The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



repeat, " a convenient pillow for the man 

 who has not the courage to investigate more 

 deeply." 1 For him, he has this courage and 

 this power of ascension, and he readily 

 spreads his wings to rise above matter and 

 the night of this world and soar to those 

 radiant heights where Divinity reveals itself, 

 together with the supreme explanation of the 

 light which lightens this darkness and the life 

 that inspires this matter. 2 



1 Fabre denies " by the light of the facts " almost all 

 the ideas which evolution invokes to explain the forma- 

 tion of species. (Revue des Deux Mondes, p. 891.) He 

 says: "The facts as I see them lead me away from 

 Darwin's theories. Whenever I try to apply selection 

 to the facts observed, it leaves me whirling in the void. 

 It is majestic, but sterile: evolution asserts as regards the 

 past; it asserts as regards the future; but it tells us as 

 little as possible about the present. Of the three terms 

 of duration one only escapes it, and that is the very one 

 which is free from the fantastic imaginings of hypothe- 

 sis." 



2 Fabre appears to conceive a relation between instinct 

 and the organ analogous to that which obtains between 

 the soul and the body; for him the first element of in- 

 stinct is an incorporeal element which he does not other- 

 wise define, which he characterises merely as a native 

 impulse, irresistible, infallible and superior to the organ- 

 ism as well as to the sensibility of the insect, although 

 it is not separated from nor completely independent of 

 these. 



For the rest, instinct remains a mystery. What it is 

 at bottom, " I do not know, I shall never know. It is 

 an inviolable secret." Like all true scientists, Fabre rec- 

 ognised the narrow limits of human knowledge and did 

 not fear to admit them. According to him, neither life 

 nor instinct results from matter; we must seek for an 



354 



