Chappuis—anxious to obey the injunctions of Pasteur’s father, who in every letter repeated “Do not let him work too much!” desirous also of enjoying a few hours’ outing with his friend—used to wait philosophically6, sitting on a laboratory stool, until the experiments were over. Conquered by this patient attitude and reproachful silence Pasteur would take off his apron7, saying half angrily, half gratefully, “Well, let us go for a walk.” And, when they were out in the street, the same serious subjects of conversation would inevitably9 crop up—classes, lectures, readings, etc.
One day, in the course of those long talks in the gardens of the Luxembourg, Pasteur carried Chappuis with him very far away from philosophy. He began to talk of tartaric acid and of paratartaric acid. The former had been known since 1770, thanks to the Swedish chemist Scheele, who discovered it in{26} the thick crusty formations within wine barrels called “tartar”; but the latter was disconcerting to chemists. In 1820 an Alsatian manufacturer, Kestner, had obtained by chance, whilst preparing tartaric acid in his factory at Thann, a very singular acid which he was unable to reproduce in spite of various attempts. He had kept some of it in stock. Gay-Lussac, having visited the Thann factory in 1826, studied this mysterious acid; he proposed to call it racemic acid. Berzelius studied it in his turn, and preferred to call it paratartaric. Either name may be adopted; it is exactly the same thing: men of letters or in society are equally frightened by the word paratartaric or racemic. Chappuis certainly was when Pasteur repeated to him word for word a paragraph by a Berlin chemist and crystallographer named Mitscherlich. Pasteur had pondered over this paragraph until he knew it by heart; often indeed, absorbed in reading the reports for 1844 of the Académie des Sciences, in the dark room which was then the library of the Ecole Normale, he had wondered if it were possible to get over a difficulty which seemed insurmountable to scientists such as Mitscherlich and Biot. This paragraph related to two saline combinations—tartrate and paratartrate of soda11 or ammonia—and may be epitomized as follows: in these two substances of similar crystalline form, the nature and number of the atoms, their arrangement and distances are the same. Yet dissolved tartrate rotates the plane of polarized light and paratartrate remains12 inactive.
Pasteur had the gift of making scientific problems interesting in a few words, even to minds least inclined to that particular line of thought. He rendered his listener’s attention very easy; no question surprised him and he never smiled at ignorance. Though Chappuis, absorbed in the series of lectures on philosophy given at that time by Jules Simon, was deep in a train of thought very far away from Mitscherlich’s perplexities, he gradually became interested in this optical inactivity of paratartrate, which so visibly affected13 his friend. Pasteur liked to look back into the history of things, giving in this way a veritable life to his explanations. Thus, à propos of the optical phenomenon which puzzled Mitscherlich, Pasteur was speaking to his friend of crystallized carbonate of lime, called Iceland spar, which presents a double refraction—that is to say: if you look at an object through this crystal, you perceive two reproductions of that object. In describing this, Pasteur was not{27} giving to Chappuis a vague notion of some piece of crystal in a glass case, but was absolutely evoking14 a vision of the beautiful crystal, perfectly15 pure and transparent16, brought from Iceland in 1669 to a Danish physicist17. Pasteur almost seemed to experience the surprise and emotion of this scientist, when, observing a ray of light through this crystal, he saw it suddenly duplicated. Pasteur also spoke18 enthusiastically of an officer of Engineers under the First Empire, Etienne Louis Malus. Malus was studying double refraction, and holding in his hands a piece of spar crystal, when, from his room in the Rue5 de l’Enfer, it occurred to him to observe through the crystal the windows of the Luxembourg Palace, then lighted up by the setting sun. It was sufficient to make the crystal rotate slowly round the visual ray (as on an axis) to perceive the periodic variations in the intensity19 of the light reflected by the windows. No one had yet suspected that light, after being reflected under certain conditions, would acquire properties quite different from those it had before its reflection. Malus gave the name of polarized light to light thus modified (by reflection in this particular case). Scientists admitted in those days, in the theory of emission20, the existence of luminous21 molecules22, and they imagined that these molecules “suffered the same effects simultaneously23 when they had been reflected on glass at a certain angle.... They were all turned in the same direction.” Pouillet, speaking of this discovery of Malus in the class on physics that Pasteur attended, explained that the consequent persuasion24 was “that those molecules had rotatory axes and poles, around which their movements could be accomplished25 under certain influences.”
Pasteur spoke feverishly26 of his regrets that Malus should have died at thirty-seven in the midst of his researches; of Biot, and of Arago, who became illustrious in the path opened by Malus. He explained to Chappuis that, by means of a polarizing apparatus27, it could be seen that certain quartz28 crystals deflected29 to the right the plane of polarized light, whilst others caused it to turn to the left. Chappuis also learned that some natural organic material, such as solutions of sugar or of tartaric acid, when placed in such an apparatus, turned to the right the plane of polarization, whilst others, like essence of turpentine or quinine, deflected it to the left; whence the expression “rotatory polarization.”
These would seem dry researches, belonging altogether to{28} the domain31 of science. And yet, thanks to the saccharimeter, which is a polarizing apparatus, a manufacturer can ascertain32 the quantity of pure sugar contained in the brown sugar of commerce, and a physiologist33 can follow the progress of diabetes34.
Chappuis, who knew what powers of investigation35 his friend could bring to bear on the problem enunciated36 by Mitscherlich, thought with regret that the prospect37 of such examinations as that for the licence and for the agrégation did not allow Pasteur to concentrate all his forces on such a special scientific point. But Pasteur was resolved to come back definitely to this subject as soon as he should have become “docteur ès sciences.”
When writing to his father he did not dwell upon tartrate and paratartrate; but his ambition was palpable. He was ever eager to do double work, to go up for his examination at the very earliest. “Before being a captain,” answered the old sergeant-major, “you must become a lieutenant38.”
These letters give one the impression of living amongst those lives, perpetually reacting upon each other. The thoughts of the whole family were centred upon the great School, where that son, that brother, was working, in whom the hopes of each were placed. If one of his bulky letters with the large post mark was too long in coming, his father wrote to reproach him gently: “Your sisters were counting the days. Eighteen days, they said! Louis has never kept us waiting so long! Can he be ill? It is a great joy to me,” adds the father, “to note your attachment39 to each other. May it always remain so.”
The mother had no time to write much; she was burdened with all the cares of the household and with keeping the books of the business. But she watched for the postman with a tender anxiety increased by her vivid imagination. Her thoughts were ever with the son whom she loved, not with a selfish love, but for himself, sharing his happiness in that he was working for a useful career.
So, between that corner in the Jura and the Ecole Normale, there was a continual exchange of thoughts; the smallest incidents of daily life were related. The father, knowing that he should inform the son of the fluctuations40 of the family budget, spoke of his more or less successful sales of leathers at the Besan?on fair. The son was ever hunting in the progress of industry anything that could tend to lighten the father’s heavy handicraft. But though the father declared himself ready to{29} examine Vauquelin’s new tanning process, which obviated41 the necessity of keeping the skins so long in the pits, he asked himself with scrupulous42 anxiety whether leathers prepared in that way would last as long as the others. Could he safely guarantee them to the shoemakers, who were unanimous in praising the goods of the little tannery-yard, but alas43 equally unanimous in forgetting to reward the disinterested44 tanner by prompt payment? He supplied his family with the necessaries of life: what more did he want? When he had news of his Normalien he was thoroughly45 happy. He associated himself with his son’s doings, sharing his enthusiasm over Dumas’ lectures, and taking an interest in Pouillet’s classes: Pouillet was a Franc-Comtois, and had been a student at the Ecole Normale; he was now Professor of Physics at the Sorbonne and a member of the Institut.[10] When Balard, a lecturer at the Ecole, was nominated to the Académie des Sciences, Louis told his father of it with the delight of an admiring pupil.
Like J. B. Dumas, Balard had been an apothecary’s pupil. When he spoke of their humble46 beginnings, Dumas was wont47 to say rather pompously—“Balard and I were initiated48 into our scientific life under the same conditions.” When, at the age of forty-two, he was made a member of the Institute, Balard could not contain his joy; he was quite a Southerner in his language and gestures, and the adjective exubérant might have been invented for him. But this same Southerner, ever on the move as he was, belonged to a special race: he always kept his word. “I was glad to note your pleasure at this nomination,” wrote Joseph Pasteur to his son; “it proves{30} that you are grateful to your masters.” About that same time the headmaster of Arbois College, M. Romanet, used to read out to the older boys the letters, always full of gratitude50, which he received from Louis Pasteur. These letters reflected life in Paris, such as Pasteur understood it—a life of hard work and exalted51 ambition. M. Romanet, in one of his replies, asked him to become librarian in partibus for the college and to choose and procure52 books on science and literature. The headmaster also begged of the young man some lectures for the rhétorique class during the holidays. “It would seem to the boys like an echo of the Sorbonne lectures! And you would speak to us of our great scientific men,” added M. Romanet, “amongst whom we shall one day number him who once was one of our best pupils and will ever remain one of our best friends.”
A corresponding member of Arbois College, and retained as vacation lecturer, Pasteur now undertook a yet more special task. He had often heard his father deplore53 his own lack of instruction, and knew well the elder man’s desire for knowledge. By a touching54 exchange of parts, the child to whom his father had taught his alphabet now became his father’s teacher; but with what respect and what delicacy55 did this filial master express himself! “It is in order that you may be able to help Josephine that I am sending you this work to do.” He took most seriously his task of tutor by correspondence; the papers he sent were not always easy. His father wrote (Jan. 2, 1845)—“I have spent two days over a problem which I afterwards found quite easy; it is no trifle to learn a thing and teach it directly afterwards.” And a month later: “Josephine does not care to rack her brains, she says; however I promise you that you will be pleased with her progress by the next holidays.”
The father would often sit up late at night over rules of grammar and mathematical problems, preparing answers to send to his boy in Paris.
Some Arboisians, quite forgotten now, imagined that they would add lustre56 to the local history. General Baron57 Delort, a peer of France,[11] aide de camp to Louis Philippe, Grand Cross{31} of the Legion of Honour and the first personage in Arbois—where he beguiled58 his old age by translating Horace—used to go across the Cuisance bridge without so much as glancing at the tannery where the Pasteur family lived. Whilst the general in his thoughts bequeathed to the town of Arbois his books, his papers, his decorations, even his uniform, he was far from foreseeing that the little dwelling59 by the bridge would one day become the cynosure60 of all eyes.
Months went by and happy items of news succeeded one another. The Normalien was chiefly interested in the transformations61 of matter, and was practising in order to become capable of assisting in experiments; difficulties only stimulated63 him. At the chemistry class that he attended, the process of obtaining phosphorus was merely explained, on account of the length of time necessary to obtain this elementary substance; Pasteur, with his patience and desire for proven knowledge, was not satisfied. He therefore bought some bones, burnt them, reduced them to a very fine ash, treated this ash with sulphuric acid, and carefully brought the process to its close. What a triumph it seemed to him when he had in his possession sixty grammes of phosphorus, extracted from bones, which he could put into a phial labelled “phosphorus.” This was his first scientific joy.
Whilst his comrades ironically (but with some discernment) called him a “laboratory pillar,” some of them, more intent upon their examinations, were getting ahead of him.—M. Darboux, the present “doyen” of the Faculty65[12] of Science, finds in the Sorbonne registers that Pasteur was placed 7th at the licence examination; two other students having obtained equal marks with him, the jury (Balard, Dumas and Delafosse), mentioned his name after theirs.
Those who care for archives would find in the Journal Général de l’Instruction Publique of September 17, 1846, a report of the agrégation[13] competition (physical science). Out{32} of fourteen candidates only four passed and Pasteur was the third. His lessons on physics and chemistry caused the jury to say, “He will make an excellent professor.”
Many Normaliens of that time fancied themselves called to a destiny infinitely66 superior to his. Some of them, in later times, used to complacently67 allude68 to this momentary69 superiority when speaking to their pupils. Of all Pasteur’s acquaintances Chappuis was the only one who divined the future. “You will see what Pasteur will be,” he used to say, with an assurance generally attributed to friendly partiality. Chappuis—Pasteur’s confidant—was well aware of his friend’s powers of concentration.
Balard also realised this; he had the happy idea of taking the young agrégé into his laboratory, and intervened vehemently70 when the Minister of Public Instruction desired—a few months later—that Pasteur should teach physics in the Tournon Lycée. It would be rank folly71, Balard declared, to send 500 kilometres away from Paris a youth who only asked for the modest title of curator, and had no ambition but to work from morning till night, preparing for his doctor’s degree. There would be time to send him away later on. It was impossible to resist this torrent72 of words founded on solid sense. Balard prevailed.
Pasteur was profoundly grateful to him for preserving him from exile to the little town in Ardèche; and, as he added to his Franc-Comtois patience and reflective mind a childlike heart and deep enthusiasm, he was delighted to remain with a master like Balard, who had become celebrated, at the age of twenty-four, as the discoverer of bromin.
At the end of 1846, a newcomer entered Balard’s laboratory, a strange delicate-looking man, whose ardent73 eyes were at the same time proud and yet anxious. This man, a scientist and a poet, was a professor of the Bordeaux Faculty, named Auguste Laurent. Perhaps he had had some friction74 with his Bordeaux chiefs, possibly he merely wished for a change; at all events, he now desired to live in Paris. Laurent was already known in the scientific world, and had recently been made a correspondent of the Académie des Sciences. He had foreseen and confirmed the theory of substitutions, formulated75 by Dumas as early as 1834 before the Académie. Dumas had{33} expressed himself thus: “Chlorine possesses the singular power of seizing upon the hydrogen in certain substances, and of taking its place atom by atom.”
This theory of substitutions was—according to a simple and vivid comparison of Pasteur’s—a way of looking upon chemical bodies as upon “molecular76 edifices78, in which one element could be replaced by another without disturbing the structure of the edifice77; as if one were to replace, one by one, every stone of a monument by a new stone.” Original researches, new and bold ideas, appealed to Pasteur. But his cautious mind prevented his boldness from leading him into errors, surprises or hasty conclusions. “That is possible,” he would say, “but we must look more deeply into the subject.”
When asked by Laurent to assist him with some experiments upon certain theories, Pasteur was delighted at this suggested collaboration79, and wrote to his friend Chappuis: “Even if the work should lead to no results worth publishing, it will be most useful to me to do practical work for several months with such an experienced chemist.”
It was partly due to Laurent, that Pasteur entered more deeply into the train of thought which was to lead him to grapple with Mitscherlich’s problem. “One day” (this is a manuscript note of Pasteur’s) “one day it happened that M. Laurent—studying, if I mistake not, some tungstate of soda, perfectly crystallized and prepared from the directions of another chemist, whose results he was verifying—showed me through the microscope that this salt, apparently80 very pure, was evidently a mixture of three distinct kinds of crystals, easily recognizable with a little experience of crystalline forms. The lessons of our modest and excellent professor of mineralogy, M. Delafosse, had long since made me love crystallography; so, in order to acquire the habit of using the goniometer, I began to carefully study the formations of a very fine series of combinations, all very easily crystallized, tartaric acid and the tartrates.” He appreciated any favourable81 influence on his work; we find in the same note: “Another motive82 urged me to prefer the study of those particular forms. M. de la Provostaye had just published an almost complete work concerning them; this allowed me to compare as I went along my own observations with those, always so precise, of that clever scientist.”
Pasteur and Laurent’s work in common was interrupted.{34} Laurent was appointed as Dumas’ assistant at the Sorbonne. Pasteur did not dwell upon his own disappointment, but rejoiced to see honour bestowed84 upon a man whom he thought worthy85 of the first rank. Some judges have thought that Laurent, in his introductory lesson, was too eager to expound86 his own ideas; but is not every believer an apostle? When a mind is full of ideas, it naturally overflows87. It is probable that Pasteur in Laurent’s place would have kept his part as an assistant more in the background. He did not give vent49 to the slightest criticism, but wrote to Chappuis. “Laurent’s lectures are as bold as his writings, and his lessons are making a great sensation amongst chemists.” Whether one of criticism or of approbation88, this sensation was a living element of success. In order to answer some insinuations concerning Laurent’s ambition and constant thirst for change, Pasteur proclaimed in his thesis on chemistry how much he had been “enlightened by the kindly89 advice of a man so distinguished90, both by his talent and by his character.”
This essay was entitled “Researches into the saturation91 capacity of arsenious acid. A study of the arsenites of potash, soda and ammonia.” This, to Pasteur’s mind, was but schoolboy work. He had not yet, he said, enough practice and experience in laboratory work. “In physics,” he wrote to Chappuis, “I shall only present a programme of some researches that I mean to undertake next year, and that I merely indicate in my essay.”
This essay on physics was a “Study of phenomena92 relative to the rotatory polarization of liquids.” In it he rendered full homage93 to Biot, pointing out the importance of a branch of science too much neglected by chemists; he added that it was most useful, in order to throw light upon certain difficult chemical problems, to obtain the assistance of crystallography and physics. “Such assistance is especially needed in the present state of science.”
These two essays, dedicated94 to his father and mother, were read on August 23, 1847. He only obtained one white ball and two red ones for each. “We cannot judge of your essays,” wrote his father, in the name of the whole family, “but our satisfaction is no less great. As to a doctor’s degree, I was far from hoping as much; all my ambition was satisfied with the agrégation.” Such was not the case with his son.{35} “Onwards” was his motto, not from a desire for a diploma, but from an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
After spending a few days with his family and friends, he wanted to go to Germany with Chappuis to study German from morning till night. The prospect of such industrious95 holidays enchanted96 him. But he had forgotten a student’s debt. “I cannot carry out my project,” he sadly wrote, on September 3, 1847; “I am more than ruined by the cost of printing my thesis.”
On his return to Paris he shut himself up in the laboratory. “I am extremely happy. I shall soon publish a paper on crystallography.” His father writes (December 25, 1847): “We received your letter yesterday; it is absolutely satisfactory, but it could not be otherwise coming from you; you have long, indeed ever, been all satisfaction to me.” And in response to his son’s intentions of accomplishing various tasks, fully8 understanding that nothing will stop him: “You are doing right to make for your goal; it was only out of excessive affection that I have often written in another sense. I only feared that you might succumb97 to your work; so many noble youths have sacrificed their health to the love of science. Knowing you as I do, this was my only anxiety.”
After being reproved for excessive work, Louis was reprimanded for too much affection (January 1, 1848). “The presents you sent have just arrived; I shall leave it to your sisters to write their thanks. For my part, I should prefer a thousand times that this money should still be in your purse, and thence to a good restaurant, spent in some good meals that you might have enjoyed with your friends. There are not many parents, my dearest boy, who have to write such things to their son; my satisfaction in you is indeed deeper than I can express.” At the end of this same letter, the mother adds in her turn: “My darling boy, I wish you a happy new year. Take great care of your health.... Think what a worry it is to me that I cannot be with you to look after you. Sometimes I try to console myself for your absence by thinking how fortunate I am in having a child able to raise himself to such a position as yours is—such a happy position, as it seems to be from your last letter but one.” And in a strange sentence, where it would seem that a presentiment98 of her approaching death made worldly things appear at their true value:{36} “Whatever happens to you, do not grieve; nothing in life is more than a chimera99. Farewell, my son.”
On March 20, 1848, Pasteur read to the Académie des Sciences a portion of his treatise100 on “Researches on Dimorphism.” There are some substances which crystallize in two different ways. Sulphur, for instance, gives quite dissimilar crystals according to whether it is melted in a crucible101 or dissolved in sulphide of carbon. Those substances are called dimorphous. Pasteur, kindly aided by the learned M. Delafosse (with his usual gratefulness he mentions this in the very first pages) had made out a list—as complete as possible—of all dimorphous substances. When M. Romanet, of Arbois College, received this paper he was quite overwhelmed. “It is much too stiff for you,” he said with an infectious modesty102 to Vercel, Charrière, and Coulon, Pasteur’s former comrades. Perhaps the head master desired to palliate his own incompetence103 in the eyes of coming generations, for on the title page of the copy of Pasteur’s booklet still to be found in the Arbois library, he wrote this remark, which he signed with his initial R.:—“Dimorphisme; this word is not even to be found in the Dictionnaire de l’Académie”!! The approbation of several members of the Académie des Sciences compensated104 for the somewhat summary judgment105 of M. Romanet, whose good wishes continued to follow the rapid course of his old pupil.
After this very special study, dated at the beginning of 1848, one might imagine the graduate-curator closing his ears to all outside rumours106 and little concerned with political agitation107, but that would be doing him an injustice108. Those who witnessed the Revolution of 1848 remember how during the early days France was exalted with the purest patriotism109. Pasteur had visions of a generous and fraternal Republic; the words drapeau and patrie moved him to the bottom of his soul. Lamartine[14] as a politician inspired him with an enthusiastic confidence; he delighted in the sight of a poet leader of men. Many others shared the same illusions. France, as Louis Veuillot has it, made the mistake of choosing her band-master{37} as colonel of the regiment110. Enrolled111 with his fellow students, Pasteur wrote thus to his parents: “I am writing from the Orleans Railway, where as a garde national[15] I am stationed. I am glad that I was in Paris during the February days[16] and that I am here still; I should be sorry to leave Paris just now. It is a great and a sublime112 doctrine113 which is now being unfolded before our eyes ... and if it were necessary I should heartily114 fight for the holy cause of the Republic.” “What a transformation62 of our whole being!” has written one who was then a candidate to the Ecole Normale, already noted115 by his masters for his good sense, Francisque Sarcey. “How those magical words of liberty and fraternity, this renewal116 of the Republic, born in the sunshine of our twentieth year, filled our hearts with unknown and absolutely delicious sensations! With what a gallant117 joy we embraced the sweet and superb image of a people of free men and brethren! The whole nation was moved as we were; like us, it had drunk of the intoxicating118 cup. The honey of eloquence119 flowed unceasingly from the lips of a great poet, and France believed, in childlike faith, that his word was efficacious to destroy abuses, cure evils and soothe120 sorrows.”
One day when Pasteur was crossing the Place du Panthéon, he saw a gathering121 crowd around a wooden erection, decorated with the words: Autel de la Patrie. A neighbour told him that pecuniary122 offerings might be laid upon this altar. Pasteur goes back to the Ecole Normale, empties a drawer of all his savings123, and returns to deposit it in thankful hands.{38}
“You say,” wrote his father on April 28, 1848, “that you have offered to France all your savings, amounting to 150 francs. You have probably kept a receipt of the office where this payment was made, with mention of the date and place?” And considering that this action should be made known, he advises him to publish it in the journal Le National or La Réforme in the following terms, “Gift to the Patrie: 150 francs, by the son of an old soldier of the Empire, Louis Pasteur of the Ecole Normale.” He wrote in the same letter, “You should raise a subscription124 in your school in favour of the poor Polish exiles who have done so much for us; it would be a good deed.”
After those days of national exaltation, Pasteur returned to his crystals. He studied tartrates under the influence of certain ideas that he himself liked to expound. Objects considered merely from the point of view of form, may be divided into two great categories. First, those objects which, placed before a mirror, give an image which can be superposed to them: these have a symmetrical plan; secondly125, those which have an image which cannot be superposed to them: they are dissymmetrical. A chair, for instance, is symmetrical, or a straight flight of steps. But a spiral staircase is not symmetrical, its own image cannot be laid over it. If it turns to the right, its image turns to the left. In the same way the right hand cannot be superposed to the left hand, a righthand glove does not fit a left hand, and a right hand seen in a mirror gives the image of a left hand.
Pasteur noticed that the crystals of tartaric acid and the tartrates had little faces, which had escaped even the profound observation of Mitscherlich and La Provostaye. These faces, which only existed on one half of the edges or similar angles, constituted what is called a hemihedral form. When the crystal was placed before a glass the image that appeared could not be superposed to the crystal; the comparison of the two hands was applicable to it. Pasteur thought that this aspect of the crystal might be an index of what existed within the molecules, dissymmetry of form corresponding with molecular dissymmetry. Mitscherlich had not perceived that his tartrate presented these little faces, this dissymmetry, whilst his paratartrate was without them, was in fact not hemihedral. Therefore, reasoned Pasteur, the deviation126 to the right of the plane of polarization produced by tartrate and the optical neutrality{39} of paratartrates would be explained by a structural127 law. The first part of these conclusions was confirmed; all the crystals of tartrate proved to be hemihedral. But when Pasteur came to examine the crystals of paratartrate, hoping to find none of them hemihedral, he experienced a keen disappointment. The paratartrate also was hemihedral, but the faces of some of the crystals were inclined to the right, and those of others to the left. It then occurred to Pasteur to take up these crystals one by one and sort them carefully, putting on one side those which turned to the left, and on the other those which turned to the right. He thought that by observing their respective solutions in the polarizing apparatus, the two contrary hemihedral forms would give two contrary deviations128; and then, by mixing together an equal number of each kind, as no doubt Mitscherlich had done, the resulting solution would have no action upon light, the two equal and directly opposite deviations exactly neutralizing129 each other.
With anxious and beating heart he proceeded to this experiment with the polarizing apparatus and exclaimed, “I have it!” His excitement was such that he could not look at the apparatus again; he rushed out of the laboratory, not unlike Archimedes. He met a curator in the passage, embraced him as he would have embraced Chappuis, and dragged him out with him into the Luxembourg garden to explain his discovery. Many confidences have been whispered under the shade of the tall trees of those avenues, but never was there greater or more exuberant130 joy on a young man’s lips. He foresaw all the consequences of his discovery. The hitherto incomprehensible constitution of paratartaric or racemic acid was explained; he differentiated131 it into righthand tartaric acid, similar in every way to the natural tartaric acid of grapes, and lefthand tartaric acid. These two distinct acids possess equal and opposite rotatory powers which neutralize132 each other when these two substances, reduced to an aqueous solution, combine spontaneously in equal quantities.
“How often,” he wrote to Chappuis (May 5), whom he longed to have with him, “how often have I regretted that we did not both take up the same study, that of physical science. We who so often talked of the future, we did not understand. What splendid work we could have undertaken and would be undertaking133 now; and what could we not have done united by the same ideas, the same love of science, the same ambition!{40} I would we were twenty and with the three years of the Ecole before us!” Always fancying that he could have done more, he often had such retrospective regrets. He was impatient to begin new researches, when a sad blow fell upon him—his mother died almost suddenly of apoplexy. “She succumbed134 in a few hours,” he wrote to Chappuis on May 28, “and when I reached home she had already left us. I have asked for a holiday.” He could no longer work; he remained steeped in tears and buried in his sorrow. For weeks his intellectual life was suspended.
In Paris, in the scientific world perhaps even more than in any other, everything gets known, repeated, discussed. Pasteur’s researches were becoming a subject of conversation. Balard, with his strident voice, spoke of them in the library at the Institute, which is a sort of drawing-room for talkative old Academicians. J. B. Dumas listened gravely; Biot, old Biot, then seventy-four years old, questioned the story with some scepticism. “Are you quite sure?” he would ask, his head a little on one side, his words slow and slightly ironical64. He could hardly believe, on first hearing Balard, that a new doctor, fresh from the Ecole Normale, should have overcome a difficulty which had proved too much for Mitscherlich. He did not care for long conversations with Balard, and as the latter continued to extol135 Pasteur, Biot said, “I should like to investigate that young man’s results.”
Besides Pasteur’s deference136 for all those whom he looked upon as his teachers, he also felt a sort of general gratitude for their services to Science. Partly from an infinite respect and partly from an ardent desire to convince the old scientist, he wrote on his return to Paris to Biot, whom he did not know personally, asking him for an interview. Biot answered: “I shall be pleased to verify your results if you will communicate them confidentially137 to me. Please believe in the feelings of interest inspired in me by all young men who work with accuracy and perseverance138.”
An appointment was made at the Collège de France,[17] where Biot lived. Every detail of that interview remained for ever{41} fixed139 in Pasteur’s memory. Biot began by fetching some paratartaric acid. “I have most carefully studied it,” he said to Pasteur; “it is absolutely neutral in the presence of polarized light.” Some distrust was visible in his gestures and audible in his voice. “I shall bring you everything that is necessary,” continued the old man, fetching doses of soda and ammonia. He wanted the salt prepared before his eyes.
After pouring the liquid into a crystallizer, Biot took it into a corner of his room to be quite sure that no one would touch it. “I shall let you know when you are to come back,” he said to Pasteur when taking leave of him. Forty-eight hours later some crystals, very small at first, began to form; when there was a sufficient number of them, Pasteur was recalled. Still in Biot’s presence, Pasteur withdrew, one by one, the finest crystals and wiped off the mother-liquor adhering to them. He then pointed83 out to Biot the opposition140 of their hemihedral character, and divided them into two groups—left and right.
“So you affirm,” said Biot, “that your righthand crystals will deviate141 to the right the plane of polarization, and your lefthand ones will deviate it to the left?”
“Yes,” said Pasteur.
“Well, let me do the rest.”
Biot himself prepared the solutions, and then sent again for Pasteur. Biot first placed in the apparatus the solution which should deviate to the left. Having satisfied himself that this deviation actually took place, he took Pasteur’s arm and said to him these words, often deservedly quoted: “My dear boy, I have loved Science so much during my life, that this touches my very heart.”
“It was indeed evident,” said Pasteur himself in recalling this interview, “that the strongest light had then been thrown on the cause of the phenomenon of rotatory polarization and hemihedral crystals; a new class of isomeric substances was discovered; the unexpected and until then unexampled constitution of the racemic or paratartaric acid was revealed; in one word a great and unforeseen road was opened to science.”
Biot now constituted himself the sponsor in scientific matters of his new young friend, and undertook to report upon Pasteur’s paper entitled: “Researches on the relations which may exist between crystalline form, chemical composition, and the direction of rotatory power”—destined for the Académie des Sciences.{42}
Biot did full justice to Pasteur; he even rendered him homage, and—not only in his own name but also in that of his three colleagues, Regnault, Balard, and Dumas—he suggested that the Académie should declare its highest approbation of Pasteur’s treatise.
Pasteur did not conceive greater happiness than his laboratory life, and yet the laboratories of that time were very unlike what they are nowadays, as we should see if the laboratories of the Collège de France, of the Sorbonne, of the Ecole Normale had been preserved. They were all that Paris could offer Europe, and Europe certainly had no cause to covet142 them. Nowadays the most humble college, in the smallest provincial143 town, would not accept such dens10 as the State offered (when it offered them any) to the greatest French scientists. Claude Bernard, Magendie’s curator, worked at the Collège de France in a regular cellar. Wurtz only had a lumber-room in the attics144 of the Dupuytren Museum. Henri Sainte Claire Deville, before he became head of the Besan?on Faculty, had not even as much; he was relegated145 to one of the most miserable146 corners of the Rue Lafarge. J. B. Dumas did not care to occupy the unhealthy room reserved for him at the Sorbonne; his father-in-law, Alexandre Brongniart, having given him a small house in the Rue Cuvier, opposite the Jardin des Plantes, he had had it transformed into a laboratory and was keeping it up at his own expense. He was therefore comfortably situated147, but he was exceptionally fortunate. Every scientist who had no private means to draw upon had to choose between the miserable cellars and equally miserable garrets which were all that the State could offer. And yet it was more tempting148 than a Professor’s chair in a College or even in a Faculty, for there one could not give oneself up entirely149 to one’s work.
Nothing would have seemed more natural than to leave Pasteur to his experiments. But his appointment to some definite post could no longer be deferred150, in spite of Balard’s tumultuous activity. The end of the summer vacation was near, there was a vacancy151: Pasteur was made a Professor of Physics at the Dijon Lycée. The Minister of Public Instruction consented to allow him to postpone152 his departure until the beginning of November, in order to let him finish some work begun under the eye of Biot, who thought and dreamt of nothing but these new investigations153. During thirty years Biot had studied the phenomena of rotatory polarization. He{43} had called the attention of chemists to these phenomena, but his call had been unheeded. Continuing his solitary154 labour, he had—in experimenting on cases both simple and complex—studied this molecular rotatory power, without suspecting that this power bore a definite relation to the hemihedral form of some crystals. And now that the old man was a witness of a triumphant155 sequel to his own researches, now that he had the joy of seeing a young man with a thoughtful mind and an enthusiastic heart working with him, now that the hope of this daily collaboration shed a last ray on the close of his life, Pasteur’s departure for Dijon came as a real blow. “If at least,” he said, “they were sending you to a Faculty!” He turned his wrath156 on to the Government officials. “They don’t seem to realize that such labours stand above everything else! If they only knew it, two or three such treatises157 might bring a man straight to the Institut!”
Nevertheless Pasteur had to go. M. Pouillet gave him a letter for a former Polytechnician,[18] now a civil engineer at Dijon, a M. Parandier, in which he wrote—
“M. Pasteur is a most distinguished young chemist. He has just completed some very remarkable158 work, and I hope it will not be long before he is sent to a first-class Faculty. I need add nothing else about him; I know no more honest, industrious, or capable young man. Help him as much as you can at Dijon; you will not regret it.”
Those first weeks away from his masters and from his beloved pursuits seemed very hard to Pasteur. But he was anxious to prove himself a good teacher. This duty appeared to him to be a noble ideal, and to involve a wide responsibility. He felt none of the self satisfaction which is sometimes a source of strength to some minds conscious of their superiority to others. He did not even do himself the justice of feeling that he was{44} absolutely sure of his subject. He wrote to Chappuis (November 20, 1848): “I find that preparing my lessons takes up a great deal of time. It is only when I have prepared a lesson very carefully that I succeed in making it very clear and capable of compelling attention. If I neglect it at all I lecture badly and become unintelligible159.”
He had both first and second year pupils; these two classes took up all his time and all his strength. He liked the second class; it was not a very large one. “They all work,” Pasteur wrote, “some very intelligently.” As to the first year class, what could he do with eighty pupils? The good ones were kept back by the bad. “Don’t you think,” he wrote, “that it is a mistake not to limit classes to fifty boys at the most? It is with great difficulty that I can secure the attention of all towards the end of the lesson. I have only found one means, which is to multiply experiments at the last moment.”
Whilst he was eagerly and conscientiously160 giving himself up to his new functions—not without some bitterness, for he really was entitled to an appointment in a Faculty, and he could not pursue his favourite studies—his masters were agitating161 on his behalf. Balard was clamouring to have him as an assistant at the Ecole Normale. Biot was appealing to Baron Thenard. This scientist was then Chairman of the Grand Council of the Université.[19] He had been a pupil of Vauquelin, a friend of Laplace, and a collaborator162 of Gay-Lussac; he had lectured during thirty years at the Sorbonne, at the Collège de France, and at the Ecole Polytechnique; he could truthfully boast that he had had 40,000 pupils. He was, like J. B. Dumas, a born professor. But, whilst Dumas was always self possessed163 and dignified164 in his demeanour, his very smile serious, Thenard, a native of Burgundy, threw his whole personality into his work, a broad smile on his beaming face.
He was now (1848) seventy years old, and the memory of his{45} teaching, the services rendered to industry by his discoveries, the éclat of his name and titles contrasted with his humble origin, all combined to render him more than a Chancellor165 of the University; he was in fact a sort of Field Marshal of science, and all powerful. Three years previously166 he had much scandalized certain red-tape officials by choosing three very young men—Puiseux, Delesse, and H. Sainte Claire Deville—as professors for the new Faculty of Science at Besan?on. He had accentuated167 this authoritative168 measure by making Sainte Claire Deville Dean of the Faculty. In the unknown professor of twenty-six, he had divined the future celebrated scientist.
At the end of the year 1848 Pasteur solicited169 the place of assistant to M. Delesse, who was taking a long leave of absence. This would have brought him near Arbois, besides placing him in a Faculty. He asked for nothing more. Thenard, who had Biot’s report in his hands, undertook to transmit to the Minister this modest and natural request. He was opposed by an unexpected argument—the presentation of assistantships belonged to each Faculty. This custom was unknown to Pasteur. Thenard was unable to overcome this routine formality. Pasteur thought that the unanimous opinion of Thenard, Biot, and Pouillet ought to have prevailed. “I can practically do nothing here,” he wrote on the sixth of December, thinking of his interrupted studies. “If I cannot go to Besan?on, I shall go back to Paris as a curator.”
His father, to whom he paid a visit for the new year, persuaded him to look upon things more calmly, telling him that wisdom repudiated170 too much hurry. Louis deferred to his father’s opinion to the extent of writing, on January 2, 1849, to the Minister of Public Instruction, begging him to overlook his request. However, the members of the Institute who had taken up his cause did not intend to be thwarted171 by minor172 difficulties. Pasteur’s letter was hardly posted when he received an assistantship, not at the Besan?on Faculty but at Strasburg, to take the place of M. Persoz, Professor of Chemistry, who was desirous of going to Paris.
Pasteur, on his arrival at Strasburg (January 15) was welcomed by the Professor of Physics, his old school friend, the Franc-Comtois Bertin. “First of all, you are coming to live with me,” said Bertin gleefully. “You could not do better; it is a stone’s throw from the Faculté.” By living with Bertin, Pasteur acquired a companion endowed with a{46} rare combination of qualities—a quick wit and an affectionate heart. Bertin was too shrewd to be duped, and a malicious173 twinkle often lit up his kindly expression; with one apparently careless word, he would hit the weak point of the most self satisfied. He loved those who were simple and true, hence his affection for Pasteur. His smiling philosophy contrasted with Pasteur’s robust174 faith and ardent impetuosity. Pasteur admired, but did not often imitate, the peaceful manner with which Bertin, affirming that a disappointment often proved to be a blessing175 in disguise, accepted things as they came. In order to prove that this was no paradox176, Bertin used to tell what had happened to him in 1839, when he was mathematical preparation master at the College of Luxeuil. He was entitled to 200 francs a month, but payment was refused him. This injustice did not cause him to recriminate, but he quietly tendered his resignation. He went in for the Ecole Normale examination, entered the school at the head of the list, and subsequently became Professor of Physics at the Strasburg Faculty. “If it had not been for my former disappointment, I should still be at Luxeuil.” He was now perfectly satisfied, thinking that nothing could be better than to be a Professor in a Faculty; but this absence of any sort of ambition did not prevent him from giving his teaching the most scrupulous attention. He prepared his lessons with extreme care, endeavouring to render them absolutely clear. He took great personal interest in his pupils, and often helped them with his advice in the interval177 between class hours. This excellent man’s whole life was spent in working for others, and to be useful was ever to him the greatest satisfaction.
Perhaps Pasteur was stimulated by Bertin’s example to give excessive importance to minor matters in his first lessons. He writes: “I gave too much thought to the style of my two first lectures, and they were anything but good; but I think the subsequent ones were more satisfactory, and I feel I am improving.” His lectures were well attended, for the numerous industries of Alsace gave to chemistry quite a place by itself.
Everything pleased him in Strasburg save its distance from Arbois. He who could concentrate his thoughts for weeks, for months even, on one subject, who could become as it were a prisoner of his studies, had withal an imperious longing30 for family life. His rooms in Bertin’s house suited him all the{47} better that they were large enough for him to entertain one of his relations. His father wrote in one of his letters: “You say that you will not marry for a long time, that you will ask one of your sisters to live with you. I could wish it for you and for them, for neither of them wishes for a greater happiness. Both desire nothing better than to look after your comfort; you are absolutely everything to them. One may meet with sisters as good as they are, but certainly with none better.”
Louis Pasteur’s circle of dear ones was presently enlarged by his intimacy178 with another family. The new Rector of the Academy of Strasburg, M. Laurent, had arrived in October. He was no relation to the chemist of the same name, and the place he was about to take in Pasteur’s life was much greater than that held by Auguste Laurent at the time when they were working together in Balard’s laboratory.
After having begun, in 1812, as preparation master in the then Imperial College of Louis le Grand, M. Laurent had become, in 1826, head master of the College of Riom. He found at Riom more tutors than pupils; there were only three boys in the school! Thanks to M. Laurent, those three soon became one hundred and thirty-four. From Riom he was sent to Guéret, then to Saintes, to save a college in imminent179 danger of disappearing; there were struggles between the former head master and the Mayor, the town refused the subsidies180, all was confusion. Peace immediately followed his arrival. “Those who have known him,” wrote M. Pierron in the Revue de l’Instruction Publique, “will not be surprised at such miracles coming from a man so intelligent and so active, so clever, amiable181, and warm-hearted.” Wherever he was afterwards sent, at Orleans, Angoulême, Douai, Toulouse, Cahors, he worked the same charm, born of kindness. At Strasburg, he had made of the Académie a home where all the Faculty found a simple and cordial welcome. Madame Laurent was a modest woman who tried to efface182 herself, but whose exquisite183 qualities of heart and mind could not remain hidden. The eldest184 of her daughters was married to M. Zevort, whose name became doubly dear to the Université. The two younger ones, brought up in habits of industry and unselfishness which seemed natural to them, brightened the home by their youthful gaiety.{48}
When Pasteur on his arrival called on this family, he had the feeling that happiness lay there. He had seen at Arbois how, through the daily difficulties of manual labour, his parents looked at life from an exalted point of view, appreciating it from that standard of moral perfection which gives dignity and grandeur185 to the humblest existence. In this family—of a higher social position than his own—he again found the same high ideal, and, with great superiority of education, the same simple-mindedness. When Pasteur entered for the first time the Laurent family circle, he immediately felt the delightful186 impression of being in a thoroughly congenial atmosphere; a communion of thoughts and feelings seemed established after the first words, the first looks exchanged between him and his hosts.
In the evening, at the restaurant where most of the younger professors dined, he heard others speak of the kindliness187 and strict justice of the Rector; and everyone expressed respect for his wonderfully united family.
At one of M. Laurent’s quiet evening “at homes,” Bertin was saying of Pasteur, “You do not often meet with such a hard worker; no attraction ever can take him away from his work.” The attraction now came, however, and it was such a powerful one that, on February 10, only a fortnight after his arrival, Pasteur addressed to M. Laurent the following official letter:—
“Sir,—
“An offer of the greatest importance to me and to your family is about to be made to you on my behalf; and I feel it my duty to put you in possession of the following facts, which may have some weight in determining your acceptance or refusal.
“My father is a tanner in the small town of Arbois in the Jura, my sisters keep house for him, and assist him with his books, taking the place of my mother whom we had the misfortune to lose in May last.
“My family is in easy circumstances, but with no fortune; I do not value what we possess at more than 50,000 francs, and, as for me, I have long ago decided188 to hand over to my sisters the whole of what should be my share. I have therefore absolutely no fortune. My only means{49} are good health, some courage, and my position in the Université.
“I left the Ecole Normale two years ago, an agrégé in physical science. I have held a Doctor’s degree eighteen months, and I have presented to the Académie a few works which have been very well received, especially the last one, upon which a report was made which I now have the honour to enclose.
“This, Sir, is all my present position. As to the future, unless my tastes should completely change, I shall give myself up entirely to chemical research. I hope to return to Paris when I have acquired some reputation through my scientific labours. M. Biot has often told me to think seriously about the Institute; perhaps I may do so in ten or fifteen years’ time, and after assiduous work; but this is but a dream, and not the motive which makes me love Science for Science’s sake.
“My father will himself come to Strasburg to make this proposal of marriage.
“Accept, Sir, the assurance of my profound respect, etc.
“P.S.—I was twenty-six on December 27.”
A definite answer was adjourned189 for a few weeks. Pasteur, in a letter to Madame Laurent, wrote, “I am afraid that Mlle. Marie may be influenced by early impressions, unfavourable to me. There is nothing in me to attract a young girl’s fancy. But my recollections tell me that those who have known me very well have loved me very much.”
Of these letters, religiously preserved, fragments like the following have also been obtained. “All that I beg of you, Mademoiselle (he had now been authorised to address himself directly to her) is that you will not judge me too hastily, and therefore misjudge me. Time will show you that below my cold, shy and unpleasing exterior190, there is a heart full of affection for you!” In another letter, evidently remorseful191 at forsaking192 the laboratory, he says, “I, who did so love my crystals!”
He loved them still, as is proved by an answer from Biot to a proposal of Pasteur’s. In order to spare the old man’s failing sight, Pasteur had the ingenious idea of cutting out of pieces of cork193, with exquisite skill, some models of crystalline types greatly enlarged. He had tinted194 the edges and faces,{50} and nothing was easier than to recognize their hemihedral character. “I accept with great pleasure,” wrote Biot on April 7, “the offer you make me of sending me a small quantity of your two acids, with models of their crystalline types.” He meant the righthand tartaric acid and the lefthand tartaric acid, which Pasteur—not to pronounce too hastily on their identity with ordinary tartaric acid—then called dextroracemic and l?voracemic.
Pasteur wished to go further; he was now beginning to study the crystallizations of formate of strontian. Comparing them with those of the paratartrates of soda and ammonia, surprised and uneasy at the differences he observed, he once exclaimed, “Ah! formate of strontian, if only I had got you!” to the immense amusement of Bertin, who long afterwards used to repeat this invocation with mock enthusiasm.
Pasteur was about to send these crystals to Biot, but the latter wrote, “Keep them until you have thoroughly investigated them.... You can depend on my wish to serve you in every circumstance when my assistance can be of any use to you, and also on the great interest with which you have inspired me.”
Regnault and Senarmont had been invited by Biot to examine the valuable samples received from Strasburg, the dextroracemic and l?voracemic acids. Biot wrote to Pasteur, “We might make up our minds to sacrifice a small portion of the two acids in order to reconstitute the racemic, but we doubt whether we should be capable of discerning it with certainty by those crystals when they are formed. You must show it us yourself, when you come to Paris for the holidays. Whilst arranging my chemical treasures, I came upon a small quantity of racemic acid which I thought I had lost. It would be sufficient for the microscopical195 experiments that I might eventually have to make. So if the small phial of it that you saw here would be useful to you, let me know, and I will willingly send it. In this, as in everything else, you will always find me most anxious to second you in your labours.”
This period was all happiness. Pasteur’s father and his sister Josephine came to Strasburg. The proposal of marriage was accepted, the father returned to Arbois, Josephine staying behind. She remained to keep house and to share the everyday life of her brother, whom she loved with a mixture of{51} pride, tenderness and solicitude196. In her devoted197 sisterly generosity198, she resigned herself to the thought that her happy dream must be of short duration. The wedding was fixed for May 29.
“I believe,” wrote Pasteur to Chappuis, “that I shall be very happy. Every quality I could wish for in a wife I find in her. You will say, ‘He is in love!’ Yes, but I do not think I exaggerate at all, and my sister Josephine quite agrees with me.{52}”
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patriots
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| 爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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coaxing
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
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celebrated
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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philosophically
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apron
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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dens
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| n.牙齿，齿状部分；兽窝( den的名词复数 )；窝点；休息室；书斋 | |
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soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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evoking
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perfectly
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transparent
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physicist
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| n.物理学家，研究物理学的人 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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intensity
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emission
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luminous
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molecules
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simultaneously
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persuasion
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accomplished
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feverishly
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apparatus
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quartz
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deflected
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longing
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domain
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ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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physiologist
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diabetes
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investigation
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enunciated
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prospect
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lieutenant
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attachment
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fluctuations
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obviated
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scrupulous
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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thoroughly
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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wont
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initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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50
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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51
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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52
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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53
deplore
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| vt.哀叹，对...深感遗憾 | |
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54
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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55
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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56
lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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57
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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58
beguiled
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| v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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59
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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60
cynosure
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| n.焦点 | |
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61
transformations
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| n.变化( transformation的名词复数 )；转换；转换；变换 | |
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62
transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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63
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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64
ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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65
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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66
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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67
complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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68
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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69
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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70
vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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71
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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72
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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73
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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74
friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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75
formulated
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|
| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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76
molecular
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| adj.分子的；克分子的 | |
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77
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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78
edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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79
collaboration
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| n.合作，协作；勾结 | |
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80
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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81
favourable
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|
| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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82
motive
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|
| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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83
pointed
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|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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84
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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85
worthy
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|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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86
expound
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| v.详述；解释；阐述 | |
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87
overflows
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|
| v.溢出，淹没( overflow的第三人称单数 )；充满；挤满了人；扩展出界，过度延伸 | |
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88
approbation
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|
| n.称赞；认可 | |
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89
kindly
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|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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90
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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91
saturation
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| n.饱和(状态)；浸透 | |
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92
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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93
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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94
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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95
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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96
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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97
succumb
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| v.屈服，屈从；死 | |
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98
presentiment
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| n.预感，预觉 | |
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99
chimera
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| n.神话怪物；梦幻 | |
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100
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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101
crucible
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| n.坩锅，严酷的考验 | |
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102
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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103
incompetence
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| n.不胜任，不称职 | |
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104
compensated
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|
| 补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款） | |
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105
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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106
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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107
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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108
injustice
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|
| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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109
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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110
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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111
enrolled
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|
| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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112
sublime
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|
| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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113
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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114
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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115
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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116
renewal
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|
| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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117
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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118
intoxicating
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| a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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119
eloquence
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|
| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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120
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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121
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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122
pecuniary
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|
| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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123
savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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124
subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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125
secondly
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|
| adv.第二，其次 | |
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126
deviation
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| n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题 | |
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127
structural
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| adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的 | |
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128
deviations
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| 背离，偏离( deviation的名词复数 )； 离经叛道的行为 | |
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129
neutralizing
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| v.使失效( neutralize的现在分词 )；抵消；中和；使（一个国家）中立化 | |
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130
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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131
differentiated
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| 区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征 | |
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132
neutralize
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| v.使失效、抵消，使中和 | |
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133
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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134
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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135
extol
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| v.赞美，颂扬 | |
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136
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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137
confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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138
perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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139
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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140
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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141
deviate
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| v.(from)背离，偏离 | |
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142
covet
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| vt.垂涎；贪图(尤指属于他人的东西) | |
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143
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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144
attics
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| n. 阁楼 | |
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145
relegated
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| v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类 | |
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146
miserable
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|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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147
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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148
tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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149
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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150
deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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151
vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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152
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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153
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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154
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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155
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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156
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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157
treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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158
remarkable
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|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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159
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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160
conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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161
agitating
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| 搅动( agitate的现在分词 )； 激怒； 使焦虑不安； （尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而）激烈争论 | |
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162
collaborator
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| n.合作者，协作者 | |
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163
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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164
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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165
chancellor
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| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
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166
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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167
accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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168
authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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169
solicited
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| v.恳求( solicit的过去式和过去分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求 | |
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170
repudiated
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| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
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171
thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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172
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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173
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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174
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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175
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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176
paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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177
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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178
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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179
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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180
subsidies
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| n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 ) | |
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181
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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182
efface
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| v.擦掉，抹去 | |
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183
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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184
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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185
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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186
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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187
kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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188
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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189
adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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190
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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191
remorseful
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| adj.悔恨的 | |
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192
forsaking
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| 放弃( forsake的现在分词 )； 弃绝； 抛弃； 摒弃 | |
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193
cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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194
tinted
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| adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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195
microscopical
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| adj.显微镜的，精微的 | |
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196
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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197
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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198
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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