A sea of new thoughts and questions, if not of doubts, came rushing in at every sentence on his acute Greek intellect, all the more plentifully and irresistibly because his speculative faculty was as yet altogether waste and empty, undefended by any scientific culture from the inrushing flood.

For the first time in his life he found himself face to face with the root-questions of all thought--'What am I, and where ?' 'What can I know ?' And in the half-terrified struggle with them, he had all but forgotten the purpose for which he entered the lecture-hall.

He felt that he must break the spell.

Was she not a heathen and a false prophetess?
Here was something tangible to attack; and half in indignation at the blasphemy, half in order to force himself into action, he had sprung up and spoken.
A yell arose.

'Turn the monk out!''Throw the rustic through the window!' cried a dozen young gentlemen.