Pasteur had also brought Biot some other products--a case full of new crystals. Starting from the external configuration of crystals, he penetrated the individual constitution of their molecular groups, and from this point of departure, he then had recourse to the resources of chemistry and optics. Biot never ceased to admire the sagacity of the young experimentalist who had turned what had until then been a mere crystallographic character into an element of chemical research. Equally interested by the general consequences of these studies, so delicate and so precise, M. de Senarmont wished in his turn to examine the crystals. No one approved more fully than he the expressions of the old scientist, who ended in this way his 1851 report: “If M. Pasteur persists in the road he has opened, it may be predicted of him that what he has found is nothing to what he will find.” And, delighted to see the important position that Pasteur was taking at Strasburg and the unexpected extension of crystallography, Biot wrote to him: “I have read with much interest the thesis of your brother-in-law, M. Loir. It is well conceived and well written, and he establishes with clearness many very curious facts. M. de Senarmont has also read it with very great pleasure, and I beg you will transmit our united congratulations to your brother-in-law.” Biot added, mixing as he was wont family details with scientific ideas: “We highly appreciated your father, the rectitude of his judgment, his firm, calm, simple reason and the enlightened love he bears you.” “My plan of study is traced for this coming year,” wrote Pasteur to Chappuis at the end of December. “I am hoping to develop it shortly in the most successful manner.... I think I have already told you that I am on the verge of mysteries, and that the veil which covers them is getting thinner and thinner. The nights seem to me too long, yet I do not complain, for I prepare my lectures easily, and often have five whole days a week that I can give up to the laboratory. I am often scolded by Mme. Pasteur, but I console her by telling her that I shall lead her to fame.” He already foresaw the greatness of his work. However he dare not speak of it, and kept his secret, save with the confidante who was now a collaborator, ever ready to act as secretary, watching over the precious health of which he himself took no account, an admirable helpmeet, to whom might be applied the Roman definition, _socia rei humanæ atque divinæ_. Never did life shower more affection upon a man. Everything at that time smiled upon him. Two fair children in the home, great security in his work, no enemies, and the comfort of receiving the approval and counsel of masters who inspired him with a feeling of veneration.