92 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



caring for luxury, he was glad to contribute to the 

 simple embellishment of our home because he knew 

 I appreciated it. When we travelled, always with 

 scientific research as an object, he never failed to 

 point out every interesting feature that we happened 

 to pass. He had a peculiar talent for making a 

 journey instructive as well as attractive ; his eager- 

 ness, infectious gaiety, inquisitive mind, and remark- 

 able organising faculty made of him an incomparable 

 guide and companion. 



We worked together for many years ; it was both 

 delightful and profitable to work with him, for he 

 opened out his ideas unreservedly and made one 

 share his enthusiasm and his interest in investigations ; 

 he could create an atmosphere of intimate union in 

 the search for truth which allowed the humblest 

 worker to feel himself a collaborator in an exalted 

 task. 



Though I always took a strong interest in scientific 

 questions. Art was the real passion of my life. But, 

 imbued as I was with the narrow, utilitarian views 

 which surrounded my youth, I had looked upon Art 

 as a luxury which should not be indulged in at a time 

 when the poorer classes could not read and write. 

 When at last I became emancipated from this fallacy, 

 my husband did his best to encourage my artistic 

 development though he himself did not appreciate 

 plastic art. Form and colour in themselves or in 

 harmony did not appeal to him ; he took much more 

 interest in a subject than in the way it was treated ; 

 he liked psychological or realistic work, landscapes, 

 " genre " pictures, but classical, Eenaissance, or Im- 

 pressionist works bored him. In spite of the diver- 

 gence of our tastes in that connection, he never ceased 



