You, Tityrus, entertain your sylvan muse.
. . . . . . .
These blessings friend, a deity bestowed:
. . . . . . .
He gave my kine to graze the flowery plain
And to my pipe renewed the rural strain.”
—Pastorals: book i.; Dryden’s translation. [↑]
[2] Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707–1788), the foremost French naturalist and one of the foremost French writers, though his style, as Fabre rightly suggests, was nothing less than pompous. He was the originator, in the speech delivered at his reception into the French academy, of the famous aphorism, “Le style est l’homme même.”—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[3] Cf. Social Life in the Insect World, by J. H. Fabre, translated by Bernard Miall: chap. xxi.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[4] A Dung-beetle. Cf. The Life and Love of the Insect: chap. v.—Translator’s Note. [↑]