Cloth comes from the Sheep. It has been worked up by the teeth of machinery at the spinner’s and the weaver’s; it has been steeped in chemicals at the dyer’s; it has passed through worse ordeals than an attempt [[71]]to digest it. Is it now safe from attack? No: the Moth vie with us for its possession.
Poor swallow-tail coat of mine, of supple broadcloth, companion of my drudgery[6] and witness of my poverty, I abandon you without regret for the peasant’s jacket; you are reposing in a drawer, with a few bags of camphorated lavender; the housewife keeps an eye on you and shakes you from time to time. Useless pains! You will perish by the Clothes-moths, as the Mole perished by the maggot, the Snake by the Dermestes and we ourselves by.… Let us not dig that last pit of all before the hour has struck. Everything must return to the renovating crucible into which death is continually pouring materials to ensure the continual blossoming of life. [[72]]
[1] Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, xii. to xiv.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[2] Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826), the author of La Physiologie du Goût.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[3] Or True Ground-beetles. Cf. Chapters XIV and XV of the present volume.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[4] For the Scarabæus, or Sacred Beetle, the Broad-necked Scarab, the Spanish Copris and the Lunary Copris, cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others: chaps. i. to x. and xvi.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[5] Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others: chaps. xi., xvii. and xviii.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[6] This is a reference to the days when the author was a provincial schoolmaster. Cf. The Life of the Fly: chaps. xiii., xiv., xix., and xx.—Translator’s Note. [↑]