noon
Thus in Nature herself , without man , there lies a waiting , and hoping , a looking and yearning , after an unknown somewhat . Yes ; when , above there , where the mountain lifts its head over all others , that it may be alone with the clouds and storms of heaven , the lonely eagle looks forth into the gray dawn , to see if the day comes not ! when , by the mountain torrent , the brooding raven listens to hear if the chamois is returning from his nightly pasture in the valley ; and when the soon uprising sun calls out the spicy odors of the thousand flowers , the Alpine flowers , with heaven 's deep blue and the blush of sunset on their leaves ; -- then there awakes in Nature , and the soul of man can see and comprehend it , an expectation and a longing for a future revelation of God 's majesty . It awakens , also , when in the fulness of life , field and forest rest at noon , and through the stillness is heard only the song of the grasshopper and the hum of the bee ; and when at evening the singing lark , up from the sweet-smelling vineyards rises , or in the later hours of night Orion puts on his shining armour , to walk forth in the fields of heaven . But in the soul of man alone is this longing changed to certainty and fulfilled . For lo ! thelight of the sun and the stars shines through the air , and is nowhere visible and seen ; the planets hasten with more than the speed of the storm through infinite space , and their footsteps are not heard , but where the sunlight strikes the firm surface of the planets , where the stormwind smites the wall of the mountain cliff , there is the one seen and the other heard .