The Last Heights 



determined to acquire the Harmas, with its 

 plantations, its collections, and all its de- 

 pendencies, and in order to make their 

 homage as complete as possible they made, 

 with this object, an appeal for international 

 subscriptions, which were unhappily inter- 

 rupted by the war. 



" This is the museum which we wish to 

 dedicate to him," said the chief promoter of 

 this pious undertaking, 1 " so that in after 

 years, when the good sage who knew the 

 language of the innumerable little creatures 

 of the country-side shall rest beneath the 

 cypresses of his harmas, at the foot of the 

 laurestinus bushes, amidst the thyme and the 

 sage that the bees will still rifle, all those 

 whom he has taught, all those whom he has 

 charmed, may feel that something of his soul 

 still wanders in his garden and animates his 

 house." 



However, the soul of the " good sage " 

 which they thus sought to capture and hold 

 here on earth — in short, to imprison in his 

 work and its environment — made its escape 

 and took flight toward loftier regions and 

 wider horizons. 



To see him in the twilight of the dining- 



1 Dr. Legros, Les Annates politiques et litteraires, April 

 12, 1914. 



389 



