FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



us that instinct is not made by the tools, so to speak, 

 but that the same tools may be used in various ways. 



To continue the subject would be monotonous. The 

 general rule stands out very clearly from these facts: 

 the wood-eating grubs prepare the path of deliverance 

 for the perfect insect, which will merely have to pass 

 a barricade of shavings or pierce a screen of bark. By 

 a curious reversal of the usual state of things, infancy 

 is here the season of energy, of strong tools, of stubborn 

 work; mature age is the season of leisure, of indus- 

 trial ignorance, of idle diversions, without trade or pro- 

 fession. The providence of the human infant is the 

 mother; here the baby grub is the mother's providence. 

 With its patient tooth, which neither the peril of the 

 outside world nor the difficult task of boring through 

 hard wood is able to discourage, it clears away for her 

 to the supreme delights of the sun. 



[226] 



