The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



of place here. A fig for systems! It is immaterial 

 to the student of instinct whether the animal have 

 eight legs instead of six, or pulmonary sacs instead 

 of air-tubes.^ 



Above all, Fabre is interested in the study 

 of instinct. It is this that determines his 

 choice of the species and the data with which 

 he occupies his leisure and entertains his 

 readers. 



Led by this purpose, allured by this vision, 

 he turns by preference to the most richly- 

 endowed species, disdaining the inept, though 

 they may be the most beautiful and the 

 most resplendent, like the Butterflies; and he 

 is often attracted by creatures, great or 

 small, which have scarcely anything in com- 

 mon with the insects save their habits. Thus 

 the ferocity of the Spiders will justify their 

 taking rank next to the Scorpions, the Mantes 

 and the Grasshoppers, the crudest and most 

 ancient of terrestrial creatures. 



Fabre, in fact, seldom departed from the 

 world of insects, because it is in this little 

 world that the greatest miracles of instinct 

 are manifested, in accordance with the en- 

 tomologist's motto Maxima in minimis. 



^Souvenirs, viii., p. 346. The Life of the Spider, chap. 

 II., "The Banded Epeira." 



328 



