CHAPTER XIV 



1889—1895 



In this Institute, which Pasteur entered ill and weary, he con- 

 templated with joy those large laboratories, which would enable 

 his pupils to work with ease and to attract around them investi- 

 gators from all countries. He was happy to think that the 

 material difficulties which had hampered him would 6e spared 

 those who came after him. He believed in the realization of his 

 wishes for peace, work, mutual help among men. Whatever the 

 obstacles, he was persuaded that science would continue its 

 civilizing progress and that its benefits would spr^d from 

 domain to domain. Differing from those old men who are ever 

 praising the past, he had an enthusiastic confidence in the 

 future; he foresaw great developments of his studies, some of 

 which were already apparent. His first researches on 

 crystallography and molecular dissymmetry had served as a basis 

 to stereo-chemistry. But, while he followed the studies on that 

 subject of Le Bel and Van t'Hoff, he continued to regret that 

 he had not been able to revert to the studies of his youth, 

 enslaved as he had been by the inflexible logical sequence of his 

 works. '* Every time we have had the privilege of hearing 

 Pasteur speak of his early researches,'* writes M. Chamberland, 

 in an article in the Revue Scientifique, ''we have seen the 

 revival in him of a smouldering fire, and we have thought that 

 his countenance showed a vague regret at having forsaken them. 

 Who can now say what discoveries he might have made in that 

 direction ?'* *'One day,'* said Dr. Hericourt — who spent the 

 summer near Villeneuve I'Etang, and who often came into the 

 Park with his two sons — "he favoured me with an admirable, 

 captivating discourse on this subject, the like of which I have 

 never heard." 



Pasteur, instead of feeling regret, might have looked back 

 tt^ith calm pride on the progress he had made in other directions. 



