18651870 163 



been much affected by this circumstance, which seemed to 

 point to his non-recovery. I beg you will issue orders that the 

 work begun should be continued. Believe in my sincere 

 friendship . Napoleon . ' ' 



Duruy immediately sent on this note to M. du Mesnil, whose 

 somewhat long title was that of ' ' Chief of the Division of 

 Academic Administration of Scientific Establishments and of 

 Higher Education." M. du Mesnil evidently repudiated the 

 charge for himself or for his Minister, for he wrote in a large 

 hand, on the very margin of the Imperial autograph 



" M. Duruy gave no orders and had to give none. It is at 

 his solicitation that the works were undertaken, but it is the 

 Direction of Civic Buildings alone which can have interrupted 

 them ; the fact should be verified." 



M. de Cardaillac, head of the Direction of Civic Buildings, 

 made an inquiry and the building was resumed. 



It was only on November 30 that Pasteur left his bed for 

 the first time and spent an hour in his armchair. He clearly 

 analyzed to himself his melancholy condition, stricken down 

 as he was by hemiplegia in his forty-sixth year; but having 

 noticed that his remarks saddened his wife and daughter, he 

 spoke no more about his illness, and only expressed his anxiety 

 not to be a trouble, a burden, he said, to his wife, his son and 

 daughter, and the devoted friends who helped to watch him at 

 night. 



In the daytime each offered to read to him. General rave", 

 whose active and inquiring mind was ever on the alert, brought 

 him on one of his almost daily visits an ideal sick man's book, 

 easy to read and offering food for meditation. It was the trans- 

 lation of an English book called Self -Help, 1 and it consisted in 

 a series of biographies, histories of lives illustrating the power 

 of courage, devotion or intelligence. The author, glad to ex- 

 pound a discovery, to describe a masterpiece, to relate noble 

 enterprises, to dwell upon the prodigies which energy can 

 achieve, had succeeded in making a homogeneous whole of 

 these unconnected narratives, a sort of homage to Will- 

 power. 



Pasteur agreed with the English writer in thinking that the 



supremacy of a nation resides in "the sum total of private 



virtues, activities and energy." His thoughts rose higher still ; 



men of science could wish for a greater glory than that of con- 



1 By Dr. Smiles. [Trans.] 



M 2 



