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10 - Louis Pasteur by Albert Keim, Louis Lumet · Louis Pasteur

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  Speaker 1: Section ten of Louis Pasteur by Albert Kim and Louis Lumay,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Frederick Taber Cooper. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Pamel and Agami, Chapter seven,
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  Speaker 1: The Sovereignty of Genius, Part one. In spite of a
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  Speaker 1: small refractory group, Pasteur's rise in to fame was continuous,
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  Speaker 1: and his genius radiated throughout the scientific world of Europe.
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  Speaker 1: The government had appointed him as delicate to the International
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  Speaker 1: Medical Congress held at London in April eighteen eighty one,
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  Speaker 1: and there he was the recipient of exceptional honors. Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Valeriradeau cites a very beautiful letter which Pasteur wrote to
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  Speaker 1: his wife concerning the attentions that he received. When the
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  Speaker 1: President of the Congress, Sir James Paget happened to mention
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  Speaker 1: his name, the entire assemblage burst into applause, and Pastor
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  Speaker 1: was obliged to rise and salute his colleagues. I was
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  Speaker 1: very proud, he wrote, very proud internally, not for myself,
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  Speaker 1: you know how I feel in regard to triumphs, but
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  Speaker 1: from my country. When I realized that I was being
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  Speaker 1: exceptionally distinguished in the midst of this immense concourse of foreigners,
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  Speaker 1: of Germans especially, who are here in considerable numbers, far
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  Speaker 1: greater numbers than there are Frenchmen, of whom, nevertheless, taken altogether,
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  Speaker 1: there are not less than two hundred and fifty. Jean
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  Speaker 1: Baptiste and Renee were present at the session. You can
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  Speaker 1: judge of their emotion. After the session, luncheon at the
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  Speaker 1: home of Sir James Paget, with the Prussian Prince seated
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  Speaker 1: on his right and the Prince of Wales on his left.
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  Speaker 1: Then a gathering of twenty five to thirty guests in
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  Speaker 1: the drawing room. Sir James presented me to the Prince
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  Speaker 1: of Wales, before whom I made my bow, telling him
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  Speaker 1: that I was happy to salute the friend of France. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: he answered me, a great friend. Sir James Paget had
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  Speaker 1: the good taste not to ask me to be presented
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  Speaker 1: to the Prussian Prince, although under such circumstances it was
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  Speaker 1: impossible to be otherwise than courteous. I could not have
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  Speaker 1: made up my mind to give the appearance of having
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  Speaker 1: asked to be presented to him. But all of a
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  Speaker 1: sudden the Prince himself came up to me and said,
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Pasteur, allow me to introduce myself to you, and
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  Speaker 1: to tell you that I was one of those who
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  Speaker 1: applauded you this morning. And he continued talking to me
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  Speaker 1: in the friendliest manner. Receptions and ceremonies did not make
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  Speaker 1: Pastor forget his serious work, and, in a lecture intended
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  Speaker 1: as an answer to Bastien, who maintained that germs were
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  Speaker 1: borne from the organism containing them, he described his labors,
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  Speaker 1: his methods, his discovery of vaccines, and the way in
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  Speaker 1: which he had proved experimentally that germs were parasites. This
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  Speaker 1: exposition by Pastor, in which he summed up his entire
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  Speaker 1: life as a scientist and all the opportunities which it
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  Speaker 1: had opened up to the future of science, was printed
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  Speaker 1: in English and sent to all the members of the
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  Speaker 1: House of Commons. The greatest English scientists, it should be added, Tyndall, Paget,
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  Speaker 1: and Lister had rallied to the support of the Pastor methods.
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  Speaker 1: Upon returning to France, he set forth immediately for Bordeaux,
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  Speaker 1: where he hoped to have a chance to study yellow
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  Speaker 1: fever which had broken out among the crew of the
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  Speaker 1: Conde just arrived from Senegal. Yet at the same time
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  Speaker 1: that he was anxiously concerned regarding these six sailors, among
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  Speaker 1: whom he hoped to find subjects for experiments, he was
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  Speaker 1: profiting by his leisure moments to visit the Buchdaux library,
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  Speaker 1: where he read the works of Litree as assiduously and
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  Speaker 1: with pen in hand. The fact was that certain members
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  Speaker 1: of the Academy Frances had asked Pasteur to present himself
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  Speaker 1: as candidate for the place of the learned linguist, then
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  Speaker 1: recently deceased. We have seen that Pasteur, the great revolutionist
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  Speaker 1: of science, had a deep respect for degrees, hierarchies, social orders,
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  Speaker 1: and honorary distinctions, and it seemed to him that this
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  Speaker 1: was an honour out of all proportion to his own
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  Speaker 1: literary claims. He hesitated, and it needed all the insistence
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  Speaker 1: of his friends, as well as the thought that it
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  Speaker 1: was a tribute paid to science rather than to him personally,
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  Speaker 1: to decide him to offer himself as a candidate. He
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  Speaker 1: was elected on December eighth, eighteen eighty one, to the
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  Speaker 1: thirty first chair, whose previous occupants had been the La
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  Speaker 1: Chambre sixteen thirty five, Des Maree sixteen seventy, La Monoi
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  Speaker 1: seventeen thirteen, La Riviere seventeen twenty seven, Ardillon seventeen thirty,
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  Speaker 1: Tomins seventeen sixty six, Guilbert seventeen eighty six, Fontaine eighteen
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  Speaker 1: o three, Villemint eighteen twenty one, and Litreux eighteen eighty one.
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  Speaker 1: It may well be said that, even though he was
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  Speaker 1: not a man of letters, Pastor's name will remain as
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  Speaker 1: the one which has shed the greatest luster upon that
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  Speaker 1: particular chair. His reception took place on the twenty seventh
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  Speaker 1: of April eighteen eighty two, and it was the philosopher
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  Speaker 1: Ernest Renand, who, as master of ceremonies, welcomed the scientist.
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  Speaker 1: Their two addresses, each in its respective form and spirit,
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  Speaker 1: are admirable monuments of the French language and of French thought.
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  Speaker 1: That of Pastor grave austere, profound, paying homage to the
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  Speaker 1: merit of Liitreux, opening up marvelous glimpses into the abysses
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  Speaker 1: of infinity. That of Renauld, respectful towards science, complimentary, witty,
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  Speaker 1: and permeated with a serene and subtle philosophy. Louis pastor
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  Speaker 1: was listened to with a religious attention, and something like
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  Speaker 1: a shiver passed over his hearers when he read in
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  Speaker 1: a voice which, while not strong, was animated by an
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  Speaker 1: ardent conviction. This celebrated passage above and beyond the starry vault?
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  Speaker 1: What is there other new starlit skies? So be it
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  Speaker 1: and above and beyond them? The human mind, urged on
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  Speaker 1: by an invincible force, will never cease to ask itself
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  Speaker 1: what is there? Beyond? What? If the mind should try
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  Speaker 1: to stop at some point, either in time or space,
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  Speaker 1: Since that point where it stops marks only a finite greatness,
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  Speaker 1: merely greater than those which pc seated it, the mind
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  Speaker 1: has scarcely begun to contemplate it when the implacable question returns,
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  Speaker 1: and never can its curiosity be silenced. It does no
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  Speaker 1: good to answer above and beyond our space time greatness
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  Speaker 1: without limit. No one comprehends these words. Whoever proclaims the
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  Speaker 1: existence of the infinite, and no one can evade doing so,
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  Speaker 1: sums up in that affirmation more of the supernatural that
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  Speaker 1: is contained in all the miracles of all religions. For
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  Speaker 1: the notion of the infinite has this double character of
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  Speaker 1: being undeniable and incomprehensible. When this notion once takes possession
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  Speaker 1: of our understanding, there is nothing left but to prostrate
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  Speaker 1: ourselves before it. More than that, at this moment of
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  Speaker 1: poignant anguish, we must needs crave mercy from our own brains.
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  Speaker 1: All the sources of intellectual life threaten to give way.
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  Speaker 1: We feel ourselves on the point of yielding to the
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  Speaker 1: sublime folly of Pascal. This positive and primordial notion is
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  Speaker 1: gladly set aside, with all its consequences, by modern positivism.
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  Speaker 1: In the social life of today, on all sides I
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  Speaker 1: find the inevitable expression of this idea of the infinite
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  Speaker 1: in our world. It is through this that the supernatural
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  Speaker 1: lies at the bottom of every heart. The idea of
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  Speaker 1: God is one form of the idea of the infinite.
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  Speaker 1: So long as the mystery of the infinite ways upon
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  Speaker 1: human thought, temples will be raised to the cult of
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  Speaker 1: the infinite, whether God be called Brahma, Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: And on the pavement of these temples we will see
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  Speaker 1: men kneeling prostrated, lost in the thought of the infinite.
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  Speaker 1: Metaphysics does nothing more than transferred to within ourselves this
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  Speaker 1: dominant notion of the infinite, and is not the conception
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  Speaker 1: of the ideal, merely a faculty reflected from the infinite,
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  Speaker 1: which leads us, when in the presence of beauty, to
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  Speaker 1: conceive of a still higher form of beauty. Our science
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  Speaker 1: and the passionate desire to understand anything else than the
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  Speaker 1: effect of that spur toward knowledge which the mystery of
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  Speaker 1: the universe has placed in our souls. Where are the
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  Speaker 1: true sources of human dignity, of liberty, of modern democracy
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  Speaker 1: unless they are contained in the idea of the infinite,
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  Speaker 1: before which all men are equal. His hearers had applauded
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  Speaker 1: the words of the scientists who had thus dizzily scrutinized
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  Speaker 1: the mysteries of the world. They were about to hear
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  Speaker 1: the phrases of the philosopher, who was pondering them. With
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  Speaker 1: a smile. Ernest Renauld welcomed Pasteur with words of graceful
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  Speaker 1: compliment and noble distinction. We are quite incompetent to bestow
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  Speaker 1: fitting praise upon that which constitutes your true glory, he said,
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  Speaker 1: those admirable experiments through which you attain the very confines
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  Speaker 1: of life. Your ingenious fashion of interrogating nature, which so
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  Speaker 1: many times as one from her the clearest kind of replies,
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  Speaker 1: those precious discoveries which, day by day are being transformed
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  Speaker 1: into conquests of the highest importance to humanity. You would
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  Speaker 1: repudiate our praises, habituated as you are, to value only
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  Speaker 1: the judgments of your peers, And in the scientific debates
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  Speaker 1: aroused by this host of new ideas, you would not
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  Speaker 1: care to see the appreciations of men of letters intruding
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  Speaker 1: among the acclaims of scientists related to you by the
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  Speaker 1: brotherhood of Glory, and toil between you and your rival scientists.
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  Speaker 1: We have no right to intervene. But apart from the
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  Speaker 1: basis of science, which is not our province, there is
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  Speaker 1: one criterion monsieur, in regard to which our knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the human mind gives us the right to express an opinion.
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  Speaker 1: There is something which we are able to recognize in
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  Speaker 1: its most diverse manifestations, something which belongs an equal degree
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  Speaker 1: to Galileo, to Pascal, to Michelangelo, and to Moliere. Something
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  Speaker 1: which constitutes the sublimity of the poet, the profundity of
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  Speaker 1: the philosopher, the fascination of the orator, the divination of
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  Speaker 1: the savant, This common basis of all beautiful and true works,
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  Speaker 1: This divine flame, this indefinable breath, which is the inspiration
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  Speaker 1: of science, literature, and art, we find in you, monsieur.
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  Speaker 1: It is genius. No one else has traversed with so
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  Speaker 1: assured a step the circles of elemental nature. Your scientific
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  Speaker 1: life is like a luminous trail across the great night
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  Speaker 1: of the infinitely small, in those furthest depths of being
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  Speaker 1: where life is born. After analyzing the work of Pastor
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  Speaker 1: and pointing out the strong continuity of his researches, Renaud
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  Speaker 1: spoke of his virtues. Your austere life, he said, wholly
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  Speaker 1: consecrated to disinterested research, is the best response to those
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  Speaker 1: who regard our century as having lost the heritage of
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  Speaker 1: the great gifts of the soul, your laborious assiduity, which
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  Speaker 1: has been a stranger to all recreation and repose. Then,
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  Speaker 1: having recognized the merits of leitreux, Renan concluded, with rare
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  Speaker 1: and exquisite subtlety, your absolute devotion to science gave you
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  Speaker 1: the right, monsieur, to succeed to such a man and
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  Speaker 1: to recall to us his great and reverend memory. You
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  Speaker 1: will find in our meetings a source of relaxation for
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  Speaker 1: your mind continually occupied with new discoveries. This association with
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  Speaker 1: a company composed of all sorts of opinions in every
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  Speaker 1: type of mind will be congenial to you. Here we
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  Speaker 1: have the pleasant laugh of comedy, the pure and tender romance,
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  Speaker 1: the soaring flight of poetry with its harmonious rhythm. There
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  Speaker 1: we have all the subtlety of moral observation, the most
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  Speaker 1: exquisite analysis of the works of the mind, the profound
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  Speaker 1: significance of history. None of this will shake your faith
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  Speaker 1: in your experiments. The right acid will remain the right acid,
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  Speaker 1: the left acid will remain the left acid. But you
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  Speaker 1: will find that the prudent labors of Monsieur le Trex
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  Speaker 1: also had their value. You will follow with some interest
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  Speaker 1: the care taken by our critical philosophy to eliminate error
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  Speaker 1: by mistrusting its own procedure and limiting the extent of
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  Speaker 1: its observations. When you see how many good things are
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  Speaker 1: taught by those branches of letters that are frivolous in appearance,
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  Speaker 1: you will come to believe that the discrete doubt, the smile,
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  Speaker 1: the fine play of wit of which Pascal speaks, also
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  Speaker 1: have their value among us. You will find no experiments
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  Speaker 1: to make, but that modest power of observation from which
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  Speaker 1: you demand so much, will suffice to procure you many
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  Speaker 1: a pleasant hour. We will communicate our hesitations to you,
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  Speaker 1: and you will communicate your assurance to us. You will
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  Speaker 1: bring us above all your glory, your genius, and the
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  Speaker 1: renown of your discoveries. Monsieur I bid you welcome. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section ten