Author's Preface 



of accepted ideas. It is possible that, 

 cleansed of its obscuring dross, truth may at 

 last shine forth resplendent, far greater and 

 more wonderful than the things which we 

 were taught. I have sometimes harboured 

 these rash doubts; and I have no reason to 

 regret it, notably in the case of the Scarab. 

 To-day I know the sacred pill-roller's story 

 thoroughly; and the reader shall see how 

 much more marvellous it is than the tales 

 handed down to us by the old Egyptians. 



The early chapters of my investigations 

 into the nature of instinct ^ have already 

 proved, in the most categorical fashion, that 

 the round pellets rolled hither and thither 

 along the ground by the insect do not and in- 

 deed cannot contain germs. They are not 

 habitations for the egg and the grub; they 

 are provisions which the Sacred Beetle hur- 

 riedly removes from the madding crowd in 

 order to bury them and consume them at 

 leisure in a subterranean dining-room. 



Nearly forty years have elapsed since I 

 used eagerly to collect the materials to sup- 



1 Chapters I. and II. of the present volume, forming the 

 first two chapters of Vol. I. of the Souvenirs entomolo- 

 giques. The remaining chapters on the Sacred Beetle ap- 

 peared, in the original, in Vol. V. of that work, for which 

 volume the above was written as a preface. — Translator's 

 Note. 



