Now this venerable nonagenarian whom naturalists, poets, and philosophers are so justly about to honour in Sérignan, because his brow is radiant with the purest rays of science, poetry, and philosophy: this entomologist of real genius, he whom Edmond Perrier ranks among “the princes of natural history,” he whom Victor Hugo called “the insects’ Homer,” he whom Darwin proclaimed “an incomparable observer”: who is there in Aveyron, knowing that he was born beneath our skies and that he has dwelt upon our soil, but will rejoice to feel that he belongs to us by his birth and the whole of his youth? [[10]]
[1] The great entomologist’s jubilee was celebrated on the April 3, 1910.—Author’s Note. [↑]
[2] Paris, Delagrave. The Souvenirs, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, are in course of publication [[2]]by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton in England and Messrs. Dodd, Mead and Co. in the United States. The arrangement of the essays has been altered in the English series. See also The Life and Love of the Insect, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (A. and C. Black), Social Life in the Insect World, translated by Bernard Miall (T. Fisher Unwin), and Wonders of Instinct, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos and Bernard Miall (T. Fisher Unwin).—B. M. [↑]
[3] It must in justice be admitted that Fabre had certain precursors, among whom mention must be made of the famous Réaumur and Léon Dufour, a physician who lived in the Landes (died 1865), and who was the occasion and the subject of his first entomological publication. This does not alter the fact that his great work is not only absolutely original, but an achievement sui generis which cannot be compared with the mere sketches of his predecessors. [↑]
[4] Souvenirs, Series VI., p. 65, The Life of the Fly, chap. vi., “My Schooling.” This is Fabre’s verdict upon another naturalist, Moquin-Tandon. [↑]
[5] Souvenirs, VI., pp. 76–97; The Glow-worm and Other Beetles, chap, ix., “Dung-beetles of the Pampas.” [↑]
[6] M. E. Perrier is a Member of the Institut de France. [↑]
[7] Souvenirs, VI., pp. 76, 97; The Glow-worm, chap. ix. [↑]
[8] M. Albert Gaudry is a sometime professor of palæontology in the Museum of Natural History, who, by virtue of his palæontological discoveries and works, has acquired a great authority in the scientific world. His Enchaînements du Monde Animal dans les Temps Géologiques is especially valued and often cited. Gaudry, who is a good Catholic as well as a scientist of the first rank, [[9]]very definitely accepts the evolution of species; but for him, as for Fabre, the activity of the animal kingdom, like that of the world in general, is inconceivable apart from a sovereign mind which has foreseen all things and provided for all things. [↑]