The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



amateurs who were better informed than 

 their fellows, or more perspicacious in the 

 choice of their reading. 



Was it not just to exhibit, beyond this 

 circle of initiates, achievements that be- 

 longed to all and had all the qualities 

 requisite for popularity? Was it not right 

 to draw this great man out of the obscurity 

 in which he had so long shut himself up, and 

 at last to place this distinguished figure on 

 the magnificent pedestal built up by half a 

 century's work of the highest value, and the 

 greater part of a century of a poor and 

 laborious life? So thought the friends and 

 admirers of the hermit of Serignan, who or- 

 ganised, last year, the celebration of his 

 jubilee, and, in the Press, cited him in the 

 order of the day. 



These celebrations took place in the fa- 

 miliar rustic setting so dear to the aged scien- 

 tist. It was a morning of April, in the little 

 village of Vaucluse which we need not name, 

 at the edge of the enclosure where for more 

 than forty years he has kept rendezvous 

 with his insects, on the threshold of the house 

 that shelters his studious retirement. The 

 venerable naturalist was there, surrounded 

 by the members of his beloved family, his 

 constant collaborators, with whose names he 

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