THE HARMAS 5 



Others have reproached me with my style, which has 

 not the solemnity, nay, better the dryness of the schools. 

 They fear lest a page that is read without fatigue should 

 not always be the expression of the truth. Were I to 

 take their word for it, we are profound only on condition 

 of being obscure. Come here, one and all of you you, 

 the sting-bearers, and you, the wing-cased armor-clads 

 take up my defense and bear witness in my favor. 

 Tell of the intimate terms on which I live with you, of 

 the patience with which I observe you. of the care with 

 which I record your actions. Your evidence is unani- 

 mous ; yes, my pages, though they bristle not with hollow 

 formulas nor learned smatterings, are the exact narrative 

 of facts observed, neither more nor less ; and whoso cares 

 to question you in his turn will obtain the same replies. 



And then, my dear insects, if you cannot convince those 

 good people, because you do not carry the weight of 

 tedium, I, in my turn, will say to them : 



" You rip up the animal and I study it alive ; you turn 

 it into an object of horror and pity, whereas I cause it to 

 be loved ; you labor in a torture-chamber and dissecting- 

 room, I make my observations under the blue sky, to the 

 song of the Cicadse ; 1 you subject cell and protoplasm to 

 chemical tests, I study instinct in its loftiest manifesta- 

 tions; you pry into death, I pry into life. And why 

 should I not complete my thought : the boars have mud- 

 died the clear stream; natural history, youth's glorious 

 study, has, by dint of cellular improvements, become a 



!The Cicada Cigale, an insect akin to the Grasshopper and 

 found more particularly in the south of France. Translator's Note. 



