The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



magic, entomology became truly a living sci- 

 ence, provided with wings — the wings of 

 imagination and poetry, of thought and 

 philosophy. 



It is a far cry from the dense materialism 

 of the " dust-to-dust " scientists who content 

 themselves with dissecting poor little mur- 

 dered bodies to the winged spiritualism of 

 this open-air entomologist, interrogating with 

 his bright, loving glance these little insect 

 souls, at once so wonderful ^and so uncon- 

 scious. And they all tell him the same 

 thing: Ipse fecit nos et non ipsi nos.^ (It is 

 He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.) 



Some one has said, and it is a saying worth 

 repeating, so just and admirable is it, and so 

 characteristic of the man and his work: 

 With Fabre we have every moment, so to 

 speak, the feeling, the surprise, of rising to- 

 ward the infinitely great while stooping over 

 the infinitely little. 



Of this scientist, this philosopher, whose 

 mind soars so readily from the " little 

 things " to the great, to the " very great," 

 from the little curiosities of observation to 

 the great problems that are to be encountered 

 in the higher domains of thought, his friends 

 conceived the idea of demanding a synthesis 



1 Psalm loo, verse 3. 



378 



