midnight
It was fenced away from the public view , but there it was , a gigantic and unassailable fact -- and to be heard from , yet , if I lived and had luck . There it was , as sure a fact and as substantial a fact as any serene volcano , standing innocent with its smokeless summit in the blue sky and giving no sign of the rising hell in its bowels . My schools and churches were children four years before ; they were grown-up now ; my shops of that day were vast factories now ; where I had a dozen trained men then , I had a thousand now ; where I had one brilliant expert then , I had fifty now . I stood with my hand on the cock , so to speak , ready to turn it on and flood the midnight world with light at any moment . But I was not going to do the thing in that sudden way . It was not my policy . The people could not have stood it ; and , moreover , I should have had the Established Roman Catholic Church on my back in a minute .