It was not until he reached the third class that Louis Pasteur, beginning to realise the sacrifices which his father imposed upon himself, determined to abandon his fishing implements and his crayons, feeling aroused within him that passion for work which was to form the foundation of his life. The Principal of the college, who followed with watchful interest the progress of a pupil who, in his first effort, had outstripped all his comrades, used to say, 'He will go far. It is not for the chair of a small college like ours that we must prepare him; he must become professor in a royal college. My little friend,' he would add, 'think of the great École Normale.' The College of Arbois having no professor of philosophy, Pasteur quitted it for Besançon. There he remained for the scholars' year, received the degree of _bachelier ès lettres_, and was immediately appointed tutor in the same college. In the intervals of his duties he followed the course of mathematics necessary to prepare him for the scientific examinations of the École Normale. He must have been already endowed with a singular maturity of character, for the director confided to him the superintendence of the quarters of the older pupils, who during class time were his comrades. In the class room his table was in the midst of them; and never had so young a master so much authority, and at the same time so little need for its exercise. His first taste for chemistry manifested itself by frequent questions addressed during class time to an old professor named Darlay. This questioning was so often repeated that the good man, quite bewildered, ended by declaring that it was for him to interrogate Pasteur and not for Pasteur to interrogate him. His pupil pressed him no further, but having heard that at Besançon there lived an apothecary who had once distinguished himself by a paper inserted in the 'Annales de Chimie et de Physique,' he sought this man, with a view of ascertaining whether, on holidays, he would consent to give him lessons secretly. At the examination for the École Normale, Pasteur passed as fourteenth in the list. This rank, however, did not satisfy him. Notwithstanding the censure of his fellow candidates he declared that he would begin a new year of preparation. It was in Paris itself that he chose to work--in one of the silent corners of the city, amid the seclusion of preparatory schools and convents. In the Impasse des Feuillantines, there lived a schoolmaster, M. Barbet by name, or rather _le père Barbet_, as the Franc-Comtois, with provincial familiarity, used to call him. Pasteur begged to be allowed to enter his institution, not as an assistant, but as a simple pupil. Knowing how slender were the means of his young compatriot, M. Barbet reduced the fees of his pupil by one-third. Such kindness was customary with the _père Barbet_, who did not like to be reminded of his generosity. This, however, gives double pleasure to him who records it.