Fabre's Writings 



There are philosophical meditations in 

 Fabre's work, evoked by his observations, 

 and, like his observations, they are not pre- 

 sented in a preconceived order. His argu- 

 ments are scattered throughout his work. 

 Nowhere in the Souvenirs is there any body 

 of doctrine. They contain only studies of 

 the habits of individual insects; and it is only 

 when he has gathered certain data or made 

 certain experiments that the author gives us 

 his conclusions or explanations or attacks the 

 errors of the theories in vogue. 



Yet it is not difficult, such is their degree 

 of prominence and continuity, to disengage 

 and synthetise the general ideas scattered 

 throughout this vast collection of facts. We 

 shall make the attempt in order to give the 

 reader at least a glimpse of the writer's at- 

 titude toward the problems of science and of 

 life. 



From the achievements and actions of the 

 insects, the philosophic mind of the naturalist 

 first of all deduces, very clearly, the general 

 laws of their activity. 



What strikes us at once is the wonderful 

 degree of knowledge presupposed by cer- 

 tain of their actions: for all that instinct im- 

 pels the insect to do is marked by perfect 

 wisdom, comparable and even superior to 

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