The way of even the most justifiable revolutions is prepared by personal impulses disguised into creeds.

The Professor's indignation found in itself a final cause that absolved him from the sin of turning to destruction as the agent of his ambition.

To destroy public faith in legality was the imperfect formula of his pedantic fanaticism; but the subconscious conviction that the framework of an established social order cannot be effectually shattered except by some form of collective or individual violence was precise and correct.

He was a moral agent--that was settled in his mind.

By exercising his agency with ruthless defiance he procured for himself the appearances of power and personal prestige.