14 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



who had been a student at the Ecole Normale and was a 

 graduate of the University; he was young, full of eloquence, 

 proud of his pupils, of awakening their faculties and directing 

 their minds. The science master, M. Darlay, did not inspire 

 the same enthusiasm; he was an elderly man and regretted 

 the good old times when pupils were less inquisitive. 

 Pasteur's questions often embarrassed him. Louis' reputation 

 as a painter satisfied him no longer, though the portrait he 

 drew of one of his comrades was exhibited. " All this does 

 not lead to the Ecole Normale," he wrote to his parents in 

 January, 1840. "I prefer a first place at college to 10,000 

 praises in the course of conversation. . . . We shall meet on 

 Sunday, dear father, for I believe there is a fair on Monday. 

 If we see M. Daunas, we will speak to him of the Ecole 

 Normale. Dear sisters, let me tell you again, work hard, love 

 each other. When one is accustomed to work it is impossible 

 to do without it; besides, everything in this world depends on 

 that. Armed with science, one can rise above all one's 

 fellows. . . . But I hope all this good advice to you is super- 

 fluous, and I am sure you spend many moments every day 

 learning your grammar. Love each other as I love you, while 

 awaiting the happy day when I shall be received at the Ecole 

 Normale." Thus was his whole life filled with tenderness as 

 well as with work. He took the degree of " bachelier es 

 lettres " on August 29, 1840. The three examiners, doctors 

 " es lettres," put down his answers as "good in Greek on 

 Plutarch and in Latin on Virgil, good also in rhetoric, 

 medicine, history and geography, good in philosophy, very 

 good in elementary science, good in French composition." 



At the end of the summer holidays the headmaster of the 

 Royal College of Besancon, M. Repecaud, sent for him and 

 offered him the post of preparation master. Certain adminis- 

 trative changes and an increased number of pupils were the 

 reason of this offer, which proved the master's esteem for 

 Pasteur's moral qualities, his first degree not having been 

 obtained with any particular brilliancy. 



The youthful master was to be remunerated from the month 

 of January, 1841. A student in the class of special mathema- 

 tics, he was his comrades' mentor during preparation time. 

 They obeyed him without difficulty ; simple and yet serious- 

 minded, his sense of individual dignity made authority easy 

 to him. Ever thoughtful of his distant home, he strengthened 



