THE INTEREST IN INSECTS 



353 



sheer want and poverty, but through it 

 all he has retained an almost unnatural 

 divine patience, and an optimism that 

 could not well be matched. 



He lives in a little six-room cottage 

 that he built with his own hands years 

 ago on the outskirts of the little village 

 of Serignan. It is nearly hidden from 

 sight by cypress and lilac trees, and 

 near it is a pond with rushes and reeds 

 that attract the water-insects. All 

 about the little house and garden are great 

 sunbaked, wind-swept wastes, harmas, 

 as the Provencal French call such land, 

 which means worthless, for nothing 

 grows there but weeds ; but to Fabre it 

 is a paradise, for insects of all sorts 

 swarm and thrive there, and it is for 

 them that he lives. 



Maeterlinck has called him the "In- 

 sects' Homer, for he has written about 

 the little winged creatures as no one else 

 ever wrote, and with a fine poetic sense 

 that is enchanting. 



At the age of seven he attended the 

 village school, and later, as a reward 

 for singing in the choir of the village 

 church, he was given free instruction 

 at the college at Rodez. Here he 

 learned Latin and read Vergil with de- 

 light, because of his accounts of bees 

 and turtle-doves. 



At the age of fifteen his parents died, 

 and he was forced to earn his own liv- 

 ing and cut short his academic studies. 

 Then began his struggles. 



He decided to become a teacher of 

 mathematics, and to that end trained 

 himself without an instructor, so that 

 he passed his examinations and was ap- 

 pointed a teacher of physics at the 

 College of Ajaccio in Corsica at a tiny 

 salary. He was an excellent teacher 

 and greatly beloved by his pupils and 

 associates. 



While in Corsica he was encouraged 

 to go on with his nature studies by 

 Professor Moquintandon, the great bot- 

 anist, who at once recognized the 

 genius of Fabre, and every spare mo- 

 ment was spent in the woods and fields 

 studying the habits of insects. 



When he was about twenty years of 

 age he married. He had a considerable 

 family, which made it imperative for 

 him to work harder than ever at teach- 

 ing, and set farther away his dream of 

 one day becoming a naturalist with 

 nothing to do but to study the insects. 



After a time he was appointed pro- 

 fessor of mathematics at the Lycee at 

 Avignon, and in that town he lived for 

 many years. It was while there that he 

 conceived a plan for bettering himself 

 financially, that he might fulfil his 

 dream. To do this he turned to chem- 

 ical research, experimenting in the 

 laboratory to perfect the process of 

 making a rich dye from madder-root, 

 which grew quite abundantly about 

 Avignon. A factory was in the process 

 of building when all his hopes were 

 shattered by discovery of aniline dyes, 

 which could be made from minerals so 

 cheaply that no vegetable dye could 

 compete w T ith them commercially. 



But even this great disappointment 

 did not ruffle the sweetness of the 

 man's nature, and he struggled on as 

 bravely and cheerfully as ever, study- 

 ing the insects and writing of them dur- 

 ing the intervals of his duties at the 

 Lycee. 



And then gradually, after years had 

 passed and he was an old man, his 

 writings brought him in a sufficient 

 income so that it was possible for him 

 to give up teaching and devote his 

 whole time to his nature studies. It 

 was then, after struggling for fifty 

 years for this end, that he built the 

 little cottage at Serignan and settled 

 down at the age of seventy to carry out 

 the dream of his life. It was then that 

 he wrote the pathetic appreciation of 

 his achievement : 



'The wish is realized. It is a little 

 late, O my pretty insects ! I greatly fear 

 that the peach is offered me only when 

 I have no teeth wherewith to eat it. Is 

 the time remaining enough, O my busy 

 Hymenoptera, to enable me to add yet 

 a few seemly pages to your history? or 

 will my failing strength cheat my good 

 intentions?" 



That was twenty years ago, and the 

 lovable old philosopher is still studying, 

 still writing of his pretty insects, and it 

 is to be hoped that he will round out a 

 century. 



His devoted daughter lives with him, 

 and he has the friendship of some great 

 men ; but he has been puzzled by the 

 sudden interest in him. and cannot un- 

 derstand why all sorts of people should 

 now want to see him and read his 

 books. — Eleanor Van Horn in "The 

 American Magazine." 



