Retirement: Orange 



of which the world is the source, he was plac- 

 ing himself beyond the reach of any trials. 

 Is it not written that the life of man upon 

 earth is a perpetual struggle against suffer- 

 ing? And if it were not for the cruel 

 wounds which it inflicts upon the poor hu- 

 man heart, we ought rather perhaps to bless 

 this law of our destiny; for it is one of the 

 qualities of human greatness, of the beauty 

 of the soul as of the power of the intellect, 

 that it does not fully reveal itself save un- 

 der the discipline and empire of suffering. 



Among the moral qualities of Fabre as we 

 have been able to divine them there is one 

 which the vicissitudes of life revealed more 

 especially during this phase of his existence : 

 I mean his kindliness. 



Fabre had the simplicity of the kindly man 

 as well as that of the truthful man. He, 

 who instinctively withdrew from the gaze and 

 the malice of men, cared nothing for their 

 smiles or their disdain when there was a 

 question of adding to his store of scientific 

 data or kindly actions, however trivial the 

 matter might be. 



The following episode is illuminating. 

 Our entomologist was interested, as a scien- 

 tist, in discovering whether the bite of the 

 Black-bellied Tarantula, deadly to insects, 

 201 



