Fabre, Poet of Science | Page 9

their humble colleague of
Carpentras, may they feel the true greatness of his example: a noble and
a glorious example, of which they may well be proud.
And what pupils! "Dirty, unmannerly: fifty young scoundrels, children
or big lads, with whom," no doubt, "he used to squabble," but whom,
after all, he contrived to manage, and by whom he was listened to and
respected: for he knew precisely what to say to them, and how, while
talking lightly, to teach them the most serious things. For the joy of
teaching, and of continually learning by teaching others, made
everything endurable. Not only did he teach them to read, write, and
cipher, which then included almost the entire programme of primary
education; he endeavoured also to place his own knowledge at their
service, as he himself acquired it.
It was not only his love of the work that sustained him; it was the desire
to escape from the rut, to accomplish yet another stage; to emerge, in
short, from so unsatisfactory a position. Now nothing but physical and
mathematical science would allow him to entertain the hope of "making
an opening" in the world of secondary schoolmasters. He accordingly
began to study physics, quite alone, "with an impossible laboratory,
experimenting after his own fashion"; and it was by teaching them to
his pupils that he learned first of all chemistry, inexpensively
performing little elementary experiments before them, "with
pipe-bowls for crucibles and aniseed flasks for retorts," and finally

algebra, of which he knew not a word before he gave his first lesson.
(2/2.)
How he studied, what was the secret of his method, he told his brother
a few years later, when the latter, marking time behind him, was
pursuing the same career. A very disappointing career, no doubt, and
far from lucrative, but "one of the noblest; one of those best fitted for a
noble spirit, and a lover of the good." (2/3.)
Listen to the lesson which he gives his brother:
"To-day is Thursday; nothing calls you out of doors; you choose a
thoroughly quiet retreat, where the light is not too strong. There you are,
elbows on table, your thumbs to your ears, and a book in front of you.
The intelligence awakes; the will holds the reins of it; the outer world
disappears, the ear no longer hears, the eye no longer sees, the body no
longer exists; the mind schools itself, recollects itself; it is finding
knowledge, and its insight increases. Then the hours pass quickly,
quickly; time has no measure. Now it is evening. What a day, great
God! But hosts of truths are grouped in the memory; the difficulties
which checked you yesterday have fused in the fire of reflection;
volumes have been devoured, and you are content with your day...
"When something embarrasses you do not abuse the help of your
colleagues; with assistance the difficulty is only evaded; with patience
and reflection IT IS OVERTHROWN. Moreover, one knows
thoroughly only what one learns oneself; and I advise you earnestly, as
far as possible, to have recourse to no aid other than reflection, above
all for the sciences. A book of science is an enigma to be deciphered; if
some one gives you the key of the enigma nothing appears more simple
and more natural than the explanation, but if a second enigma presents
itself you will be as unskilful as you were with the first...
"It is probable that you will get the chance of a few lessons; do not by
preference accept the easier and more lucrative, but rather the more
difficult, even when the subject is one of which as yet you know
nothing. The self-esteem which will not allow one's true character to be
seen is a powerful aid to the will. Do not forget the method of Jules

Janin, running from house to house in Paris for a few wretched lessons
in Latin: 'Unable to get anything out of my stupid pupils, with the
besotted son of the marquis I was simultaneously pupil and professor: I
explained the ancient authors to myself, and so, in a few months, I went
through an excellent course of rhetoric...'
"Above all you must not be discouraged; time is nothing provided the
will is always alert, always active, and never distracted; 'strength will
come as you travel.'
"Try only for a few days this method of working, in which the whole
energy, concentrated on one point, explodes like a mine and shatters
obstacles; try for a few days the force of patience, strength, and
perseverance; and you will see that nothing is impossible!" (2/4.)
These serious reflections show very clearly that his mind was already
as mature, as earnest, and as concentrated as it was ever to be.
Not only did he join example