> > I've searched all over the place for the source of that Fitzgerald quote. I can't find it. It's almost impossible to search for quotations I now realize. especially if you can't identify it as "inspirational", "encouraging", or some other Hallmark-ish type theme. If anyone figures out which of his works it's from, let me know. I love the sound of the line. And I'm now bothered with curiosity.
>
>
> According to my handy Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, it is indeed from Fitzgerald, and it's from apparently a story or article called "Handle with Care," published in Esquire, March 1936. "Dark Night of the Soul," it says, is a translation of the Spanish title of a work by St John of the Cross, known in English as _The Ascent of Mount Carmel._ (1578-1580)
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> The actual quote is: "In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning."
>
> It's always nice when I get to use one of those big reference books I keep up on the top of the desk.
>
> T"this name is really too short to put anything in the middle of it, isn't it"om
> tmschm@wm.edu

Thanks Tom. It's great when the reference books are in easy reach (and not like under the table holding the desk up :-) Like Grace, I'm still all a-pitch with curiosity. While I don't doubt that the original, penultimate source of the "dark night of the soul" quote comes from Fitzgerald and St.-John, I believe there's *another* source out there, from which Douglas Adams drew the extended metaphor. I had the impression that it was from the work of an early 20th century writer who was highly imagistic. I think I once read an article called "Seasons of a Man's Life" or "Seasons of a Man's Soul" which specifically used a phrase like "towards the long dark afternoon of the soul".

Wolfspirit