Early Life | Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

Excepted from

“The Life Of Pasteur” by Rene Vallery Radot,  

Publication date 1923,Publisher Doubleday Page And Company, via archive.org

Statue of Pasteur at Arbois. Via Wikipedia Commons by Arnaud 25 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Thumbnail Image “Pasteur performing an experiment” via Wikipedia Unknown author / Public domain

“Louis Pasteur was sent at first to the " Ecole Primaire "attached to the college of Arbois. Mutual teaching was then the fashion; scholars were divided into groups: one child taught the rudiments of reading to others, who then spelt aloud in a sort of sing-song. The master, M. Renaud, went from group to group designating the monitors. Louis soon desired to possess this title, perhaps all the more so because he was the smallest scholar. But those who would decorate the early years of Louis Pasteur with wonderful legends would be disappointed: when a little later he attended the daily classes at the Arbois college he belonged merely to the category of good average pupils. He took several prizes without much difficulty; he rather liked buying new lesson books, on the first page of which he proudly wrote his name. His father, who wished to instruct himself as well as to help his son, helped him with his home preparation. During holidays, the boy enjoyed his liberty. Some of his schoolfellows — Vercel, Charrifere, Guillemin, Coulon — called for him to come out with them and he followed them with pleasure. He delighted in fishing parties on the Cuisance, and much admired the net throwing of his comrade Jules Vercel. But he avoided bird trapping; the sight of a wounded lark was painful to him.”