The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



being feted, one of his visitors asked him the 

 question : 



" Do you believe in God? " 

 To which he replied emphatically: 

 " I can't say I believe in God; I see Him. 

 Without Him I understand nothing; without 

 Him all is darkness. Not only have I re- 

 tained this conviction; I have . . . aggra- 

 vated or ameliorated it, whichever you 

 please. Every period has its manias. / re- 

 gard Atheism as a mania. It is the malady 

 of the age. You could take my skin from me 

 more easily than my faith in God." 



We may add, in order to throw some light 

 upon the religion of the Aliborons of our 

 villages, that the eminent biologist shares this 

 belief with almost all our great scientists. 



Corsica, which vouchsafed Fabre the rev- 

 elation of his vocation as naturalist, inspired 

 him also with such love and enthusiasm as 

 he had never hitherto known. 



There the intense impressionability which 

 the little peasant of Aveyron received at birth 

 could only be confirmed and increased. He 

 felt that this superb and luxuriant nature was 

 made for him, and that he was born for it; 

 to understand and interpret it. He would 

 lose himself in a delicious intoxication, amid 

 the deep woodlands, the mountains rich with 



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