spirit in the contemplation of the truth, of isolating it at will from the
miseries of reality, so to find, in these intellectual regions, the only
hours of happiness that we may be permitted to taste." (2/6.)

Fabre was so steeped in this passion for knowledge that he wished to evoke
it in his brother, now teacher at Lapalud, on the Rhône, not far from
Orange. It seemed to him that he would delight in his wealth still better
could he share it with another. (2/7.) He stimulated him, pricked him on,
and sought to encourage the remarkable aptitude for mathematics with which
he believed him endowed. He employed his whole strength in breathing into
the other's mind "that taste for the true and the beautiful" which
possessed his own nature; he wished to share with him those stores of
learning "which he had for some years so painfully amassed"; he would
profit by the vacation to place them at his disposal; they would work
together "and the light would come." Above all his brother must not allow
his intelligence to slumber, must beware of "extinguishing that divine
light without which one can, it is true, attend to one's business, but
which alone can make a man honourable and respected."

Let him, on the contrary, cultivate his mind incessantly, "the only
patrimony on which either of us can count"; the reward would be his moral
well-being, and, he hoped, his physical welfare also.

Once more he reinforced his advice by that excellent counsel which was
always his own lodestar:

"Science, Frédéric, knowledge is everything...You are too good a thinker
not to say with me that no one can better employ his time than by acquiring
fresh knowledge...Work, then, when you have the opportunity...an
opportunity that very few may possess, and for which you ought to be only