The Hermit of Serignan 



11 A little animated clay, capable of pleas- 

 ure and pain." To the scrutiny of this mira- 

 cle, with its infinity of forms, Fabre devotes 

 himself with touching sympathy and indefa- 

 tigable activity. He dedicates his day to it; 

 and at night he is still working. And in this 

 work, which seems to admit of no relaxa- 

 tion, he appears to know nothing of fatigue. 

 The love of his task upholds him and inspires 

 ,him. When night has fallen, the observer 

 has still one resource left; he can listen for 

 the rustle or the song of the insect that has 

 so far escaped him in its coming and going. 

 We might, perhaps, have discovered the in- 

 sect, but he discovers something very differ- 

 ent. He makes a series of observations by 

 the light of a lantern in the brushwood or 

 before the apparatus in the harmas. 



During the two hottest months, when the dark- 

 ness is profound and a little coolness follows the 

 furnace of the day, it is easy for me, with a lantern 

 in my hand, to watch that magnificent Spider, the 

 Epeira, in the manufacture of her web. She has 

 established herself at a height convenient for obser- 

 vation, between a row of cypress-trees and a thicket 

 of laurels, at the entrance of a path frequented 

 by nocturnal moths. The situation, it seems, is 

 a good one, for the Epeira does not change it all 



243 



