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perament that enabled him to go on making observations and 

 experiments in one case for forty years, until he had solved the 

 problem he had embarked upon. How rarely do we find these 

 two temperaments well developed in the one individual ! More 

 often is the absence of one so marked that the other is un- 

 bridled and leads to very lopsided results. In his early life 

 he suffered a great deal of hard fortune, that seems to have 

 alienated his sympathy from other people and strengthened his 

 desire to be alone. Consequently we find he takes the first 

 opportunity of retiring to the seclusion of Serignan, a tiny 

 hamlet in Provence. Here he lived almost as a hermit for 

 many years, during which he devoted practically the whole 

 of his time to his beloved insects. 



The volumes of Souvenirs entomologiques contain his main 

 work, and a very remarkable contribution to scientific 

 literature they form, but in addition he also wrote many 

 papers. The poet in him would not allow him to rest content 

 with mere anatomical studies, and we find him constantly 

 inquiring into the insect mind. Baffled here and there, he 

 returns again and again to the quest with remarkable persist- 

 ency. He very carefully tried to distinguish between the parts 

 played by instinct and intelligence in insect behaviour, and came 

 to the conclusion that the animal is guided almost entirely by 

 the former and the application of intelligence is rare, and when 

 tried only within very narrow limits. His discoveries in this 

 field, and also of the remarkable relations between parasite 

 and host, which he could not conceive as being the result of 

 natural selection, led him to reject the current evolutionary 

 views. What though we do not always follow his interpreta- 

 tions ! what though he made some small errors ! We cannot 

 fail to be inspired by his devotion and charmed by the delightful 

 language in which he relates his observations. Old tales are 

 sifted and put to the test, new and more wonderful stories of 

 life-histories take their places, and the books have become a 

 perfect storehouse of wonders. 



In Fabre, Poet of Science, Dr. Legros, one of his ardent dis- 

 ciples, seeks to lay before us an account of his master's life and 

 the inspiration of his works. This he does successfully, though 

 at the same time we cannot help feeling that it is an admirer 

 who is writing, as Fabre himself warns us in a short preface. 

 It is a thoroughly readable volume, and should do much to call 



