seven o'clock
I had been absent , I said , about fifteen years , and felt that the enjoyment of this night would form an era in the records of my memory and my feelings . I find myself indeed utterly incapable of expressing what I experienced ; but those who have ever been in similar circumstances will understand what I mean . A strong spirit of practical poetry and romance was upon me ; and I thought that a commonplace approach in the open day would have rendered my return to the scenes of my early life a very stale and unedifying matter . I left the inn at seven o'clock , and as I had only five miles to walk , I would just arrive about nine , allowing myself to saunter on at the rate of two miles and half per hour . My sensations , indeed , as I went along , were singular ; and as I took a solitary road that went across the mountains , the loneliness of the walk , the deep gloom of the valleys , the towering height of the dark hills , and the pale silvery-light of a sleeping lake , shining dimly in the distance below , gave me such a distinct notion of the sublime and beautiful , as I have seldom since experienced . I recommend every man who has been fifteen years absent from his native fields to return by moonlight . Well , there is a mystery yet undiscovered in our being , for no man can know the full extent of his feelings or his capacities .