The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



neur Latty was fully aware of these proceed- 

 ings, and of the exodus which followed them, 

 and also of the painful impression which it 

 had produced upon Fabre, and the bitter- 

 sweet reflections to which it still at times 

 gave rise. Did the eminent prelate approach 

 the illustrious old scientist bearing an olive 

 branch as well as the golden laurel ? I do not 

 know; but the fact is that this first interview 

 was quickly followed by a second, which was 

 still more friendly, and from that moment 

 Fabre never again spoke of and did not seem 

 even to remember the privations of the past. 

 One reflection naturally occurs to us here, 

 and it is rather an attempt to be just than a 

 plea pro domo. Because once in his life the 

 great naturalist was confronted by the hos- 

 tility of certain persons belonging to the 

 world of religion, need we erase from his 

 carefully secularised history all that connects 

 him with the Church, from the motherly ca- 

 resses of the " holy woman " who assuaged 

 his first griefs to the tender care of the 

 worthy Sister who consoled his last suffer- 

 ings? Must we forget that he was admitted 

 as pupil-teacher to the lycee at Rodez, as 

 pupil to the seminary of Toulouse and the 

 Normal College of Avignon on the recom- 

 mendation of M. I'Abbe d'Aiguillon-Pujol, 

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