XXIV INTRODUCTION 



biologie" has been substituted another, which is de- 

 veloped in my present book, that of cellular toleration." 



"Besides, how is it possible not to see that the immense 

 edifice on which we all labor changes constantly in plan 

 and in foundations. We have lovingly hewn, dressed 

 and even sculptured our stone, with the thought that 

 it will remain perhaps a stone of the facade, and attract 

 the attention of visitors. Vain hope, new tiers of ma- 

 sonry will cover it and cause it to be forgotten. It mat- 

 ters not! It exists, and, if we have chosen it wisely 

 and built it solidly, it will serve as the foundation of new 

 discoveries" (Discours aux etudiants). 



Apropos of the Dreyfus affair, in which he sided with 

 Dreyfus, took pubUc action and suffered correspondingl}^, 

 he writes : 



"We also have rules, which have descended to us from 

 Bacon and Descartes not to lose our heads, not to put 

 ourselves in a cave in order to see better, to believe that 

 probabilities do not count, that a hundred perhapses are 

 not worth a single certainty. Then, when we have sought 

 and believe that we have found the decisive proof, even 

 when we have succeeded in making it accepted, we 

 are resigned in advance to see it become invalidated 

 by a process of revision over which often we ourselves 

 preside." 



"In all this we are very far from the Dreyfus affair; 

 and truly we have a right to ask if the State does not 

 waste its money on educational establishments, the pub- 

 lic spirit is so far from scientific." * * * 



"If Dreyfus is on Devil's Island, it is only because 

 the Government has listened to the cries of the mob and 

 joined the majority instead of listening to the minority, 

 alone capable of imposing silence on the human brute." 



"It has a tragic grandeur. Can you think of a like 

 drama, played by a nation, with that freedom of the 



