The Professor: Avignon 



not only a vitality and inspiration that ap- 

 pealed to his habit of mind, but a wealth of 

 new subjects to be treated, of rich veins to 

 be mined. 



To serve this noble ambition he needed 

 the prestige of the degrees that would lead 

 to the coveted chair. He won them as he 

 had won those that gave him access to the 

 second degree of instruction, without guide 

 or master, by the sole effort of his mind and 

 will. 



In 1858 he easily won his degree as licen- 

 tiate in the natural sciences before the Fac- 

 ulty of Toulouse. 



It is an eloquent fact that instead of be- 

 ing, as it is for so many others, a goal and 

 an end in itself, the licentiate was for Fabre 

 but a brief parenthesis in his life of study, 

 a stage no sooner reached than crossed on 

 the infinite path of knowledge. 



The next step was that of the doctorate. 

 It was achieved with no less ardour and suc- 

 cess than the previous one. This is almost 

 all we can say of it, for the hero of this 

 history speaks of it only incidentally, because 

 it is connected with the story of one of his 

 insects. But for the Languedocian Scorpion 

 the Souvenirs would leave us in ignorance of 

 his degee of Doctor of Science. 



i8 5 



