FOR THE NATIONAL WEALTH 95 



Meanwhile a catastrophe was about to befall 

 Pasteur and even menace his life. On the 19th 

 of October, 1868, he was prostrated by an at- 

 tack of paralysis on the left side, and so gravely 

 affected that for the first twenty-four hours a 

 fatal termination was feared. Pasteur rallied 

 from the crisis, thanks to the robustness of his 

 constitution; and it was during those days of 

 physical and mental suffering, while he lay mo- 

 tionless, as though stricken by a thunderbolt, 

 that he revealed most vividly the loftiness of 

 his thoughts, the beauty of his character and 

 the stoic grandeur of his principles. On the 

 second afternoon of his illness Dr. Godelier, 

 who was attending him, was enabled to make 

 the following announcement in his health bul- 

 letin: "He wishes to talk about science." In 

 reply to Sainte-Claire Deville, who had spoken 

 some affectionate words of encouragement, he 

 uttered the following admirable phrase : "I re- 

 gret to die : I should like to have been of more 

 service to my country." His preoccupation as 

 a scientist never for an instant left him, as Dr. 



