180 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



soldiers. Those who had been favoured by being immediately 

 incorporated in a battalion of chasseurs a pied the depot of 

 which was at Vincennes, spent their last evening — their vigil 

 as they called it — in the drawing-room of the sub-director o| 

 the Ecole, Bertin. Sainte Claire Deville and Pasteur were 

 there, also Duruy, whose three sons had enlisted. Pasteur's 

 son, aged eighteen, was also on the eve of his departure. 



Every one of the students at the Ecole Normale enlisted, 

 some as chasseurs a pied, some in a line regiment, others witlj 

 the marines, in the artillery, even with the franc tireurs^ 

 Pasteur wished to be enrolled in the garde nationale with Duruy 

 and Bertin, but he had to be reminded that a half -paralysed 

 man was unfit for service. After the departure of all the 

 students, the Ecole Normale fell into the silence of deserted 

 houses. M. Bouillier, the director, and Bertin decided to turn 

 it into an ambulance, a sort of home for the Normaliens who 

 were stationed in various quarters of Paris. 



Pasteur, unable to serve his country except by his scientific 

 researches, had the firm intention of continuing his work; but 

 he was overwhelmed by the reverses which fell upon France, 

 the idea of the bloodshed and of his invaded country oppressed 

 ^m like a monomania. 



**Do not stay in Paris,*' Bertin said to him, echoed by Dr» 

 Godelier. **You have no right to stay; you would be a use- 

 'ess mouth during the siege," he added, almost cheerfully, 

 earnestly desiring to see his friend out of harm's way. Pasteur 

 allowed himself to be persuaded, and started for Arbois on 

 September 5, his heart aching for the sorrows of France. 



Some notes and letters enable us to follow him there, in 

 the daily detail of his life, amongst his books, his plans of 

 future work, and now and then his outbursts of passionate 

 grief. He tried to return to the books he loved, to feel over 

 again the attraction of *'all that is great and beautiful" to 

 quote a favourite phrase. He read at that time Laplace's 

 Exposition du Systeme dU Monde, and even copied out some 

 fragments, general ideas, concurring with his own. The vision 

 of a Galileo or a Newton rising through a series of inductions 

 from ** particular phenomena to others more far-reaching, and 

 from those to the general laws of Nature," on this earth, 

 ** itself so small a part of the solar system, and disappearing 

 entirely in the immensity of the heavens, of which that system 

 i§ but an unimportant corner," — that vision enveloped Pasteur 



