1882—1884 343 



beyond? ... It is of no use to answer: Beyond is limitless 

 space, limitless time or limitless grandeur; no one understands 

 those words. He who proclaims the existence of the Infinite 

 — and none can avoid it — accumulates in that aflarmation more 

 of the supernatural than is to be found in all the miracles of 

 all the religions; for the notion of the Infinite presents that 

 double character that it forces itself upon us and yet is incom- 

 prehensible. When this notion seizes upon our understand- 

 ing, we can but kneel. ... I see everywhere the inevitable 

 expression of the Infinite in the world; through it, the super- 

 natural is at the bottom of every heart. The idea of God is a 

 form of the idea of the Infinite. As long as the mystery of the 

 Infinite weighs on human thought, temples will be erected 

 for the worship of the Infinite, whether God is called Brahma, 

 AUah, Jehovah, or Jesus; and on the pavement of those 

 temples, men will be seen kneeling, prostrate, annihilated in 

 the thought of the Infinite." 



At that time, when triumphant Positivism was inspiring 

 many leaders of men, the very man who might have given him- 

 self up to what he called "the enchantment of Science" pro 

 <ilaimed the Mystery of the universe; with, his intellectual 

 humility, Pasteur bowed before a Power greater than human 

 power. He continued with the following words, worthy of 

 being preserved for ever, for they are of those which pass over 

 humanity like a Divine breath: ** Blessed is he who carries 

 within himself a God, an ideal, and who obeys it; ideal of art, 

 ideal of science, ideal of the gospel virtues, therein lie the 

 springs of great thoughts and great actions; they all reflect 

 light from the Infinite." 



Pasteur concluded by a supreme homage to Littre. "Often 

 have I fancied him seated by his wife, as in a picture of early 

 Christian times: he, looking do^vn upon earth, full of com- 

 passion for human suffering; she, a fervent Catholic, her eyes 

 raised to heaven: he, inspired by all earthly virtues; she, by 

 every Divine grandeur; uniting in one impulse and in one 

 heart the twofold holiness which forms the aureole of the Man- 

 God, the one proceeding from devotion to humanity, the other 

 emanating from ardent love for the Divinity: she a saint in 

 the canonic sense of the word, he a lay-saint. This last word 

 is not mine ; I have gathered it on the lips of all those that 

 knew him." 



The two collea?:ues whom Pasteur had chosen for his 



