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FABRE, POET OF SCIENCE. CHAPTER 1. THE INTUITION OF NATURE.
FABRE, POET OF SCIENCE. CHAPTER 1. THE INTUITION OF NATURE.
Each thing created, says Emerson, has its painter or its poet. Like the enchanted princess of the fairy-tales, it awaits its predestined liberator. Every part of nature has its mystery and its beauty, its logic and its explanation; and the epigraph given me by Fabre himself, which appears on the title-page of this volume, is in no way deceptive. The tiny insects buried in the soil or creeping over leaf or blade have for him been sufficient to evoke the most important, the most fascinating proble
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CHAPTER 2. THE PRIMARY TEACHER.
CHAPTER 2. THE PRIMARY TEACHER.
Furnished with his superior diploma, he left the normal school at the age of nineteen, and commenced as a primary teacher in the College of Carpentras. The salary of the school teacher, in the year 1842, did not exceed 28 pounds sterling a year, and this ungrateful calling barely fed him, save on "chickpeas and a little wine." But we must beware lest, in view of the increasing and excessive dearness of living in France, the beggarly salaries of the poor schoolmasters of a former day, so little w
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CHAPTER 3. CORSICA.
CHAPTER 3. CORSICA.
At last the chair of physics fell vacant at the college of Ajaccio, the salary being 72 pounds sterling, and he left for Corsica. His stay there was well calculated to impress him. There the intense impressionability which the little peasant of Aveyron received at birth could only be confirmed and increased. He felt that this superb and luxuriant nature was made for him, and that he was born for it; to understand and interpret it. He would lose himself in a delicious intoxication, amid the deep
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CHAPTER 4. AT AVIGNON.
CHAPTER 4. AT AVIGNON.
The resolute worker resumed his indefatigable labours with an ardour greater than ever, for now he was haunted by a noble ambition, that of becoming a teacher of the superior grade, and of "talking plants and animals" in a chair of the faculty. With this end in view he added to his two diplomas--those of mathematics and physics--a third certificate, that of natural sciences. His success was triumphant. Already tenacious and fearless in affirming what he believed to be the truth, he astonished an
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CHAPTER 5. A GREAT TEACHER.
CHAPTER 5. A GREAT TEACHER.
It was in 1871. Fabre had lived twenty years at Avignon. This date constitutes an important landmark in his career, since it marks the precise moment of his final rupture with the University. At this time the preoccupations of material life were more pressing than ever, and it was then that he devoted himself entirely and with perseverance to the writing of those admirable works of introduction and initiation, in which he applied himself to rendering science accessible to the youngest minds, and
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CHAPTER 6. THE HERMITAGE.
CHAPTER 6. THE HERMITAGE.
Goethe has somewhere written: Whosoever would understand the poet and his work should visit the poet's country. Let us, then, the latest of many, make the pilgrimage which all those who are fascinated by the enigma of nature will accomplish later, with the same piety that has led so many and so fervent admirers to the dwelling of Mistral at Maillane. Starting from Orange and crossing the Aygues, a torrent whose muddy waters are lost in the Rhône, but whose bed is dried by the July and August sun
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CHAPTER 7. THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE.
CHAPTER 7. THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE.
Was there not indeed a sufficiency of captivating matters all about him, and beneath his very feet? In his deep, sunny garden a thousand insects fly, creep, crawl, and hum, and each relates its history to him. A golden gardener-beetle trots along the path. Rose-beetles pass, in snoring flight, on every hand, the gold and emerald of their elytra gleaming; now and again one of them alights for a moment on the flowering head of a thistle; he seizes it carefully with the tips of his nervous, pointed
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CHAPTER 8. THE MIRACLE OF INSTINCT.
CHAPTER 8. THE MIRACLE OF INSTINCT.
"The Spirit Bloweth Whither it Listeth." What is this instinct, which guides the insect to such marvellous results? Is it merely a degree of intelligence, or some absolutely different form of activity? Is it possible, by studying the habits of animals, to discover some of those elementary springs of action whose knowledge would enable us to dive more deeply into our own natures? Fabre has presented us to his Sphex, the "infallible paralyser." Are we to credit her not only with memory, but also w
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CHAPTER 9. EVOLUTION OR "TRANSFORMISM."
CHAPTER 9. EVOLUTION OR "TRANSFORMISM."
"How did a miserable grub acquire its marvellous knowledge? Are its habits, its aptitudes, and its industries the integration of the infinitely little, acquired by successive experiences on the limitless path of time?" It is in these words that Fabre presents the problem of evolution. Difficult though it may be to follow the sequence of forms which have endlessly succeeded and replaced one another on the face of the earth, since the beginning of the world, it is certain that all living creatures
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CHAPTER 10. THE ANIMAL MIND.
CHAPTER 10. THE ANIMAL MIND.
The cunning anatomist has now successively laid bare all the springs of the animal intellect; he has shown how the various movements are mutually combined and engaged. But so far we have seen only one of the faces of the little mind of the animal; let us now consider the other aspect, the moral side, the region of feeling, the problem of which is confounded with the problem of instinct, and is doubtless fundamentally only another aspect of the same elemental power. After the conflict the insect
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CHAPTER 11. HARMONIES AND DISCORDS.
CHAPTER 11. HARMONIES AND DISCORDS.
Such indeed is the economy of nature that secret relations and astonishing concordances exist throughout the whole vast weft of things. There are no loose ends; everything is consequent and ordered. Hidden harmonies meet and mingle. Among the terebinth lice, "when the population is mature, the gall is ripe also, so fully do the calendars of the shrub and the animal coincide"; and the mortal enemy of the Halictus, the sinister midge of the springtime, is hatched at the very moment when the bee be
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CHAPTER 12. THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE.
CHAPTER 12. THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE.
We have noted the essential features of his precise and unfailing vision and the value of the documents which record the work of Fabre, but the writer merits no less attention than the observer and the philosopher. In the domain of things positive, it is not always sufficient to gather the facts, to record them, and to codify in bare formulae the results of inquiry. Doubtless every essential discovery is able to stand by itself; in what would an inventor profit, for example, by raising himself t
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CHAPTER 13. THE EPIC OF ANIMAL LIFE.
CHAPTER 13. THE EPIC OF ANIMAL LIFE.
Although in his portraits and descriptions Fabre is simple and exact, and so full of natural geniality; although he can so handle his words as to render them "adequate" to reproduce the moving pictures of the tiny creatures he observes, his style touches a higher level, flashes with colour, and grows rich with imagery when he seeks to interpret the feelings which animate them: their loves, their battles, their cunning schemes, and the pursuit of their prey; all that vast drama which everywhere a
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CHAPTER 14. PARALLEL LIVES.
CHAPTER 14. PARALLEL LIVES.
We have now seen what entomology becomes in the hands of the admirable Fabre. The vast poem of creation has never had a more familiar and luminous interpreter, and you will nowhere find other work like his. How far he outstrips Buffon and his descriptions of animals--so general, so vague, so impersonal--his records unreliable and his entire erudition of a second-hand quality! It is with Réaumur that we are first of all tempted to compare him; and some have chosen to see in him only one who has c
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CHAPTER 15. THE EVENINGS AT SÉRIGNAN.
CHAPTER 15. THE EVENINGS AT SÉRIGNAN.
But it will doubtless be long before a new Fabre will resume, with the same heroic ardour, the life of solitary labour, varied only by a few austere recreations. Rising at six o'clock, he would first of all pace the tiles of his kitchen, breakfast in hand; so imperious in him was the need of action, if his mind was to work successfully, that even at this moment of morning meditation his body must already be in movement. Then, after many turns among the bushes of the enclosure, all irised with dr
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CHAPTER 16. TWILIGHT.
CHAPTER 16. TWILIGHT.
How he has laboured in this solitude! For he considers that he is still far from having completed his task. He feels more and more that he has scarcely done more than sketch the history of this singular and almost unknown world. "The more I go forward," he wrote to his brother in 1903, "the more clearly I see that I have struck my pick into an inexhaustible vein, well worthy of being exploited." (16/1.) What studies he has undertaken, what observations he has carried out, "almost at the same tim
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NOTES TO INTRODUCTION.
NOTES TO INTRODUCTION.
Introduction/1. Letters to his brother, 1898-1900. Introduction/2. I have made some valuable "finds" here; among other pieces cited the fragment on "Playthings," the curious description of the "Eclipse," and the poem on "Number" are here published for the first time. Introduction/3. This negligence in the matter of correspondence is not least among the causes which have mitigated against his popularity....
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 1.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 1.
1/1. "It is a country that has very little charm." To his brother, 18th August, 1846. 1/2. "Practicien, homme d'affaires ou de chicane": roughly, "practitioner, man of business or law": so his father is described in his birth certificate. 1/3. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 2nd series, chapter 4, and 7th series, chapter 19. 1/4. Id., 8th series, chapter 8. 1/5. To his brother, 15th August, 1896. 1/6. Id. "As brothers, we are one only; but in virtue of our different tastes we are two, and I am amuse
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 2.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 2.
2/1. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 1st series, chapter 20, and 9th series, chapter 13. 2/2. Id., 6th series, chapter 21. 2/3. To his brother, from Ajaccio, 10th June, 1850. 2/4. Id., id. 2/5. Id., from Carpentras, 15th August, 1846. 2/6. Id., from Ajaccio, 10th June, 1850. 2/7. Id., from Carpentras, 15th August, 1846. 2/8. Id., id. 2/9. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 1st series, chapter 14. 2/10. To his brother, from Carpentras, 3rd September, 1848. 2/11. Id., 8th September, 1848. 2/12. Id., id. 2/13
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 3.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 3.
3/1. To his father, from Ajaccio, 14th April, 1850. 3/2. To his brother, from Ajaccio, 1851. 3/3. To his brother, from Ajaccio, 9th June, 1851. "I have set to work upon a conchology of Corsica, which I hope soon to publish." 3/4. The Helix Raspaillii. 3/5. To his brother, from Ajaccio, 10th June, 1850. 3/6. Id., id. 3/7. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 9th series, chapter 14. 3/8. Number, (Le Nombre--ARITHMOS), poem, Ajaccio, September, 1852. 3/9. To his brother, from Ajaccio, 2nd June, 1851. 3/10.
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 4.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 4.
4/1. To his brother, from Avignon, 1st August, 1854. "I have arrived at Toulouse, where I have passed the best examination one could possibly wish. I have been accepted as licentiate with the most flattering compliments, and the expenses of the examination should be returned to me. The examination was of a higher level than I had expected." 4/2. To M. -- (of the Institute), from Avignon, 1854. (Letter communicated to M. Belleudy, prefect of Vaucluse, by M. Vollon, painter.) 4/3. Id. 4/4. To his
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 6.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 6.
6/1. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 2nd series, chapter 1. "L'Harmas." 6/2. Id., 6th series, chapter 5. 6/3. The Lumbricus phosporeus of Dugés. Fabre had already clearly perceived that this curious phenomenon of phosphorescence appears at birth, and he saw in it a process of oxidation, a species of respiration, especially active in certain tissues. Letter to Léon Dufour, 1st February, 1857. Communicated by M. Félix Achard. 6/4. To his brother, from Carpentras, 15th August, 1846. 6/5. He died at the
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 7.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 7.
7/1. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 8th series, chapter 12. 7/2. Id., 7th series, chapter 16. 7/3. Id., 1st series, chapter 4. 7/4. Id., 2nd series, chapter 3. 7/5. Id., 6th series, chapter 21. 7/6. Id., 1st series, chapter 19, and 2nd series, chapter 7. 7/7. Id., 7th series, chapter 23. 7/8. Maeterlinck, "The Bee." 7/9. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 7th series, chapter 2. 7/10. Id., 8th series, chapter 22. 7/11. Id., 6th series, chapter 6. 7/12. Id., 9th series, chapter 10. 7/13. Bergson, "l'Evoluti
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 8.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 8.
8/1. "Souvenirs entomologiques" 1st series, chapter 2. 8/2. Bergson, "l'Evolution créatrice." 8/3. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 2nd series, chapter 4. 8/4. Id., 5th series, chapter 8. 8/5. Id., 9th series, chapter 3. 8/6. Id., 1st series, chapter 22. 8/7. Id., 4th series, chapter 3. 8/8. Id., 4th series, chapter 3. 8/9. Id., 4th and 1st series, chapter 19. 8/10. Id., 9th series, chapter 24. 8/11. Id., 10th series, chapter 5. 8/12. Id., 4th series, chapter 6. 8/13. Id., 9th series, chapter 16. 8/1
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 9.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 9.
9/1. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 8th series, chapter 21. 9/2. "Les Ravageurs," chapter 34, agriculture. 9/3. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 10th series, chapter 12. 9/4. Id., 1st series, chapter 2, and 10th series, chapter 13. 9/5. Id., 2nd series, chapter 17. 9/6. Id., 7th series, chapter 20. 9/7. Id., 2nd series, chapter 4. 9/8. At novitas mundi nec frigora dura ciebat, Nec nimios aestus. Lucretius, "De Natura rerum." 9/9. In this connection see the excellent introduction written by M. Edmond Per
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 10.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 10.
10/1. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 1st series, chapter 21. 10/2. Id., 9th series, chapter 2. 10/3. Id., 10th series, chapter 4. 10/4. Montaigne's Essays. 10/5. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 8th series, chapter 17. 10/6. "Les Ravageurs." 10/7. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 10th series, chapter 18, and "Merveilles de l'instinct: la Chenille du chou." 10/8. Id., 8th series, chapter 17....
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 11.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 11.
11/1. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 3rd series, chapter 8. 11/2. Id., 2nd series, chapter 14 et seq. 11/3. Id., 6th series, chapter 9. 11/4. Id., 5th series, chapter 19. 11/5. Tolstoy: "All that the human heart contains of evil should disappear at the contact of nature, that most immediate expression of the beautiful and the good." ("The Invaders.") 11/6. The "Livre d'histoires" and "Chimie agricole." 11/7. "Oubreto Provençalo. La Bise." 11/8. Id., "Le Semeur." 11/9. Id., "Le Crapaud." ...
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 12.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 12.
12/1. "Oubreto Provençalo. Le Maréchal." 12/2. "Oubreto Provençalo." 12/3. In this connection see the admirable passage in Sainte-Beuve's "Port-Royal," Book 2, chapter 14. 12/4. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 4th series, chapter 1. 12/5. Id., 1st series, chapter 17. 12/6. Id., 7th series, chapter 8. 12/7. Id., 7th series, chapter 10. 12/8. Id., 8th series, chapter 8. 12/9. Id., 8th series, chapter 20. 12/10. Id., 6th series, chapter 14. 12/11. Id., 8th series, chapter 18. 12/12. Id., 10th series, c
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 13.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 13.
13/1. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 10th series, chapter 17. 13/2. Id., 9th series, chapter 4, "l'Exode des arignées" (the Exodus of the Spiders), and chapter 5, "l'Araignée crabe" (the Crab Spider). 13/3. Id., 5th series, chapter 17. 13/4. Id., 3rd series, chapter 8. 13/5. Id., 6th series, chapter 14. "Oubreto. Le Grillon," and unpublished verses. 13/6. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 2nd series, chapter 16. 13/7. Id., 9th series, chapter 21. 13/8. "Les Merveilles de l'instinct: le Ver luisant" (Marv
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 15.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 15.
15/1. Louis Charrasse, private letter, 20th February, 1912, and "Le Bassin du Rhône," March, 1911. 15/2. "Oubreto. Le Crapaud." 15/3. It was only in the afternoon that he devoted himself, when needful, to microscopic researches, on account of the better inclination of the light. 15/4. He lost it at the end of last spring. 15/5. "Les Serviteurs. Le Canard." 15/6. "Souvenirs entomologiques," 1st series, chapter 13: an ascent of Mont Ventoux. 15/7. The name given to Christmas in Provence. 15/8. Lou
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NOTES TO CHAPTER 16.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 16.
16/1. Letter to his brother, 4th February, 1900. 16/2. To his brother, 18th July, 1908. At this time the eighth volume of his "Souvenirs" had just appeared, and the ninth was in hand. 16/3. Id. 16/4. "Chimie agricole." 16/5. To his brother, 10th October, 1898. 16/6. Private letter, 30th March, 1908. 16/7. Id. 16/8. Id. 16/9. Unpublished experiments. 16/10. To Charles Delagrave, 27th January, 1899. 16/11. To his brother, 4th February, 1900. 16/12. This prize was awarded to Fabre in 1899. The amou
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