3.
Ye higher men, it is getting on to midnight: then will I say something into
your ears, as that old clock-bell saith it into mine ear,-
-As mysteriously, as frightfully, and as cordially as that midnight clock-bell
speaketh it to me, which hath experienced more than one man:
-Which hath already counted the smarting throbbings of your fathers' hearts-ah! ah! how it sigheth! how it laugheth in its dream! the old, deep, deep
midnight!
Hush! Hush! Then is there many a thing heard which may not be heard by day; now
however, in the cool air, when even all the tumult of your hearts hath become
still,-
-Now doth it speak, now is it heard, now doth it steal into overwakeful,
nocturnal souls: ah! ah! how the midnight sigheth! how it laugheth in its
dream!
-Hearest thou not how it mysteriously, frightfully, and cordially speaketh unto
thee, the old deep, deep midnight?
O man, take heed!
