464 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



for young men without means came to him in August and 

 offered him the funds for a Pasteur Hospital, the natural out- 

 come, she said, of the Pastorian discoveries. 



Pasteur's strength diminished day by day, he now could 

 hardly walk. When he was seated in the Park, his grand- 

 children around him suggested young rose trees climbing 

 around the trunk of a dying oak. The paralysis was increas- 

 ing, and speech was becoming more and more difficult. The 

 eyes alone remained bright and clear ; Pasteur was witnessing 

 the ruin of what in him was perishable. 



How willingly they would have given a moment of their 

 lives to prolong his, those thousands of human beings whose 

 existence had been saved by his methods : sick children, women 

 in lying-in hospitals, patients operated upon in surgical wards, 

 victims of rabid dogs saved from hydrophobia, and so many 

 others protected against the infinitesimally small! But, whilst 

 visions of those living beings passed through the minds of his 

 family, it seemed as if Pasteur already saw those dead ones 

 who, like him, had preserved absolute faith. in the Future Life. 



The last week in September he was no longer strong enough 

 to leave his bed, his weakness was extreme. On September 

 27, as he was offered a cup of milk : " I cannot," he murmured ; 

 his eyes looked around him with an unspeakable expression 

 of resignation, love and farewell. His head fell back on the 

 pillows, and he slept; but, after this delusive rest, suddenly 

 came the gaspings of agony. For twenty-four hours he re- 

 mained motionless, his eyes closed, his body almost entirely 

 paralyzed ; one of his hands rested in that of Mme. Pasteur, 

 the other held a crucifix. 



Thus, surrounded by his family and disciples, in this room 

 of almost monastic simplicity, on Saturday, September 28, 

 1895, at 4.40 in the afternoon, very peacefully, he passed away. 



THE END. 



