The Last Heights 



magnificent : it gives one the impression of an 

 unfurling of wings: 



" Quos perlisse putamus 

 Praemissi sunt. 

 Minime finis, sed limen 

 Vitae excelsioris." 



Fabre was preceded to the tomb by several 

 months by Mistral, who was seven years his 

 junior. " Very different in an equal fame, 

 these two men are inseparable. Mistral and 

 Fabre both represented Provence; one was 

 born there and never left it, and to some 

 extent created it; the other adopted and was 

 adopted by it, and, like his illustrious com- 

 patriot, covered it with glory." ^ 



But while Fabre represented Provence, 

 which saw the unfolding of his rich and vital 

 nature, and while it lavished upon him all 

 the beauty of its sky, all the brilliance of its 

 Latin soul, all the savour of its musical and 

 picturesque language, and all the entomo- 

 logical wealth of its sunny hills, he none the 

 less represents the Rouergue, whence he de- 

 rived his innate qualities and his earliest 

 habits, his love of nature and the insects, his 



1 E. Laguet, Annales politiques et litteraires, April {. 

 1914. 



397 



