Fabre has somewhere written, lamenting the dearth of family reminiscences which does not enable him to go back beyond the second generation of his ancestry, this touching passage, full of modesty and filial feeling: “The populace has no history. Strangled by the present, it cannot give its mind to cherishing the memories of the past.” Yet how instructive would those records be. Let us bow our heads before this child of the peasantry who labours so unremittingly and drives so deep a furrow; let us bow our heads before this humble primary schoolmaster who seeks to uplift himself, not as so many have done, by futile political agitation or the criminal fatuities of irreligion, but solely by virtue of knowledge and personal worth. We shall see later on with what vindictive energy Fabre scourges the pseudo-scientists, “hateful malefactors,” maufatan de malur, who, in the name of a false science, rob men’s souls of the true and ancient Christian faith, thereby leading society toward the most terrible catastrophes. For the moment our only desire is to do homage to our worthy schoolmasters in the person of one of their old comrades who has become one of our greatest national glories. There are others, too, among us who have exalted by their virtues or their talents the humble nature of their origin or their calling. Of such, as every Frenchman knows, to mention only one of the best known and best beloved, is the author of the Poésie des Bêtes, of Voix rustiques, of La Bonne Terre, of Le Clocher, etc.—François Fabié, that poet who, by his original style, his career, and his genius, which has been too much obscured by his modesty, may in so many respects be compared with Jean-Henri Fabre. [41] Of such, too, and among the most eminent writers of the language d’oc, is Antonin Perbosc, [42] who does honour to our primary schools, in one of which he is still teaching, by the remarkable works of literature which place him beside his friend, the Abbé Besson, [43] in the first rank of the Occitanian Félibrige. CHAPTER IX THE PROFESSOR: AJACCIO Virgil has truly said: ... labor omnia vincit Improbus. Persistent labour, in the service of a keen intelligence, knows no insuperable obstacles: it always achieves its ends. Success, accordingly, could not fail to befall the intrepid virtuosity of the youthful Carpentras schoolmaster. The degree of licentiate in the mathematical sciences was won, like the rest, at the point of the sword, and the valiant champion of the cosine and the laboratory was appointed Professor of Physics and Chemistry in the lycée of Ajaccio. Here, by a happy concatenation of circumstances, and under the inward impulsion of the providential vocation, the destiny of the famous entomologist was to be finally determined.