'Make an end! Make an end!'
'But, gentlemen, permit me to reply——'
'There is no occasion for reply.'
'When things are stated contrary to sense——'
'I desire to speak!'
'Plato and Aristotle!' ...
'Not worth a rotten egg!'
'But I ask, shall this be permitted? The truth of our Holy Mother Church——'
'Heresy! Heresy! Atheism!'
Leonardo remained silent, his face calm and sad. He was alone among these men who believed themselves the servants of knowledge, and he saw the impassable gulf which separated him from them. He was displeased, not with his opponents, but with himself for having broken his accustomed silence, and become entangled in an argument; for having conceived (in defiance of experience) that it were possible to reveal the truth unto men, or that they were able to receive it.