midnight
This was the reflection that he knew nothing of the quantity of the potion which he must take , nothing of the time or of the manner of taking it . Was it to be taken all at once , or in doses ? Pure , or diluted with wine , or with water , or with _ aqua vitæ _ ? At any hour , or at midnight , or at a particular epoch of the moon 's age , or when this or that star was in the ascendant ? The question bulked larger as he considered it ; for in life no trouble is surmounted but another appears to confront us ; nor is the most perfect success of an imperfect world without its drawback . Now that he held the elixir his , now that in fancy he had it in his grasp , the problem of the mode and the quantity which had seemed trivial and negligible a few days or hours before , grew to formidable dimensions ; nor could he of himself discover any solution of it . He had counted on finding with the potion some scrap of writing , some memorandum , some hieroglyphics at least , that , interpreted by such skill as he could command , would give him the clue he sought .