midnight
His temperament had been in youth a joyous one ; and now , amid all his sorrows and privations , for he had many , he looked upon the world as a glad , bright , glorious world . On the many joys of life he gazed still with the eyes of childhood , from the far-gone Past upward , trusting , hoping ; -- and upon its sorrows with the eyes of age , from the distant Future , downward , triumphant , not despairing . He loved solitude , and silence , and candle-light , and the deep midnight . `` For , '' said he , `` if the morning hours are the wings of the day , I only fold them about me to sleep more sweetly ; knowing that , at its other extremity , the day , like the fowls of the air , has an epicurean morsel , -- a parson 's nose ; and on this oily midnight my spirit revels and is glad . '' Such was the Professor , who had been talking in a half-intelligible strain for two hours or more . The Baron had fallen fast asleep in his chair ; but Flemming sat listening with excited imagination , and the Professor continued in the following words , which , to the best of his listener 's memory , seemed gleaned here and there from Fichte 's Destiny of Man , and Shubert 's History of the Soul . `` Life is one , and universal ; its forms many and individual .