444. THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



hj a human soul, and the thought that you will have contributed 

 to the honour of your country renders that joy still deeper. 



* ' If science has no country, the scientist should have one, and 

 ascribe to it the influence which his works may have in this 

 world. If I might be allowed, M. le President, to conclude by 

 a philosophical remark inspired by your presence in this Home 

 of Work, I should say that two contrary laws seem to be wrest- 

 ling with each other nowadays; the one, a law of blood and of 

 death, ever imagining new means of destruction and forcing 

 nations to be constantly ready for the battlefield — the other, a 

 law of peace, work and health, ever evolving new means of 

 delivering man from the scourges which beset him. 



"The one seeks violent conquests, the other the relief of 

 humanity. The latter places one human life above any victory ; 

 while the former would sacrifice hundreds and thousands of livea 

 to the ambition of one. The law of which we are the instru^ 

 ments seeks, even in the midst of carnage, to cure the sanguinary 

 ills of the law of war ; the treatment inspired by our antiseptic 

 methods may preserve thousands of soldiers. Which of those 

 two laws will ultimately prevail, God alone knows. But we 

 may assert that French Science will have tried, by obeying the 

 law of Humanity, to extend the frontiers of Life.*' 



