32 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



of modern physiology. The latter was described 

 by Huxley as "the greatest anatomist and physi- 

 ologist among my contemporaries." 9 Perhaps the 

 best known of all these, in a popular sense, was 

 Louis Pasteur whose faith was splendidly vindi- 

 cated in the remarkable letter written by Mgr. 

 Joseph Guillot. 10 The fact, of course, that La- 



'"Hurne," English Men of Letters, p. 135. Windle "Science 

 and Morals," p. 76. 



10 The communication is of sufficient interest to be quoted here 

 in its entirety. It is taken from the St. Paul Catholic Bulletin: 



"Some three years ago a letter was published from Detroit, 

 and made the rounds of the press of the country, in which it 

 was stated that Catholics had no claims on Pasteur, one of the 

 greatest men of the last century, that his religion was mere 

 Deism, and that he never was a practical member of Holy 

 Church. At the time I sought authentic information in the 

 matter. It is only of late, owing no doubt to the many cares of 

 my correspondents, during the last dreadful few years, that I 

 have received complete answers to my inquiries, and they may 

 be summed up in these very striking facts written in a letter I 

 have from the chancellor of the diocese of St. Claude. The 

 territory of that diocese comprises the department of Jura, in 

 which is situated the pretty little city of Arboy, where Louis 

 Pasteur was born and raised, and where his remains are buried 

 between those of his good Catholic father and mother. The 

 chancellor writes: (i) Pasteur was always known here as a 

 good Catholic. (2) Even in his busiest days, he never failed to 

 take at Paris a night train that would bring him to Arboy on 

 the morning of Corpus Christi, so that he could join the proces- 

 sion of the Blessed Sacrament. And he came again every year 

 at the end of September, to be present at what is called here the 

 vintage feast, when the first ripe grapes gathered are brought 

 by the most notable Catholics to the parish Church, where they 

 are blessed by the pastor. (3) A few years before his death, 

 presiding at the commencement exercises of the College of Dole, 

 in the same department, he pronounced before his young audi- 

 ence these beautiful words, which were then quoted and com- 

 mented upon by the papers: "When one has studied much, he 

 comes back to the faith of a Breton peasant: as to me, had I 

 studied more, I would have the faith of a Breton peasant 

 woman." (4) In April, 1895, the year in which he died, he 

 insisted on going, with his worthy wife, to receive his Easter 



