22 PASTEUR 



After three years at the Ecole Normale Louis 

 Pasteur passed his examinations for his degree 

 in physical sciences in 1846; out of four candi- 

 dates four were passed, among whom he stood 

 third, with no special distinction. 



What was the young graduate going to do? 

 Had he not now realised his most cherished 

 wish in attaining the goal towards which he 

 had striven with so much persistence? But 

 during these years of study his ambition had 

 shifted and broadened. To be sure, he still 

 wished to be a professor and teach the sciences ; 

 but through contact with the masters of sci- 

 ence, and in the presence of the glory of their 

 discoveries, he had become determined to dis- 

 tinguish himself in his turn by personal discov- 

 eries, almost as though he had a presentiment 

 of his own high destiny. After he was gradu- 

 ated it was not without anxiety that he realised 

 that he might be sent to some provincial col- 

 lege, far from all the instruments essential to 

 him. He was spared this misfortune through 

 the interest which he had been able to inspire 



