THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



have guided me in this work. But, had it been yours, 1 

 should have allowed no one else to be the first in drawing the 

 world's attention to it. It is from this motive, also from a 

 certain conformity of tastes and of principles which has long 

 made you dear to me, that I now ask you to give up a few 

 hours to Lavoisier." 



"My dear and illustrious master," answered Pasteur (July 

 18, 1865), " in the face of your letter and its expressions of 

 affectionate confidence, I cannot refuse to submit to you a 

 paper which you must promise to throw away if it should not 

 be exactly what you want. I must also ask you to grant me 

 much time, partly on account of my inexperience, and partly 

 on account of the fatigue both mental and bodily imposed on 

 me by the illness of our dear child." 



Dumas replied : " Dear friend and colleague, I thank you 

 for your kind acquiescence in Lavoisier's interests, which 

 might well be your own, for no one at this time represents 

 better than you do his spirit and method, a method in which 

 reasoning had more share than anything else. 



' ' The art of observation and that of experimentation are 

 very distinct. In the first case, the fact may either proceed 

 from logical reasons or be mere good fortune ; it is sufficient to 

 have some penetration and the sense of truth in order to profit 

 by it. But the art of experimentation leads from the first to 

 the last link of the chain, without hesitation and without a 

 blank, making successive use of Keason, which suggests an 

 alternative, and of Experience, which decides on it, until, 

 starting from a faint glimmer, the full blaze of light is reached. 

 Lavoisier made this art into a method, and you possess it to a 

 degree which always gives me a pleasure for which I am grate- 

 ful to you. 



' Take your time. Lavoisier has waited seventy years ! It 

 is a century since his first results were produced ! What are 

 weeks and months? 



" I feel for you with all my heart ! I know how heartrend- 

 ing are those moments by the deathbed of a suffering child. I 

 hope and trust this great sorrow will be spared you, as indeed 

 you deserve that it should be." 



The promise made by Dumas to give to France an edition of 

 Lavoisier's works dated very far back. It was in May, 1836, 

 in one of his eloquent lectures at the College de France, that 

 Dumas had declared his intention of raising a scientific monu- 



