The Serignan Jubilee 



they delight in holding forth upon all the 

 creatures upon the earth or in the heavens 

 above, and all the plants " from the cedar 

 tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop 

 that springeth out of the wall " (i Kings iv: 



32-33)- 



Fabre, on the contrary, has eyes only for 



the insect. He observes it by and for itself, 

 in the most trivial manifestations of its life: 

 the living, active insect, with its labours and 

 its habits, is the thing that interests him 

 before all else, guiding his investigation of 

 the infinite host of these tiny lives, which 

 claim his attention on every hand; and in this 

 world of insects wealth of artifice and capaci- 

 ties of the mental order seem to be in an 

 inverse ratio to beauty of form and brilliance 

 of colour. For this reason Fabre learns to 

 disdain the magnificent Butterfly, applying 

 himself by preference to the modest Fly: 

 the two-winged Flies, which are relatives of 

 our common House-fly, or the four-winged 

 Flies, the numerous and infinitely various 

 cousins of the Wasps and Bees; the Spiders, 

 ugly indeed, but such skilful spinners, and 

 even the Dung-beetles and Scarabaeidae of 

 every species, those wonderful agents of ter- 

 restrial purification. 



In this singular world, which affords him 

 3 



