OF SAINTHOOD 



parents, is one of the most beautiful 

 episodes in human history. As recited 

 by Radot: 



"Pasteur was going through a suc- 

 cession of hopes, fears, anguish, and an 

 ardent yearning to snatch little Meister 

 from death; he could no longer work. 

 At nights feverish visions came to him 

 of this child, whom he had seen playing 

 in the garden, suffocating in the mad 

 struggles of hydrophobia, like the dying 

 child he had seen at the Hopital Trous- 

 seau in 1880. Vainly his experimental 

 genius assured him that the virus of 

 that most terrible of diseases was about 

 to be vanquished, that humanity was 

 about to be delivered from this dread 

 horror his human tenderness was 

 stronger than all, his accustomed ready 

 sympathy for the sufferings and anxie- 

 ties of others was for the nonce cen- 

 tred in 'the dear lad/ . . ." 

 3 



