184> THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



discussions on forms of government and abstract political ques- 

 tions instead of going to the root of the matter. We are paying 

 the penalty of fifty years' forgetfulness of science, of its con- 

 ditions of development, of its immense influence on the destiny 

 of a great people, and of all that might have assisted the 

 diffusion of light. ... I cannot go on, all this hurts me. I 

 try to put away all such memories, and also the sight of our 

 terrible distress, in which it seems that a desperate resistance 

 is the only hope we have left. I wish that France may fight to 

 her last man, to her last fortress. I wish that the war may 

 be prolonged until the winter, when, the elements aiding us, 

 all these Vandals may perish of cold and distress. Every one 

 of my future works will bear on its title page the words: 

 'Hatred to Prussia. Revenge! revenge!' " 



There is a passage in the Psalms where the captives of 

 Israel, led to Babylonian rivers, weep at the memory of 

 Jerusalem. After swearing never to forget their country, they 

 wish their enemies every misfortune, and hurl this last impre- 

 cation at Babylon; ''Blessed shall he be that taketh thy 

 children and throweth them against the stones. ' ' ^ One of the 

 most Christlike souls of our time, Henri Perreyve, speaking 

 of Poland, of vanquished and oppressed nations, quoted this 

 Psalm and exclaimed: "0 Anger, man's Anger, how difficult 

 it is to drive thee out of man's heart! and how irresistible are 

 the flames kindled by the insolence of injustice!" Those 

 flames were kindled in the soul of Pasteur, full as it was of 

 human tenderness, and they burst out in that sobbing cry of 

 despair. 



On that 17th of September, the day before Paris was invested, 

 Jules Favre made another attempt to obtain peace. He pub- 

 lished an account of that interview which took place at the 

 Chateau of Ferrieres, near Meaux ; this printed account reached 

 every town in France, and was read with grief and anger. 



Jules Favre had deluded himself into thinking that vic- 

 torious Prussia would limit its demands to a war indemnity, 

 probably a formidable one. But Bismarck, besides the in- 

 demnity, intended to take a portion of French soil, and claimed 

 Strasburg first of all. "It is the key of the house; I must 

 have it." And with Strasburg he wanted the whole Depart- 

 ment of the naut-RJiinf that of the Bas-Rhin, Metz, and a 

 part of the Department of Moselle. Jules Favre, character* 



1 Pg. cxxxvii. 9. 



