RECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD AND 

 YOUTH. 



FIRST DISCOVERIES. 



' COME, M. Pasteur ! you must shake off the demon 

 of idleness ! ' It was the night watcher of the College 

 of Besan9on, who invariably at four o'clock in the 

 morning entered Pasteur's room and roused him with 

 this vigorous salute, which was accompanied, when 

 necessary, by a sound shaking. Pasteur was then 

 eighteen years of age. In addition to his food and 

 lodging, the royal college paid him twenty-four francs 

 a month. But if his place was a modest one, it suf- 

 ficed at the time for his ambition : it was the first tie 

 which bound him to the University. 



' Ah,' said his father to him frequently, ' if only 

 you could become some day professor in the College 

 of Arbois I should be the happiest man on earth.' 



Already, when he resided at Dole, and when his 

 son was not yet two years old, this father permitted 

 himself to dream thus of the future. What would he 



