98 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



opportunity for the study of human documents," he 

 said. Thus he conversed simply and sympathetically 

 with the humble as with the great, with the young as 

 with the old. It was no mere intellectual interest that 

 he bore them, but he put his whole heart into it, which 

 made him extremely easy to approach. And yet he 

 never departed from absolute freedom of speech, some- 

 times mixed with harshness. Truth and sincerity, for 

 him, came above everything ; he carried the courage 

 of his opinions to the highest degree, even if it was 

 likely to shock his hearers or to do him harm. He 

 jealously guarded his independence and nothing could 

 force him to act against his convictions. Full of 

 enthusiasm, always interesting, he enlivened all 

 around him. His ideas and his activity were in 

 constant effervescence ; no serious question left him 

 indifferent ; he read everything, knew about almost 

 everything, and willingly informed others ; his vibrat- 

 ing expansiveness made him a centre of attraction in 

 his private life as in the laboratory or in any other 

 sphere of activity. 



From 1873 to 1882 his energies were chiefly 

 absorbed by teaching and by the inner life of the 

 University of Odessa, into which he threw himself 

 with his usual enthusiasm. His lectures were full of 

 life, always bringing out general ideas to throw light 

 upon the most arid facts ; he made use of these as 

 an architect utilises coarse materials in order to erect 

 a harmonious edifice. His creative power endowed 

 his lectures with an aesthetic character in spite of 

 their extreme simplicity ; not that he concerned 

 himself much about form, but because of his wealth 

 of ideas and the logical way in which he developed 

 them, starting from the simple and reaching the 



