I04 PASTEUR 



father hearing this, came unannounced to Paris, and 

 with the simple words, 'Je viens te chercher,' took 

 him home. Here for a time he amused himself by 

 sketching the portraits of neighbours and relatives, 

 but his desire to learn was unquenched, and within 

 a short time he entered as a student at the Royal 

 College of Franche-Comt6 at Besangon. This pic- 

 turesque town, situated only thirty miles from Arbois, 

 was within easy reach of his home ; and, above all, 

 on market days his father came thither to sell his 

 leather. 



At eighteen Pasteur received the degree of Bachelier 

 es Lettres, and almost immediately was occupied in 

 teaching others; but Paris, although once 'abandoned, 

 was again asserting its powers of attraction, and by 

 the autumn of 1842 he was once more following the 

 courses at the Lycee Saint-Louis. He also attended 

 the brilliant lectures of Dumas at the Sorbonne, and 

 vividly describes the scene : ' An audience of seven 

 or eight hundred listeners, the too frequent applause, 

 everything just like a theatre.' At the end of his first 

 year in Paris he achieved his great ambition, and suc- 

 ceeded in entering the Ecole Normale, and entering it 

 with credit. 



For the last year or two Pasteur had been studying 

 mathematics and physics ; at the Ecole Normale he 

 especially devoted himself to chemistry. Under the 

 teaching of Dumas and of Balard his enthusiasm re- 

 doubled, and he passed his final examinations with 

 distinction. Balard was indeed a true friend. Shortly 

 after the end of his career at the Ecole Normale, the 

 Minister of Public Instruction nominated Pasteur to 

 a small post as teacher of physics at the Lycee of 

 Tournon. But banishment from Paris meant banish- 

 ment from a laboratory. Balard intervened, inter- 

 viewed the Minister, and ended by attaching Pasteur 

 to his staff of assistants. 



