The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



was possessed of knowledge, a certain penetration 

 and a certain courage. He pushed this penetra- 

 tion and this courage to the length of declaring, 

 before the Academy of Sciences, that the laws of 

 nature form a harmony and reveal a plan. 



I had an opportunity of congratulating him, and 

 he was good enough to express his satisfaction. I 

 profited by this to suggest that he was doubtless 

 ready to develop his conclusions yet further, and 

 that since he recognised the existence of a plan he 

 admitted, at the origin of things, a Mind: in short, 

 an intelligent Being. 



Suddenly my astronomer turned up his nose, 

 without offering me any argument capable of any 

 sort of analysis. 



In vain did I explain that to deduce the exist- 

 ence of an intelligent Being because one has dis- 

 covered the existence of a plan is, after all, to con- 

 tinue the train of reasoning which deduces the ex- 

 istence of a plan after observing that there is a 

 system of laws. In vain I pointed out that I was 

 merely making use of his own argument. My 

 astronomer refused to go any further along the path 

 upon which he had entered. There he would have 

 met God, and that was what he was unwilling to 

 do. 1 



J. H. Fabre does not stop half-way to the 

 truth for fear of meeting God. He is logical, 

 loyal, and courageous to the end. He argues 

 from the facts to laws and from laws to 



1 E. Tavernier. 



352 



