The Wisdom of Instinct 



The ganglia of the skull, squeezed between 

 the mandibles but without fatal contusions, 

 gradually recover their activity and put an 

 end to the general torpor. Admit that it is 

 all alarmingly scientific. 



*** 



Fortune has her entomological whims : you 

 run after her and catch no glimpse of her; 

 you forget about her and behold, she comes 

 tapping at your door! How vainly I 

 watched and waited, how many useless jour- 

 neys I made to see the Languedocian Sphex 

 sacrifice her Ephippigers! Twenty years 

 pass; these pages are in the printer's hands; 

 and, one day early this month, on the 8th of 

 August 1878, my son Emile comes rushing 

 into my study : 



" Quick ! " he shouts. " Come quick : 

 there's a Sphex dragging her prey under the 

 plane-trees, outside the door of the yard! " 



fimile knew all about the business, from 

 what I had told him, to amuse him when we 

 used to sit up late, and better still from simi- 

 lar incidents which he had witnessed in our 

 life out of doors. He is right. I run out and 

 177 



