This dead of midnight is the noon of thought,
And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.
At this still hour the self-collected soul
Turns inward, and beholds a stranger there
Of high descent, and more than mortal rank;
An embryo God; a spark of fire divine.
Bio: Charles Bonnet, Genevan naturalist and philosophical writer, was born at Geneva, of a French family driven into the region by the religious persecution in the 16th century.
