II. 



CHEMISTRY 



THE Ecole Normale gave him his heart's desire : 

 he was free to enjoy that magic life which makes a 

 palace out of a roomful of books, a holiday out of 

 a walk, and a revelation out of a lecture. There 

 was work, and there was home : and if it was not 

 the one with him, it was the other. In his letters 

 home, he tells his people everything : the latest 

 method of tanning, the fame of his teachers, and 

 all about himself, his plans and prospects. He 

 sends little examination-papers to his father, to 

 help him to be more of a scholar ; but filial piety 

 devised a pretence that the papers were to be set 

 to one of the little sisters : it is not many examina- 

 tion-papers that have so much love put into them. 

 There are long letters, also, to M. Romanet, his 

 old schoolmaster : who read them aloud to his 

 pupils, and got Pasteur, in his vacations, to lecture 

 to them. From 1844 to 1847, no great event 

 crossed the line of his incessant pursuit of 



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