Fabre's Writings 



causes, and from them to the " Cause of 

 causes," the " Reason of reasons," x concern- 

 ing which, says M. Perrier, he has not " the 

 pedantic feebleness of grudging it the name 

 of God." 2 



If Fabre so briskly attacks the theory of 

 evolution, it is not so much because of the 

 biological results which it attributes to the 

 animal far niente as because it offers such a 

 convenient pretext for that sort of intellectual 

 laziness that willingly relies upon an explana- 

 tion provided beforehand and readily exon- 

 erates itself from the difficult task of search- 

 ing more deeply into the domain of facts as 

 well as that of causes. 3 If the explanation 

 were not notoriously insufficient one might 

 overlook the abuses which it covers, inno- 

 cently enough, but, to speak only of the 

 insect, all its analyses, were they admissible, 

 leave the problem of instinct untouched: 

 u How did the insect acquire so discerning an 

 art? An eternal problem if we do not rise 

 above the dust to dust " 4 of evolution. At 

 all events, as it is presented it is merely, we 



1 Souvenirs, X., pp. 92, 214. 



2 Revue hebdomadaire, October 22, 1910. 



3 La Nature, March 26, 1910. " It will be to M. Fabre's 

 lasting honour that he has never known any idleness of 

 this kind or, indeed, any kind of idleness." 



* Souvenirs, vi., p. 75. 



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