came one by one from their matted hair, and their hands dampened the
paper upon which they wrote.  The windows stood open wide to the May
darkness, but nothing came in save heat and insects; for spring, being
behind time, was making up with a sultry burst at the end, as a delayed
train makes the last few miles high above schedule speed.  Thus it has
been since eight o'clock.  Eleven was daintily striking now.  Its
diminutive sonority might have belonged to some church-bell far distant
across the Cambridge silence; but it was on a shelf in the room,--a
timepiece of Gallic design, representing Mephistopheles, who caressed
the world in his lap.  And as the little strokes boomed, eight--nine--
ten--eleven, the voice of the instructor steadily continued thus:--

"By starting from the Absolute Intelligence, the chief cravings of the
reason, after unity and spirituality, receive due satisfaction.
Something transcending the Objective becomes possible.  In the Cogito
the relation of subject and object is implied as the primary condition
of all knowledge.  Now, Plato never--" 

"Skip Plato," interrupted one of the boys.  "You gave us his points
yesterday."