ove in
distant lands.

[Footnote 6: Cf. _The Sacred Beetle and Others_, by J. Henri Fabre,
translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps i. to
vi.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 7: Cf. _idem_: chaps. xii. to xiv.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 8: Cf. _idem_: chaps. ix. and xvi.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 9: Cf. _The Life of the Grasshopper_: chaps. xi. to
xiii.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 10: Cf. _idem_: chaps. xv. and xvi.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 11: Cf. _idem_: chap. xiv.--_Translator's Note_.]

Besides, roaming the world, scattering one's attention over a host of
subjects, is not observing. The travelling entomologist can stick
numerous species, the joy of the collector and the nomenclator, into
his boxes; but to gather circumstantial evidence is a very different
matter. A Wandering Jew of science, he has no time to stop. Where a
prolonged stay would be necessary to study this or that fact, he is
hurried past the next stage. We must not expect the impossible of him
under these conditions. Let him pin his specimens to cork tablets, let
him steep them in jars of spirit, and leave to the sedentary the
patient observations that require time.

This explains the extreme penury of history outside the dry
descriptions of the nomenclator. Overwhelming us with its numbers, the
exotic insect nearly always preserves the secret of its manners.
Nevertheless, it were well to compare what happens under our eyes with
that which happens elsewhere; it were excellent to see how, in the
same guild of workers, the fundamental instinct varies with climatic
conditions.

Then my longing to travel returns, vainer to-day than ever, unless one
could find a seat on that carpet of which we read in the _Arabian
Nights_, the famous carpet whereon one had but to sit to be carried
whithersoever he pleased. O marvellous conveyance, far preferable to
Xavier de Maistre's post-chaise! If I could only find just a little
corner on it, with a return-ticket!

I do find it. I owe this unexpected good fortune to a Brother of the
Christian Schools, to Brother Judulien, of the La Salle College at
Buenos Aires. His modesty would be offended by the praises which his
debtor owes him. Let us simply say that, acting on my instructions,
his eyes take the place of mine. He seeks, finds, observes, sends me
his notes and his discoveries. I observe, seek and find with him, by
correspondence.

It is done; thanks to this first