1865—1870 125 



to take none but positive work into account? Nothing more, 

 nothing less. 



"Forgive me; I have much resented the injustice towards 

 you of certain newspapers, and I have sometimes asked myself 

 if there were not some simple means of showing up all that 

 nonsense, and of disproving those absurd and ill-intentioned 

 statements. If M. Robin deserves to be of the Academic why 

 should he not attain to it through you? . . . 



*'My sense of gratitude towards you for those four years 

 during which you have done me the honour of including such 

 a man as you are in my audience, also a feeling of friendship, 

 are carrying me too far. I intended to mention this to you the 

 other day at the Princess's; she had wished me to do so, but 

 I feel bolder with a pen. ..." 



The Princess in question was Princess Mathilde. Her salon, 

 a rendezvous of men of letters, men of science and artists, was 

 a sort of second Academy which consoled Theophile Gautier 

 for not belonging to the other. Sainte Beuve prided himself 

 on being, so to speak, honorary secretary to this accomplished 

 and charming hostess. 



Pasteur answered by return of post. *^Sir and illustrious 

 colleague, I feel strongly inclined towards M. Robin, who 

 would represent a new scientific element at the Academy — the 

 microscope applied to the study of the human organism. I do 

 not trouble about his philosophical school save for the harm it 

 may do to his work. ... I confess frankly, however, that 

 I am not competent on the question of our philosophical 

 schools. Of M. Comte I have only read a few absurd passages; 

 of M. Littre I only know the beautiful pages you were in- 

 spired to write by his rare knowledge and some of his domestic 

 virtues. My philosophy is of the heart and not of the mind, 

 and I give myself up^ for instance, to those feelings about 

 eternity which come naturally at the bedside of a cherished 

 child drawing its last breath. At those supreme moments, 

 there is something in the depths of our souls which tells us 

 that the world mav be more than a mere combination of 

 phenomena proper to a mechanical equilibrium brought out 

 of the chaos of the elements simply through the gradual action 

 of the forces of matter. I admire them all, our philosophers! 

 We have experiments to straighten and modify our ideas, and 

 we constantly find that nature is other than we had imagined. 

 They, who are always guessing, how can they know! ..." 



