Let's see now--what do you say ?" "I?
Nothing!" the wretched boy was about to reply, for he did not understand what it was all about, confused as he was by so many surfaces and so many accidents that smote cruelly on his ears, but a sense of shame restrained him.

Filled with anguish and breaking into a cold perspiration, he began to repeat between his teeth: "The name of mirror is applied to all polished surfaces--" "_Ergo, per te_, the mirror is the surface," angled the professor.

"Well, then, clear up this difficulty.

If the surface is the mirror, it must be of no consequence to the 'essence' of the mirror what may be found behind this surface, since what is behind it does not affect the 'essence' that is before it, _id est_, the surface, _quae super faciem est, quia vocatur superficies, facies ea quae supra videtur_.

Do you admit that or do you not admit it ?" The poor youth's hair stood up straighter than ever, as though acted upon by some magnetic force.
"Do you admit it or do you not admit it ?" "Anything! Whatever you wish, Padre," was his thought, but he did not dare to express it from fear of ridicule.