1915 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 63 



tions are clothed. However \aluable our observations may be, it is almost certain 

 that posterity will hardly remember them as literature. ' 



Fabre is more than a great observer and literary artist; he is also a scientific 

 philosopher, probing into the mysteries of life and trying to find satisfactory ex- 

 planations for the things he sees. He possesses, moreover, the creative imagin- 

 ation of a poet. He sees everywhere about him great problems of life to be solved, 

 and bis success is largely due to his marvellous knowledge of the sciences allied 

 to his own. Everywhere throughout his essays he applies physics, chemistry, and 

 mathematics in the discussion of his problems. The results he obtains are thoroughly 

 original from his standpoint, since he disdains to make use of the work of other 

 investigators. His library is scanty and he reads but little. He makes no effort 

 to get into touch with the great minds of the day, preferring to get his information 

 from nature herself. 



It is interesting to note how Fabre looks upon evolution. His independent 

 mind does not take kindly to theories, and his studies remind him forcibly that 

 there are too many exceptions in nature to be pinned to any great sweeping hypo- 

 thesis. He has, however, a warm affection for Darwin, with whom he corresponded 

 because he saw in him a man searching after truth, but he could not bring him- 

 self to adopt Darwin's views of changes by slow variations. With Fabre " species 

 are born as a whole, each at the same time and at the same moment." He sees, 

 however, in creation continuity of progress. We wonder how he views mutations. 



Legros gives us an insight into the manner of work of this remarkable man. 

 His moraings are devoted to experiments and to writing the results of his ob- 

 servations; his afternoons to excursions and observations. He is iinable while 

 sitting to get his ideas into shape for writing. " Moving like a circus-horse about 

 the great table of his laboratory, he would 1)egin to tramp indefatigably round 

 and round, so that his steps hav(? worn in the tiles of the floor an ineffaceable re- 

 cord of the concentric track in which they moved for thirty years. His mind 

 would grow clear and active as he walked, smoking his pipe and using his "marrow- 

 bones," He was already at work; he was '■'hammering" his future chapters in his 

 brain. He would wait until the word quivered and palpitated and lived." Then 

 only would he sit at his little walnut table and begin to write, " his pen dipped 

 not in ink only, but in heart's blood," first in ordinary note \l>ooks, tlien, after 

 compilation, " on loose sheets of paper, making one draft after another, patiently 

 fashioning his style and polishing his work." 



Another featiire of Fabre's writings must not be overlooked. His language 

 is uncommonly free from scientific technicalities and terminologies. He prefers 

 the popular words and phrases which every person can understand. He has little 

 use for the scientific jargon which often obscures and seldom makes clear. 



After a careful reading of the volumes before me one is struck with the mar- 

 vellous patience, the scientific minuteness and precision, the ingenuity, and the 

 faculty of expressing his observations with wonderful clearness and, order, shown 

 f)y the author. He reveals a new world, a world so full of mystery and of tragedy 

 that one is dazed with the new problems which are open for solution. To these 

 (liflRculties Fabre says in his humility of mind : '"' Success is for the loud-talkers, 

 th'3 self -convinced dogmatists; everything is admitted on condition that it be noisily 

 proclaimed. Let us throw off' this sham and recognize that, in reality, we know 

 nothing about any things, if things were probed to the bottom. Scientifically, nature 

 is a riddle without a definite solution to satisfv man's curiosity. Hypothesis fol- 



