midnight
How strange is life , and how mysteriously connected is the woe or the weal of a single family with the great mass of human society ! We beg the reader to stand with us upon a low , sloping hill , a little to the left of Fardorougha 's house , and , after having solemnized his heart by a glance at the starry gospel of the skies , to cast his eye upon the long , white-washed dwelling , as it shines faintly in the visionary distance of a moonlight night . How full of tranquil beauty is the hour , and how deep the silence , except when it is broken by the loud baying of the watch-dog , as he barks in sullen fierceness at his own echo ! Or perhaps there is nothing heard but the sugh of the mountain river , as with booming sound it rises and falls in the distance , filling the ear of midnight with its wild and continuous melody . Look around , and observe the spirit of repose which sleeps on the face of nature ; think upon the dream of human life , and of all the inexplicable wonders which are read from day to day in that miraculous page -- the heart of man . Neither your eye nor imagination need pass beyond that humble roof before you , in which it is easy to perceive , by the lights passing at this unusual hour across the windows , that there is something added either to their joy or to their sorrow . There is the mother , in whose heart was accumulated the unwasted tenderness of years , forgetting all the past in the first intoxicating influence of an unknown ecstasy , and looking to the future with the eager aspirations of affection .