Autograph manuscript unsigned.
8vo (210 x 133 mm). 1 p.
€ 4,000.00
A curious manuscript in the hand of Pasteur with fascinating content as the French chemist begins preparations for a lecture: "Do you know what to us is the charm of your studies? Do you know, if you will allow me to speak thus, what is the enchantment of science? It is that we can provide the proof of our principles. Who can give that, this proof of principles, in politics, religion, even in morals? Who can put into the precision of formulas human passions and their sometimes terrible effects, for example the assassination of a Garfield by a dreadful madman […]".
No doubt Pasteur wrote the present draft in the autumn of 1881 after President James A. Garfield was shot by assassin Charles J. Guiteau, a rejected and disillusioned Federal office seeker on 2 July 1881. Garfield died on 19 September 1881.
