The Faith of Pasteur

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 19, 13 May 1909, Page 739

The Faith of Pasteur

The appointment of Madame Curie, D.Sc, who, with her distinguished husband, discovered radium, as a professor of physics at the University of Paris, brings to mind the name of another eminent Catholic scientist, Louis Pasteur, who, notwithstanding his great attainments, had lived and died a loyal son of the Church. In the Life of Pasteur by Rene Vallery-Radot we find (remarks the Sacred Heart Beview) fresh corroboration of the statement that the eminent scientist was a firm believer in a p#wer which the human mind could not fathom. Pasteur was a Cath- , olic, and 'a Catholic he lived and died, his. simple faith untouched and unaffected by the deep studies which h.i made and the great triumphs that he achieved in the realm of science . On one occasion he wrote to Sainte Beuve that he had read of Auguste Comte, whose Positivism was af. that time creating some stir, ' only a few absurd passages ' ' My philosophy is of the heart and not of the mind,' wrote Pasteur from the bedside of his dying daughter, ' and I give myself up, for instance, to those 1 feelings about eternity which come naturally at the bedside of a cherished child drawing its last breath. At those supreme moments there is something in the depths of our souls which tells us that' the world may be mere than a mere combination of phenomena proper to a mechanical equilibrium brought out of the chaos of the elements simply through the gradual action of the forces of matter.' The author of Pasteur's ' Life ' says of this ;

' That " something in the depths of cur souls," of which Pasteur spoke in his letter to Sainte Beuve, was often perceived in his conversation; absorbed as he was in his daily task, he yet carried in himself a constant aspiration towards the Ideal, a deep conviction of the reality of the Infinite, and a trustful acquiescence in" the Mystery of the Universe.' Another passage from this book speaks again "of Pasteur's repudiation of Positivism. The author says: ' This scientific conception of the world affirms nothing, denies nothing, beyond what is visibly and easily demonstrated. It suggests altruism, a "subordination of personality to sociability," it inspires patriotism and the love of humanity. Pasteur in his scrupulously positive and accurate work, his constant thought for others, might have been supposed to be an adept of this doctrine. "Positivism," he said, "does not take into account the most important of positive notions, the Infinite." He wondered that Positivism should confine the mind within limits ; with an impulse of deep feeling Pasteur, the scientist, the slow and precise observer wrote the following passage of his speech : What is beyond ? the human mind actuated by an invincible force, will never cease to ask itself: "What is beyond? . . . It is no use to answer:" Beyond is limitless space, limitless time or limitless grandeur; no one understands these -words. He who proclaims the existence of the Infinite — and none can avoid it — accumulates in that affirmation more of the supernatural than is to be found in all the miracles of all the religions; for the notion of the Infinite presents that double character that it forces itself upon us and yet is incomprehensible. When this notion seizes upon our understanding we can but kneel. . . . I see everywhere the inevitable expression of the Infinite in the world ; through it, the supernatural is at the b s ottom of every heart." ' • • - At that time (goes on the writer) when triumphant Positivism was inspiring many leaders of men, the very man who might have given himself up to what is called the ' enchantment of Science,' proclaimed the mystery of the , Universe; with his intellectual humility, Pasteur bowed before a Power greater than human power. When Pasteur was elected to membership in the Academy in 1882, in his opening speech he praised his predecessor, Littre, but almost immediately expressed his dissent from the Positivist opinions of that philosopher. 'He was listened to with attentive emotion,' says M. Vallery-Radot, ' and when he showed the error of Positivism in attempting to do away with the idea of the Infinite, and proclaimed the instinctive and necessary worship by man of the great Mystery, he seemed to bring out all the weakness and dignity of man— passing through this world bowed by the law of toil and with a prescience of the Ideal — into a startling and consolatory light.' As year's went on and his studies became more and moro deep, Pasteur's religious convictions deepened, and we find him in the days of his last illness reading with emotion the Life of St. Vincent de Paul. 'He loved this son of poor peasants, proud to own his humble birth before a vainglorious society; this tutor of a future cardinal, who desired to become a chaplain of some unhappy convicts; this priest who founded the work of the Enfants Trouvos (foundlings), and who established lay and religious alliance over the vast domain of charity. 1 On September 28, 1895, Louis Pasteur, the scientist, died in the bosom of the Church of his fathers, the Church of his. youth, the Church in whose teachings all his studies did not diminish his faith. One of his hands rested in that of Mme. Pasteur, his devoted wife, and the other clasped a crucifix.

~ Mr. James Patrick Farrell, M.P., who was presented recently with a purse of 600 sovereigns by his constituents in North Longford on his release from prison, to which, he was committed two or three days before Christmas, under a statute of Edward 111., was born in Longford in 1865, arfcl was educated at St. Mel's College. On leaving college he joined the staff of the Roscommon Herald, and took an active part in the work of the Land and National Leagues, serving two months' imprisonment in 1889. He was returned for West Cavan as .Nationalist in 1891, and has represented North Longford since 1900. He is pro- • prietor of the Longford Leader, and ' the author of a popular history pf that county.