Fabre's Writings 



sub-title of his book: " Studies in the Instincts 

 and Habits of the Insects," and the titles of 

 the two volumes of selections which have 

 been published for the general reader: 

 La Vie des Insectes and Les Moeurs des 

 Insectes. 



It is, therefore, about these two principal 

 themes, which are, for that matter, very 

 closely connected and very subject to mutual 

 interpenetration, that the data amassed in 

 the ten volumes of the Souvenirs must be 

 grouped and distributed, if we w T ish to at- 

 tempt a classification in harmony with the 

 character of the books and the nature of 

 their contents. 



By thus assuming the point of view of the 

 author himself and adopting the principle 

 and the form of his classifications and de- 

 nominations, we shall discover, in this little 

 entomological world, which seems to have 

 been staged a little at random, a society as 

 rich and varied as our own, in which almost 

 all trades and all characters are represented, 

 all the industries and habits of humanity. 



Here, as among us, are honest toilers and 

 free-booters, producers and parasites; good 

 and bad husbands and wives; examples of 

 beautiful devotion and hideous egoism; de- 

 lightful amenities and ferocious cruelties, ex- 



331 



