i 



THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



We, who are here present, do not forget that the first sericicul- 

 ture establishment was founded in Austria. As to you, 

 Japanese, may the cultivation of Science be numbered among 

 the chief objects of your care in the amazing social and political 

 transformation of which you are giving the marvellous spec- 

 tacle to the world. We Frenchmen, bending under the sorrow 

 of our mutilated country, should show once again that great 

 trials may give rise to great thoughts and great actions. 



" I drink to the peaceful strife of Science." 



"You will find," wrote Pasteur to Dumas, telling him of 

 this toast, which had been received with enthusiastic applause, 

 " an echo of the feelings with which you have inspired your 

 pupils on the grandeur and the destiny of Science in modern 

 society." 



The tender and delicate side of this powerful spirit was thus 

 once again apparent in this deference to his master in the midst 

 of acclamations, and in those deep and noble ideas expressed 

 in the middle of a noisy banquet. But it was chiefly in his 

 private life that his open-heartedness, his desire to love and 

 to be loved, became apparent. That great genius had a child- 

 like heart, and the charm of this was incomparable. 



He once said : " The recompense and the ambition of a 

 scientist is to conquer the approbation of his peers and of the 

 masters whom he venerates." He had already known that 

 recompense and could satisfy that ambition. Dumas had 

 known and appreciated him for thirty years ; Lister had pro- 

 claimed his gratitude ; Tyndall an indefatigable excursionist, 

 who loved to survey wide horizons, and who in his celebrated 

 classes was wont to make use of comparisons with altitudes 

 and heights and everything which opens a clear and vast out- 

 look had a great admiration for the wide development of Pas- 

 teur's work. Now, Pasteur's experiments had been strongly 

 attacked by a young English physician, Dr. Bastian, who had 

 excited in the English and American public a bitter prejudice 

 against the results announced by Pasteur on the subject of 

 spontaneous generation. 



" The confusion and uncertainty, 1 ' wrote Tyndall to Pas- 

 teur, " have finally become such that, six months ago, I thought 

 that it would be rendering a service to Science, at the same 

 time as justice to yourself, if the question were subjected to u 

 fresh investigation. 



" Putting into practice an idea which I had entertained six 



