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: Hans Vaihinger was a German philosopher, best known as a Kant scholar and for his Die Philosophie des Als Ob, published in 1911 but written more than thirty years earlier.
