Fabre's Writings 



Evidently Fabre was not one of these 

 whose " life was strangled," and his initia- 

 tive stifled by the springes of University 

 methods and the programmes beloved of 

 the bureaucrats. On every side there was 

 little but disdain for animals and plants; 

 and it was these above all that he strove to 

 popularise. When they are studied, it is 

 only to dissect them or reduce them to ab- 

 stract formulae ; but he considers them rather 

 as they are in themselves and in their re- 

 lations with human life. And while others 

 speak of them as dead objects or as indif- 

 ferent objects, to indifferent readers, Fabre 

 speaks of them with sympathy and feeling, 

 with the tenderness and geniality of an 

 uncle speaking to his nephews, and he excels 

 in communicating to his hearers the sacred 

 fire which inspires him — the passionate love 

 which he feels for all natural things. 



It was Fabre's fine independence that 

 made him a pioneer. Certain of his manuals 

 may no longer be sufl^ciently up to date, but 

 his methods and his tendencies are precisely 

 those that best respond to the needs and 

 aspirations of the present time. For a wave 

 of serious public opinion is revealing itself 

 in favour* of a. renewal of our public 

 education. 



305 



