KECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 5 



endowed with a singular maturity of character, for 

 the director confided to him the superintendence of 

 the quarters of the older pupils, who during class time 

 were his comrades. In the class room his table was 

 .in the midst of them; and never had so young a 

 master so much authority, and at the same time so 

 little need for its exercise. 



His first taste for chemistry manifested itself by 

 frequent questions addressed during class time to an 

 old professor named Darlay. This questioning was 

 so often repeated that the good man, quite bewildered, 

 ended by declaring that it was for him to interrogate 

 Pasteur and not for Pasteur to interrogate him. His 

 pupil pressed him no further, but having heard that at 

 Besan9on there lived an apothecary who had once dis- 

 tinguished himself by a paper inserted in the ' Annales 

 de Chimie et de Physique,' he sought this man, with a 

 view of ascertaining whether, on holidays, he would 

 consent to give him lessons secretly. 



At the examination for the Ecole Normale, Pasteur 

 passed as fourteenth in the list. This rank, however, 

 did not satisfy him. Notwithstanding the censure of 

 his fellow candidates he declared that he would begin a 

 new year of preparation. It was in Paris itself that he 

 chose to work in one of the silent corners of the city, 

 amid the seclusion of preparatory schools and convents. 



In the Impasse des Feuillantines, there lived a 

 schoolmaster, M. Barbet by name, or rather le pere 



