LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 275 



The hour of silence was over ; the incineration 

 accomplished. Of his body, little was left — ^a handful 

 of ashes. They were enclosed within an nm and 

 placed in the library of the Pasteur Institute. 



But his beautiful, ardent soul, his audacious and 

 fertile ideas, aU that rich inner life which had 

 developed into a harmonious and puissant sym- 

 phony, all that cannot be dead, caimot disappear! 

 The ideas, the influence we give to life must persist, 

 must live ; they are the sacred flame which we hand 

 on to others and are eternal. 



