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at the Quai d'Orsay events in the Transvaal did not fail to engage my attention from the humanitarian point of view, from that of our natural interests in Madagascar, and also from that of the important private interests concerned in the gold mines. I had occasion to correspond on this subject with our excellent Consul, Monsieur Aubert, and to give him all the help in my power. I also received the Envoy of the Boer Republic kindly, but without wishing to play with him that immoral game which consists in encouraging the weak in resistance in which one is not resolved to take part. Neither England nor Germany ever suggested to me an exchange of their views with those of the French Government on the question. I do not even remember what was the object of any conversation started either by Lord Dufferin, the Ambassador of England, or by Count Minister, the Ambassador of Germany, at my Wednesday receptions.

French sympathy was strongly enlisted in favour of the Transvaal, but France never dreamt of intervention in any form.

Berthelot had a remarkable memory, as the following words of one of his most intimate friends testify:—

One day I remember he was turning over before me the leaves of a copy of one of our important reviews. In a quarter of an hour he had reached the last page. I chaffed him, saying that he did not seem to attach much importance to its contents. He affirmed that he had read it. So I put him to the test, questioning him on each of the articles in the review. He replied without hesitation or error; he had actually read more than a hundred pages in a few minutes. Another recollection at the Académie des Sciences on one occasion someone made an allusion to a certain work, almost unknown, and two or three hundred years old. Berthelot gave the name of the author, mentioned the subject of the book, and indicated the place it occupied in the library of the Institut de France. I have seen at close quarters a good many illustrious men in my time, and there have only been three before whom I had the sentiment of grandeur: Berthelot, Renan, and Taine. What was most admirable about Berthelot was that, although he was universally acknowledged as a great scientist,