On his arrival at the Royal College of Franche Comté Pasteur found himself under a philosophy master, M. Daunas, who had been a student at the Ecole Normale and was a graduate of the University; he was young, full of eloquence, proud of his pupils, of awakening their faculties and directing their minds. The science master, M. Darlay, did not inspire the same enthusiasm; he was an elderly man and regretted the good old times when pupils were less inquisitive. Pasteur’s questions often embarrassed him. Louis’ reputation as a painter satisfied him no longer, though the portrait he drew of one of his comrades was exhibited. “All this does not lead to the Ecole Normale,” he wrote to his parents in January, 1840. “I prefer a first place at college to 10,000 praises in the course of conversation.... We shall meet on Sunday, dear father, for I believe there is a fair on Monday. If we see M. Daunas, we will speak to him of the Ecole Normale. Dear sisters, let me tell you again, work hard, love each other. When one is accustomed to work it is impossible to do without it; besides, everything in this world depends on that. Armed with science, one can rise above all one’s fellows.... But I hope all this good advice to you is superfluous, and I am sure you spend many moments every day learning your grammar. Love each other as I love you, while awaiting the happy day when I shall be received at the Ecole Normale.” Thus was his whole life filled with tenderness as well as with work. He took the degree of “bachelier ès lettres” on August 29, 1840. The three examiners, doctors “ès lettres,” put down his answers as “good in Greek on Plutarch and in Latin on Virgil, good also in rhetoric, medicine, history and geography, good in philosophy, very good in elementary science, good in French composition.”
At the end of the summer holidays the headmaster of the Royal College of Besançon, M. Répécaud, sent for him and offered him the post of preparation master. Certain administrative changes and an increased number of pupils were the reason of this offer, which proved the master’s esteem for Pasteur’s moral qualities, his first degree not having been obtained with any particular brilliancy.