1870—1872 195 



*'The forgetfulness, disdain even, that France had had for 

 great intellectual men, especially in the realm of exact science.'* 

 This seemed the more sad to him that things had been very 

 different at the end of the eighteenth century. Pasteur enu- 

 merated the services rendered by science to his threatened 

 country. If in 1792 France was able to face danger on all 

 sides, it was because Lavoisier, Fourcroy, Guyton de Morveau, 

 Chaptal, Berthollet, etc., discovered new means of extracting 

 saltpetre and manufacturing gunpowder; because Monge found 

 a method of founding cannon with great rapidity ; and because 

 the chemist Clouet invented a quick system of manufacturing 

 steel. Science, in the service of patriotism, made a victorious 

 army of a perturbed nation. If Marat, with his slanderous 

 and injurious insinuations, had not turned from their course the 

 feelings of the mob, Lavoisier never would have perished on the 

 scaffold. The day after his execution, Lagrange said: *'One 

 moment was enough for his head to faU, and 200 years may 

 not suffice to produce such another." Monge and Berthollet, 

 also denounced by Marat, nearly shared the same fate: **In 

 a week's time we sliall be arrested, tried, condemned and 

 executed," said Berthollet placidly to Monge, who answered 

 with equal composure, thinking only of the country's defence, 

 **A11 I know is that my gun factories are working admirably." 



Bonaparte, from the first, made of science what he would 

 have made of everj^thing — a means of reigning. When he 

 started for Egypt, he desired to have with him a staff of 

 scientists, and Monge and Berthollet undertook to organize 

 vhat distinguished company. Later, when Bonaparte became 

 Napoleon I, he showed, in the intervals between his wars, so 

 much respect for the place due to science as to proclaim the 

 effacement of national rivalry when scientific discoveries were 

 in question. Pasteur, when studying this side of the Imperial 

 character, found in some pages by Arago on Monge that, after 

 Waterloo, Napoleon, in a conversation he had with Monge at 

 the Elysee, said, *' Condemned now to command armies no 

 longer, I can see but Science with which to occupy my mind 

 and my soul ..." 



Alluding to the scientific supremacy of France during the 

 early part of the nineteenth centurj^, Pasteur wrote: *^A11 

 the other nations acknowledged our superiority, though each 

 could take pride in some great men: Berzelius in Sweden, 

 Davy in England, Volta in Italy, other eminent men in Ger- 



