THE SPIRIT OF PATRIOTISM 105 



In the white heat of conflict between two 

 powerful nations this reasonable and humane 

 letter, couched in terms of such noble pride, 

 could not be understood. Doctor Neumann, 

 Dean of the Faculty of Bonn, replied harshly, 

 with an affectation of disdain, under which he 

 betrayed the irritation caused by this great and 

 well-merited lesson. Pasteur, strong in the 

 conviction that he and his nation were in the 

 right, wrote a second letter, no longer indig- 

 nant, but saddened and deploring the murder- 

 ousness of war, which puts a barrier between 

 men who were born to understand each other 

 and to join forces in the search of happiness. 

 He wrote: 



"MONSIEUR THE DEAN: In re-reading your let- 

 ter and my own, I feel sick at heart to think that 

 men like you and myself, who have consecrated 

 their lives to a search after the truth and to the 

 progress of the human mind, could address each 

 other in such terms, and based, for my own part, 

 upon such acts. Nevertheless, we have there one 

 other result of the character imprinted upon this 

 war by your Emperor. 



"You speak to me of degradation, Monsieur the 



