1865—1870 145 



Monetary Commission, thus leaving vacant a place as Inspector- 

 General of Higher Education. Duruy, anxious to do Pasteur 

 justice, thought this post most suitable to him as it would allow 

 him to continue his researches. The decree was about to be 

 signed, when Balard, professor of chemistry at the Faculty of 

 Sciences, applied for the post. Pasteur wrote respectfully to 

 the Minister of Public Instruction (July 31) : ''Your Excel- 

 lency must know that twenty years ago, when I left the Ecole 

 Normale, I was made a curator, thanks to M. Balard, who was 

 then a professor at the Ecole Normale. A grateful pupil can- 

 not enter into competition with a revered master, especially 

 for a post where considerations of age and experience should 

 have great weight." 



When Pasteur spoke of his masters, dead or living, Biot or 

 Senarmont, Dumas or Balard, it might indeed have been 

 thought that to them alone he owed it that he was what he 

 vvas. He was heard on this occasion, and Balard obtained the 

 appointment. 



Nisard was succeeded by M. F. Bouillier, whose place as 



Inspector-General of Secondary Education devolved on M. 



Jacquinet. The directorship of scientific studies was given tc 



Pasteur's old and excellent friend, the faithful Bertin. After 



teaching in Alsace for eighteen years, he had become maitre des 



conferences at the Ecole Normale in 1866, and also assistant 



of Regnault at the College de France. It had only been by 



dint of much persuasion that Pasteur had enticed him to Paris. 



*'What is the good?" said the unambitious Bertin; ''beer is 



not so good in Paris as in Strasburg. . . . Pasteur does not 



understand life; he is a genius, that is all!" But, under this 



apparent indolence, Bertin was possessed of the taste for and 



the art of teaching; Pasteur knew this, and, when Bertin was 



appointed, Pasteur's fears for the scientific future of his beloved 



Ecole were abated. Duruy, much regretting the break of 



Pasteur's connection with the great school, offered him the 



post of maUre des conferences, besides the chair of chemistry 



which Balard 's appointment had left vacant at the Sorbonne. 



But Pasteur declined the tempting offer; he knew the care and 



trouble that his public lectures cost him, and felt that the two 



posts v/ould be beyond his strength; if his time were taken up 



by that double task it would be almost impossible for him to 



pursue his private researches, which under no circumstances 



would he abandon. 



