The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



writers of books and the " glorifiers of the 

 animal " pass from hand to hand, showing 

 clearly that all the facts alleged in proof 

 of the intelligence of animals are ill-observed 

 or wrongly interpreted. 



Having shown in its true light one of these 

 fabricated facts related by Clairville, he 

 cries: 



Yet one more of the fine arguments in support 

 of the animal's reasoning powers that takes to flight 

 in the light of experiment. ... I admire your 

 candid faith, my masters, you who take seriously 

 the statements of chance observers richer in imag- 

 ination than in veracity. I admire your credulous 

 enthusiasm, when, without criticism, you support 

 your theories on such stupidities. 1 



Fabre has no greater faith in the virtue of 

 animals than in their reason, since one can- 

 not exist without the other. It is true that 

 the Copris, the most richly endowed of in- 

 sects in respect of the maternal instinct, 

 does not differentiate between the care which 

 she lavishes on strangers and that which she 

 gives to the children of her household; but 

 the pitiless observer shows that this is be- 

 cause she cannot distinguish between them. 



1 Souvenirs, vi., pp. 130, 143. The Glow-Worm and 

 Other Beetles, chap, xii., "The Burying Beetles: Ex- 

 periments." 



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