midnight
And yet this would scarcely parallel the intensity of Will 's feeling for the plain . If he could only go far enough out there , he felt as if his eyesight would be purged and clarified , as if his hearing would grow more delicate , and his very breath would come and go with luxury . He was transplanted and withering where he was ; he lay in a strange country and was sick for home . Bit by bit , he pieced together broken notions of the world below : of the river , ever moving and growing until it sailed forth into the majestic ocean ; of the cities , full of brisk and beautiful people , playing fountains , bands of music and marble palaces , and lighted up at night from end to end with artificial stars of gold ; of the great churches , wise universities , brave armies , and untold money lying stored in vaults ; of the high-flying vice that moved in the sunshine , and the stealth and swiftness of midnight murder . I have said he was sick as if for home : the figure halts . He was like some one lying in twilit , formless preexistence , and stretching out his hands lovingly towards many - coloured , many-sounding life . It was no wonder he was unhappy , he would go and tell the fish : they were made for their life , wished for no more than worms and running water , and a hole below a falling bank ; but he was differently designed , full of desires and aspirations , itching at the fingers , lusting with the eyes , whom the whole variegated world could not satisfy with aspects .