Question

In spite of all the honours that we heaped upon him, Pasteur, as has been said, remained simple at
heart. Perhaps the imagery of his boyhood days, when he drew the familiar scenes of his birthplace
and the longing to be a great artist, never wholly left him. In truth he did become a great artist, though
after his sixteenth year he abandoned the brush forever. Like every artist of worth, he put his whole
soul and energy into his work and it was this very energy that in the end wore him out. For to him,
each sufferer was more than just a case that was to be cured. He looked upon the fight against
hydrophobia as a battle and he was absorbed in his determination to win. The sight of injured children,
particularly, moved him to an indescribable extent. He suffered with his patients and yet he would not
deny himself a share in that suffering. His greatest grief was when sheer physical exhaustion made
him give up his active work. He retired to the estate of at Villeneuve Etang, where he had his kennels
for the study of rabies and there, he passed his last summer, as his great biographer, Vallery Robert,
has said, “practicing the gospel virtues.”


The attitude of this man to the Science, he had done so much to perfect, can be best summed up in a
sentence that he is reputed once to have uttered, concerning the materialism of many of his
contemporaries in similar branches of learning to his own: “the more I contemplate the mysteries of
nature, the more my faith becomes like that of a peasant.”


But even then, in retirement he loved to see his former pupils, and it was then he would reiterate his
life’s principles: ‘work’, he would say, “never cease to work”. He passed as simply as a child, the
greatest man France had ever produced, derived from a plebiscite among the French people.
Napoleon, the idol of France was placed fifth. No greater tribute could have been given to Louis
Pasteur, the tanner’s son, the scientist, the man of peace and the patient worker for humanity.


How did Pasteur view those who suffered from diseases?

Answer 1

Answer:

For to him,

each sufferer was more than just a case that was to be cured. He looked upon the fight against

hydrophobia as a battle and he was absorbed in his determination to win. The sight of injured children,

particularly, moved him to an indescribable extent. He suffered with his patients and yet he would not

deny himself a share in that suffering. His greatest grief was when sheer physical exhaustion made

him give up his active work.