Between the parents and the son, what a difference, what a change of life and of destiny! Quantum mutatus ab illis! This, no doubt, is the first thing to strike one; and here, too, we have one of the most salient features of the superiority of the human intelligence; this almost infinite possibility of [[230]]transformation and progress, which forms such a striking contrast with the rigid immutability of instinct which is barely susceptible of the slightest variation.
But for all this Fabre still bears the stamp of the soil and of his ancestry, and I am certain that the pagès of the banks of the Viaur, were they to descend to the banks of the Aygues to visit the hermit of Sérignan, would recognise by more than one characteristic the child of their native soil and their own race. Under his wide felt hat, “in his linen jacket”[7] and his heavy shoes, with a face like theirs in its simplicity and good nature, he would see almost one of themselves. And if, after entering his home, they were to follow him into the enclosure, among his crops and his appliances, if they were to see him valiantly digging up the soil of the harmas in search of fresh burrows of the Scarabæi, or assembling a few thick planks to contrive some new entomological apparatus, or simply beating the brushwood over his inverted umbrella in search of insects, they would certainly be tempted to join in and lend him a hand as though dealing with a fellow-labourer.
Others may be surprised to find in the [[231]]scholar and scientist the features and the manners of a peasant. Let us rather rejoice to see that our eminent fellow-countryman has never renounced the simplicity of his origins, and take pleasure in noting how closely the hermit of Sérignan resembles the urchin of Malaval.
We have attempted to show the hermit of Sérignan in his own setting, as he really is. It remains for us to see how he glorifies his solitude and ennobles his rustic life; how the poor, simple peasant whom he has always been has done more for science than the most elegantly dressed and profusely decorated savants. [[232]]
[1] Mont Ventoux, an outlying summit of the Alps, 6270 feet high. Cf. Insect Life, chap. xiii.—A. T. de M. [↑]
[2] Fabre lived the first years of his life (cf. chap. i.) on the mountains of Lavaysse, which are almost of the birth and bifurcation of the two ranges of the Levezon and the Palanger. In the language of his country La Vaysse, pronounced Lo Baïsso, means “the hazel-bush.”
An alien zoology too is represented in the osier-beds of the Aygues, whose peace is never disturbed save in freshets of exceptional duration. The wild spates of the Aygues bring into our countryside and strand in the osier-thickets the largest of our Snails, the glory of Burgundy, Helix pramatias. [↑]
[3] Souvenirs, VI., pp. 26–37, 42. The Life of the Fly, chap. v., “Heredity.” [↑]
[4] A district of the province of Guienne, having Rodez for its capital. The author’s maternal grandfather, Salgues by name, was the huissier, or, as we should say, sheriff’s officer, of Saint-Léons.—A. T. de M. [↑]