INSECT LIFE
SOUVENIRS OF A NATURALIST
J.-H. FABRE
DOCTEUR ÈS SCIENCES
‘that inimitable observer.’—Charles Darwin
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY THE
AUTHOR OF ‘MADEMOISELLE MORI’
WITH A PREFACE BY
DAVID SHARP, M.A., F.R.S.
AND EDITED BY
F. MERRIFIELD
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
M. PRENDERGAST PARKER
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
1913
To the attentive eye the sight of industrial insects exhibiting
the most refined art in their labours is a spectacle both strange
and sublime. Human Reason is confounded by Instinct thus raised to
the highest pitch of which Nature can offer an example, and the
perturbation of intelligence increases on observing, patiently and
minutely, the details of the life of those creatures most highly
endowed with instinct.
E. Blanchard.
First Edition 1901. Reprinted 1913