8 LOUIS PASTEUR. 



finally reduced, after a whole day's heating, from four 

 in *the morning to nine in the evening, to the said 

 sixty grammes. It was the first time that the long 

 manipulations required in the preparation of this 

 simple substance were attempted at the Ecole Nor- 

 male. 



Isolated in laboratory or library, Pasteur's only 

 thought was to search, to learn, to question, and to 

 verify. As the rule of the school leaves much to 

 individual initiative, he devoted himself to his work 

 with a joyful heart. This daily liberty constitutes 

 the charm and the honour of the Ecole Normale. Not 

 only does it permit but it encourages individual effort; 

 it allows the student to visit at his will the library, 

 and to consult there the scientific journals and reviews. 

 This free system of education develops singularly the 

 spirit of research. There is in it an element of 

 superiority over the Ecole Polytechnique. Influenced 

 by its military origin, constrained, moreover, by the 

 number of its pupils to impose on all an exact disci- 

 pline, and to introduce into their exercises a strict 

 regularity, the Ecole Polytechnique is, perhaps, less 

 calculated than the Ecole Normale to awaken in the 

 minds of its pupils a taste for speculative science. 

 It is certain that Pasteur owed to the freedom of work, 

 and to the facilities for solitary reading which he there 

 enjoyed, the first occasion for an investigation which 

 was the starting-point to a veritable discovery. 



