Fabre was preceded to the tomb by several months by Mistral, who was seven years his junior. “Very different in an equal fame, these two men are inseparable. Mistral and Fabre both represented Provence; one was born there and never left it, and to some extent created it; the other adopted and was adopted by it, and, like his illustrious compatriot, covered it with glory.”[15]
But while Fabre represented Provence, which saw the unfolding of his rich and vital nature, and while it lavished upon him all the beauty of its sky, all the brilliance of its Latin soul, all the savour of its musical and picturesque language, and all the entomological wealth of its sunny hills, he none the less represents the Rouergue, whence he derived his innate qualities and his earliest habits, his love of nature and the insects, his [[398]]thirst for God and the Beyond, his indefatigable love of work, his tenacious enthusiasm for study, his irresistible craving for solitude, the strange, powerful, striking and picturesque grace of his language, his almost rustic simplicity, his blunt frankness, his proud timidity, his no less proud independence, and with all these the ingenuous and unusual sensitiveness and sincere modesty of his character.
THE END
[1] This chapter was written by the Abbé Fabre especially for the English edition.—B. M. [↑]
[2] This was the pilgrimage of the young girls of the Université des Annales politiques et littéraires. [↑]
[3] The French words are “Cousins,” “Cousines.” Cousin = cousin, good friend, crony.—B. M. [↑]
[4] Jules Clarétie, Jean Richepin, Adolphe Brisson, etc. [↑]