midnight
Of mine , I know but little . The throbbing pulses of the erring brain , the wild fancies of lunacy , take no note of time . There is no past nor future ; a dreadful present , full of its hurried and confused impressions , is all that the mind beholds ; and even when some gleams of returning reason flash upon the mad confusion of the brain , they come like sunbeams through a cloud , dimmed , darkened , and perverted . It is the restless activity of the mind in fever that constitutes its most painful anguish ; the fast-flitting thoughts that rush ever onwards , crowding sensation on sensation , an endless train of exciting images without purpose or repose ; or even worse , the straining effort to pursue some vague and shadowy conception which evades us ever as we follow , but which mingles with all around and about us , haunting us at midnight as in the noontime . Of this nature was a vision which came constantly before me , till at length , by its very recurrence , it assumed a kind of real and palpable existence ; and as I watched it , my heart thrilled with the high ardor of enthusiasm and delight , or sunk into the dark abyss of sorrow and despair . `` The dawning of morning , the daylight sinking , '' brought no other image to my aching sight ; and of this alone , of all the impressions of the period , has my mind retained any consciousness . Methought I stood within an old and venerable cathedral , where the dim yellow light fell with a rich but solemn glow upon the fretted capitals , or the grotesque tracings of the oaken carvings , lighting up the fading gildings of the stately monuments , and tinting the varied hues of time-worn banners .