The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



the society which he prefers, he has gath- 

 ered an ample harvest of unexpected facts 

 and highly perplexing actions on the part of 

 these little so-called inferior animals. No 

 one has excelled him in detecting their slight- 

 est movements, and in surprising all the se- 

 crets of their hves. Darwin declared, and 

 many others have repeated his words, that 

 Fabre was " an incomparable observer." 

 The verdict is all the more significant in that 

 the French entomologist did not scruple to 

 oppose his observations to the theories of the 

 famous English naturalist. 



Not only in the certainty and the detailed 

 nature of his facts, but also in the colour 

 and reality of his descriptions is his mastery 

 revealed. In him the naturalist is redupli- 

 cated by a man of letters and a poet, who 

 " understands how to cast over the naked 

 truth the magic mantle of his picturesque 

 language," ^ making each of his humble pro- 

 tagonists live again before our eyes, each 

 with its characteristic achievements. So 

 striking is this power of his that Victor Hugo 

 described him as " the insects' Homer," 

 while one of the most accomplished of our 



1 Souvenirs, Series vi., p. 65, The Life of the Fly, chap, 

 vi., "My Schooling." This is Fabre's verdict upon an- 

 other naturalist, Moquin-Tandon. 



