The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



a support for these pages destined to reca- 

 pitulate Fabre's written work, all that work 

 which it has helped him to compose, from 

 the first line to the last. 



Of the first literary or scientific exercises 

 of the youthful Fabre and the first quivers 

 of the little table under the nervous, valiant, 

 indefatigable pen of the young Carpentras 

 schoolmaster, we shall say nothing, unless 

 that there was really some excuse for trem- 

 bling before the audacious and strenuous toil 

 of the beginning, and all the exercise-books 

 stuffed with figures and formulae, diagrams 

 and texts which represent the solitary and 

 strictly personal work of preparation for two 

 bachelor's degrees, quickly followed by those 

 of the licentiate and the doctor. It was an 

 anatomical work, a memoir on the reproduc- 

 tive organs of the Myriapods, or Centipedes, 

 that won for Fabre the degree of Doctor of 

 Science. 



Fabre's first contribution to the Press was 

 a memoir on the Predatory Hymenoptera, 

 published in the Annales des sciences natu- 

 relles. This attracted great attention among 

 the masters of science. The Institute of 

 France awarded him a prize for experimental 

 physiology. Darwin, then at the height of 

 his fame, saluted him with amazed and 



296 



