The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



under the blue sky, to the song of the Cicadas ; ^ 

 you subject cell and protoplasm to chemical tests, 

 I study instinct in its loftiest manifestations; you 

 pry into death, I pry into life. 



Our author's strong personality is re- 

 vealed no less in the bulk of his work than 

 in this declaration of principles which might 

 serve as a prologue to the latter. 



*'With the originality of genius he Is 

 from the first totally opposed to the point 

 of view of those naturalists who are fasci- 

 nated by morphology and anatomy." ^ He 

 believes that the characteristics of life are 

 to be found in life itself, and that if we wish 

 truly to know the Insect, nothing will help 

 us so much as seeing It at work. " Mere 

 common sense, the reader will say, yet It Is 

 by no means common " ; and It usually hap- 

 pens that writers "forget to take perform- 

 ance Into their reckoning when they are 

 describing life." ^ 



To study living entomology, that Is, to 

 study the insect living its life and in the 



1 The Cicada is the Cigale, an insect akin to the Grass- 

 hopper and found more particularly in the south of 

 France. Cf. Social Life in the Insect World, chaps, 

 i.-iv., and The Life of the Grasshopper, chaps, i.-v. — 

 A. T. DE M. 



2 F. Marguet, Revue des Deux Mondes, December 15, 

 19x0. 



'^Ibid, 



312 



