FOR THE NATIONAL WEALTH 89 



insults and calumnies was organised against 

 the great man, and it is even stated that he 

 once had to seek safety in Alais, followed by 

 an angry mob that stoned him as he went. Pas- 

 teur was keenly sensitive to such malevolent 

 attacks, but none the less he continued his task. 

 Rising early in the morning, he would stand 

 for long hours before the cases of silk-worms, 

 making observations and recording the daily 

 results of his experiments, never discouraged, 

 or at least overcoming by force of will those 

 moments when the desired goal seemed as re- 

 mote as ever, and proceeding to begin his work 

 over again, to correct his opinions in accord- 

 ance with the newly observed facts, with no in- 

 tention of halting until he should hold within 

 his powerful grasp the indisputable truth ! 



What a heroic battle! And it must not be 

 forgotten that Pasteur hardly knew what silk- 

 worms were when he undertook to cure them. 

 The celebrated entomologist, Henri Fabre, re- 

 lates in his Souvenirs the details of a visit that 

 Pasteur paid him upon arriving in the South. 



