112 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



Vainly had he said, " There is here no question of religion, 

 philosophy, atheism, materialism, or spiritualism. I might 

 even add that they do not matter to me as a scientist. It is a 

 question of fact ; when I took it up I was as ready to be con- 

 vinced by experiments that spontaneous generation exists as 

 I am now persuaded that those who believe it are blind- 

 folded." 



It might have been thought that Pasteur's arguments were 

 in support of a philosophical theory ! It seemed impossible 

 to those whose ideas came from an ardent faith, from the 

 influence of their surroundings, from personal pride or from 

 interested calculations to understand that a man should seek 

 truth for its own sake and with no other object than to pro- 

 claim it. Hostilities were opened, journalists kept up the fire. 

 A priest, the Abbe Moigno spoke of converting unbelievers 

 through the proved non-existence of spontaneous generation. 

 The celebrated novelist, Edmond About, took up Pouchet's 

 cause with sparkling irony. " M. Pasteur preached at the 

 Sorbonne amidst a concert of applause which must have glad- 

 dened the angels." 



Thus, among the papers and reviews of that time we can 

 follow the divers ideas brought out by these discussions. 

 Guizot, then almost eighty, touched on this problem with the 

 slightly haughty assurance of one conscious of having given 

 much thought to his beliefs and destiny. " Man has not been 

 formed through spontaneous generation, that is by a creative 

 and organizing force inherent in matter ; scientific observa- 

 tion daily overturns that theory, by which, moreover, it is im- 

 possible to explain the first appearance. upon the earth of man 

 in his complete state." And he praised " M. Pasteur, who 

 has brought into this question the light of his scrupulous 

 criticism." 



Nisard was a wondering witness of what took place in the 

 small laboratory of the Ecole Normale. Ever preoccupied by 

 the relations between science and religion, he heard with some 

 surprise Pasteur saying modestly, "Researches on primary 

 causes are not in the domain of Science, which only recognizes 

 facts and phenomena which it can demonstrate." 



Pasteur did not disinterest himself from the great problems 

 which he called the eternal subjects of men's solitary medita- 

 tions. But he did not admit the interference of religion with 

 science any more than that of science with religion. 



