248 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



politics in January, 1876. Pasteur, who, in his extra- 

 ordinary, almost disconcerting modesty, believed that a medi- 

 cal diploma would have facilitated his scientific revolution, 

 imagined — after the pressing overtures made to him by some 

 of his proud compatriots — that he would be able to serve more 

 usefully the cause of higher education if he were to obtain a 

 seat at the Senate. 



He addressed from Paris a letter to the senatorial electors 

 of the department of Jura. *'I am not a political man," he 

 said, **I am bound to no party; not having studied politics I 

 am ignorant of many things, but I do know this, that I love 

 my country and have served her with all my strength." Like 

 many good citizens, he thought that a renewal of the national 

 grandeur and prosperity might be sought in a serious experi- 

 mental trial of the Republic. If honoured with the suffrages 

 of his countrymen, he would ** represent in the Senate, Science 

 in all its purity, dignity and independence." Two Jura 

 newspapers, of different opinions, agreed in regretting that 

 Pasteur should leave ''the peaceful altitudes of science,'* 

 and come down into the Jura to solicit the electors' suffrages. 



In his answers to such articles, letters dictated to his son — 

 who acted as his secretary during that electoral campaign and 

 accompanied him to Lons-le-Saulnier, where they spent a 

 week, published addresses, posters, etc. — Pasteur invoked the 

 following motto, ''Science et Patrie.'' Why had France been 

 victorious in 1792? ''Because Science had given to our 

 fathers the material means of fighting." And he recalled the 

 names of Monge, of Carnot, of Fourcroy, of Guyton de Mor- 

 veau, of Berthollet, that concourse of men of science, thanks 

 to whom it had been possible — during that grandiose epoch — 

 to hasten the working of steel and the preparation of leather 

 for soldiers' boots, and to find means of extracting saltpetre 

 for gunpowder from plaster rubbish, of making use of recon- 

 noitring balloons and of perfecting telegraphy. 



The senatorial electors numbered 650. Jules Grevy came 

 to Lons-le-Saulnier to support the candidature of MM. Tami- 

 sier and Thurel. In a meeting which took place the day before 

 the election he said, "You will give them your suffrage to- 

 morrow, and in so doing you will have deserved well of the 

 Republic and of France." He mentioned, incidentally, that 

 '*M. Pasteur's character and scientific work entitle him to 

 xmiversal respect and esteem; but Science has its natural plac^ 



