , colds , hoarseness , and every mode of defluxion ; and the fact really was , that these troublesome affections attacked him very rarely . Indeed I myself , by only occasionally adopting his rule , have found my chest not so liable as formerly to such attacks . At six o'clock he sat down to his library table , which was a plain ordinary piece of furniture , and read till dusk . During this period of dubious light , so friendly to thought , he rested in tranquil meditation on what he had been reading , provided the book were worth it ; if not , he sketched his lecture for the next day , or some part of any book he might then be composing . During this state of repose he took his station winter and summer by the stove , looking through the window at the old tower of Lobenicht ; not that he could be said properly to see it , but the tower rested upon his eye , -- obscurely , or but half revealed to his consciousness . No words seemed forcible enough to express his sense of the gratification which he derived from this old tower , when seen under these circumstances of twilight and quiet reverie .