In a few moments I would have been lifeless. But, just at the
instant when consciousness was about leaving me, the guardian of the
night appeared. With a single stroke of his heavy mace, he laid the
midnight robber and assassin senseless upon the floor.

How instantly was that humble watchman ennobled in my eyes! How high
and important was his use in society! I looked at him from a new
standpoint, and saw him in a new relation.

"Commonplace!" said I, on regaining my own room in my own house,
panting from the excitement and danger to which I had been
subjected. "Commonplace! Thank God for the commonplace and the
useful!"

Again I passed into the land of dreams, where I found myself walking
in a pleasant way, pondering the theme which had taken such entire
possession of my thoughts. As I moved along, I met the gifted one
who had called my work dull and commonplace; that work was a simple
picture of human life; drawn for the purpose of inspiring the reader
with trust in God and love towards his fellow-man. He addressed me
with the air of one who felt that he was superior, and led off the
conversation by a brilliant display of words that half concealed,
instead of making clear, his ideas. Though I perceived this, I was
yet affected with admiration. My eyes were dazzled as by a glare of
light.

"Yes, yes," I sighed to myself; "I am dull, tame, and commonplace
beside these children of genius. How poor and mean is the work that
comes from my hands!"