10 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



with all-absorbing attention, now listened with sparkling eyes 

 to the kind teacher talking to him of his future and opening to 

 him the prospect of the great Ecole Normale. 1 



An officer of the Paris municipal guard, Captain Barbier, 

 who always came to Arbois when on leave, offered to look after 

 Louis Pasteur if he were sent to Paris. But Joseph Pasteur 

 in spite of all hesitated to send his son, not yet sixteen 

 years old, a hundred leagues away from home. Would it not 

 be wiser to let him go to Besancon college and come back to 

 Arbois college as professor? What could be more desirable 

 than such a position? Surely Paris and the Ecole Normale 

 were quite unnecessary ! The question of money also had to 

 be considered. 



" That need not trouble you," said Captain Barbier. " In 

 the Latin Quarter, Impasse des Feuillantines, there is a pre- 

 paratory school, of which the headmaster, M. Barbet, is a 

 Franc-Comtois. He will do for your son what he has done for 

 many boys from his own country that is, take him at reduced 

 school fees." 



Joseph Pasteur at last allowed himself to be persuaded, and 

 Louis' departure was fixed for the end of October, 1838. He 

 was not going alone : Jules Vercel, his dear school friend, was 

 also going to Paris to work for his " baccalaureat." 2 This 

 youth had a most happy temperament : unambitious, satisfied 

 with each day's work as it came, he took pride and pleasure 

 in the success of others, and especially in that of " Louis," as 

 he then and always fraternally called his friend. The two 



1 Ecole Normale Superieure, under the supervision of the Ministry of 

 Public Instruction and Fine Arts, founded in 1808 by Napoleon I, with 

 the object of training young professors. Candidates must (1) be older 

 than eighteen and younger than twenty-one; (2) pass one written and 

 one viva voce examination ; (3) be already in possession of their diploma 

 as bachelier of science or of letters, according to the branch of studies 

 which they wish to take up ; and (4) sign an engagement for ten years' 

 work in public instruction. The professors of the Ecole Normale take 

 the title of Maitre des Conferences. [Trans.] 



2 Baccalaureat (low Latin bachalariatus) , first degree taken in a 

 French Faculty; the next is licence, and the next doctorate. It is 

 much more elementary than a bachelor's degree in an English university. 

 There are two baccalaureats : (1) the baccalaureat es lettres required of 

 candidates for the Faculties of Medicine and of Law, to the Ecole 

 Normale Superieure and to several public offices ; (2) the baccalaureat es 

 sciences, required for admission to the Schools of Medicine and of Phar- 

 macy, to the Ecole Normale Superieure (scientific section), and the 

 Polytechnic, Military and Foresters' Schools. [Trans.] 



