ON THE ROAD TO FAME 51 



fession, who now looked upon him as at least 

 their equal, but he made a rather sorry candi- 

 date, being too fond of truth and justice to be 

 willing to play upon those little human vani- 

 ties which assure success in all elections. Ac- 

 cordingly, in spite of Senarmont's report, which 

 was highly eulogistic of Pasteur's discoveries, 

 insisting upon their value and importance, Pas- 

 teur received only sixteen votes. He took his 

 way back to Lille, not greatly cast down by a 

 defeat which he had foreseen, but he remained 

 there only a short time, because, on the open- 

 ing of the scholastic year of 1857, he was ap- 

 pointed Administrator of the Ecole Normale 

 and director of the scientific studies, while 

 Nisard assumed the general direction. 



Henceforth this was to be the centre of Pas- 

 teur's life, his whole life of toil, of combats on 

 behalf of science and humanity, and his family 

 life as well, a very happy one, notwithstanding 

 that it was destined to be marked by some in- 

 evitable bereavements which his profound faith 

 as a Catholic aided him to bear. It was from 



