Fabre's Writings 



The laudator temporis acti is untimely, for the 

 world progresses. Yes, but backwards at times. 

 In my young days, in the twopenny classics, we 

 were taught that man is a reasoning animal ; to-day, 

 in learned volumes, it is demonstrated that human 

 reason is only a higher degree upon a scale whose 

 base descends into the depths of animality. There 

 is the more and the less, and all the intermediate 

 degrees, but nowhere a sudden solution of con- 

 tinuity. It begins at zero in the albumen of a cell, 

 and rises to the mighty brain of a Newton. The 

 noble faculty of which we were so proud is a 

 zoological attribute. 



This is an assertion of grave significance. . . . 

 Assuredly we have need of ingenuousness in en- 

 tomology. Without a good dose of this quality, 

 sheer wrongheadedness in the eyes of practical folk, 

 who could trouble himself about insects? Yes, let 

 us be naive, without being childishly credulous. 

 Before making the animal reason, let us reason a 

 little ourselves. Above all, let us consult the ex- 

 perimental test. Facts gathered at random, with- 

 out a critical selection, cannot constitute a law.^ 



And the prudent naturalist sifts all the 

 anecdotes and records of habits, all the ra- 

 tional or sentimental achievements which the 



'^Souvenirs, ii., p. 157. The Mason-Bees, chap, vii., 

 "Reflections upon Insect Psychology." Ibid., vi., pp. 116, 

 131, 148. The Gloiv-Worm and Other Beetles, chap, xii., 

 "The Burying Beetles: Experiments;" also Wonders 

 of Instinct, chap. vi. 



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