The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



When he considers himself incapable of 

 adding further volumes to his work he busies 

 himself with preparing a definitive edition, 

 and in a touching farewell to his beloved 

 studies he declares that they are so full of 

 charm and unexplored marvels that could he 

 live several lives he would devote them all to 

 them without ever succeeding in '* exhausting 

 their Interest." 



There we have Fabre. After labouring all 

 his life without troubling about fame, plough- 

 ing his straight furrow like his peasant fore- 

 bears, like them, when the night has come, he 

 simply binds his sheaves with a humble and 

 profound realisation of the narrow limits of 

 his work as compared with the Immensity of 

 the world and the infinite mystery of things. 



It is a fine spectacle, that of the entomolo- 

 gist on the summits of science, as of fame, 

 raising himself, by his humility, above both, 

 and fully prepared, to return to Him toward 

 whom aspire those souls that have attained 

 the limit of human climbing: 



O Jesu corona celsior 

 Et Veritas subUmior. 



Ill 



Neither science nor fame could prevent 

 him from suffering. To begin with, there is 

 380 



