The Hermit of Serignan 



vaders. I ring the changes with furred and feath- 

 ered beasts. A few children of the neighbourhood, 

 allured by pennies, are my regular purveyors. 

 Throughout the good season they come running 

 triumphantly to my door, with a Snake at the end 

 of a stick, or a Lizard in a cabbage-leaf. They 

 bring me the Rat caught in a trap, the Chicken 

 dead of the pip, the Mole slain by the gardener, 

 the Kitten killed by accident, the Rabbit poisoned 

 by some weed. The business proceeds to the mu- 

 tual satisfaction of sellers and buyer. No such 

 trade had ever been known before in the village, 

 nor ever will be again. 1 



Yet despite all his inventions Fabre had 

 no illusion as to their value. He well knew 

 that art cannot replace nature who said, 

 speaking of his glass-walled " pond," the 

 aquarium of which he seemed so proud: " A 

 poor makeshift, after all! " You may think 

 that he is reverting to his childhood and that 

 he will tell us again of the pond with its 

 ducklings. But he tells us something far 

 better : 



" Not all our laboratory aquaria are worth 

 the print left in the clay by the shoe of a 

 mule, when a shower has filled the humble 



1 Souvenirs, vin., 278-280, 255-295. The Life of the Fly, 

 chap, v., "The Greenbottles " ; The Mason-wasps, chap, 

 ix., " Insect Geometry " ; The Life of the Fly, chap, ix., 

 "The Grey Flesh-Flies." 



221 



