Author's Preface 



should be full of allusions to the men and 

 the things of Aveyron. Written solely to call 

 attention to the life and labours of Fabre, 

 the writer seeks to co-ordinate in a single 

 book the biographical data scattered through- 

 out the ten volumes and four thousand pages 

 of the Souvenirs. 



The reader must not take exception to the 

 all but invariable praise of their author nor 

 to that spirit of enthusiasm which he will 

 perhaps detect behind the pages of this vol- 

 ume. This is not to say that everything in 

 the life and work of our hero is equally per- 

 fect and worthy of admiration. Whether 

 knowledge or virtue be in question human 

 activity must always fall short somewhere, 

 must always in some degree be defective. 

 Omnis consummationis vidi finem, said the 

 Psalmist. But apart from the fact that It 

 is not yet time, perhaps, to form a final judg- 

 ment, the reader, I trust, will remember that 

 this book comes to him with an echo of the 

 jubilee celebrations of Serignan, and the hom- 

 age, still touched with enthusiasm, of a son 

 of Aveyron and the Vezins countryside to 

 the most Illustrious of his fellow-country- 

 men. 



La Griffoulette, near Vezins, 

 August 28, 1910. 



xii 



