402 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



member of the Congress, especially among the English 

 section, could have made up his mind to leave Denmark 

 without visiting Hamlet's home. 



A Transport Company organized the visit to Elsinore for a 

 day when the Congress had arranged to have a complete holi- 

 day. Five steamers, gay with flags, were provided for the 

 thousand medical men and their families, and accomplished 

 the two hours' crossing to Elsinore on a lovely, clear day, with 

 an absolutely calm sea. The scientific tourists landed at the 

 foot of the old Kronborg Castle, ready for the lunch which was 

 served out to them and which proved barely sufficient for their 

 appetites ; there was not quite enough bread for the Frenchmen, 

 proverbially bread-eaters, and the water, running a little short, 

 had to be supplemented with champagne. 



Some of the visitors returned from a neighbouring wood, 

 where they had been to see the stones of the supposed tomb of 

 Hamlet, disappointed at having looked in vain for Ophelia's 

 stream and for the willow tree which heard her sing her last 

 song, her hands full of flowers. Evidently this place was but 

 an imaginary scenery given by Shakespeare to the drama 

 which stands like a point of interrogation before the mystery 

 of human life; but his life-giving art has for ever made of 

 Elsinore the place where Hamlet lived and suffered. 



Pasteur, to whom the Danish character, in its strength and 

 simplicity, proved singularly attractive, remained in Copea- 

 hagen for some time after the Congress was over. He had 

 much pleasure in visiting the Thorwaldsen Museum. 

 Copenhagen, after showering honours on the great artist during 

 his lifetime, has continued to worship him after his deatli. 

 Every statue, every plaster cast, is preserved in that Museum 

 with extraordinary care. Thorwaldsen himself lies in the 

 midst of his works — his simple stone grave, covered with 

 graceful ivy, is in one of the courtyards of the Museum. 



Pasteur went on to Arbois from Copenhagen. The 

 laboratory he had built there not being large enough to take 

 in rabid dogs, he dictated from his study the experiments 

 to be carried out in Paris ; his carefully kept notebooks enabled 

 him to know exactly how things were going on. His nephew, 

 Adrien Loir, now a curator in the laboratory of Rue d'Ulm, 

 had gladly given up his holidays and remained in Paris with 

 the faithful Eucjene Viala. This excellent assistant had come 



