The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



last place, the essential organs and the nerve- 

 centres." x " We thus have the spectacle of 

 an insect which is eaten alive, morsel by mor- 

 sel, during a period of nearly a fortnight, be- 

 coming empty and emaciated and collapsing 

 upon itself," while preserving its succulence 

 and moisture to the end. 



Starting with these typical facts, which tes- 

 tify to an infallible foresight and a perfect 

 adaptation of the means to the end, the list 

 might be indefinitely prolonged with the aid 

 of Fabre's memoirs. But these are enough 

 to show us that " what instinct tells the ani- 

 mal is marvellously like what reason tells 

 us," so that we find nothing unnatural in 

 Fabre's exclamation when he is confronted 

 by the profound knowledge of the Hymenop- 

 teron and " the sublime logic of her stings." 

 "Proud Science, humble yourself! " All this 

 presumes, in short, in the microscopic little 

 creatures an astonishingly rational inspira- 

 tion which adapts means to the end with a 

 logic that confounds us. 



And all this would be very much to the 

 credit of the insect and to the disadvantage 

 of man if there were not a reverse side to 

 the medal. But the same insect that con- 

 founds us by its knowledge and wisdom also 



1 Revue des Deux-Mondes, Dec. 1910, p. 875. 

 338 



