housand straws along, as it rushes
towards the abyss. Fleeting though they be, let us make the most of
them. At nightfall, the woodcutter hastens to bind his last fagots.
Even so, in my declining days, I, a humble woodcutter in the forest
of science, make haste to put my bundle of sticks in order. 'What
will remain of my researches on the subject of instinct? Not much,
apparently; at most, one or two windows opened on a world that has not
yet been explored with all the attention which it deserves.

A worse destiny awaits the mushrooms, which were my botanical joys from
my earliest youth. I have never ceased to keep up my acquaintance with
them. To this day, for the mere pleasure of renewing it, I go, with a
halting step, to visit them on fine autumn afternoons. I still love
to see the fat heads of the boletes, the tops of the agarics and the
coral-red tufts of the clavaria emerge above the carpet pink with
heather.

At Serignan, my last stage, they have lavished their seductions upon me,
so plentiful are they on the neighboring hills, wooded with holm oak,
arbutus and rosemary. During these latter years, their wealth inspired
me with an insane plan: that of collecting in effigy what I was unable
to keep in its natural state in an herbarium. I began to paint life size
pictures of all the species in my neighborhood, from the largest to
the smallest. I know nothing of the art of painting in watercolors. No
matter: what I have never seen practiced I will invent, managing badly
at first, then a little better, at last well. The paintbrush will make a
change from the strain of my daily output of prose.

I end by possessing some hundreds of sheets representing the mushrooms
of the neighborhood in their natural size and colors. My collection has
a certain value. If it lacks artistic finish, at least it boasts the
merit of accuracy. It brings me visitors on Sundays, country people, who
stare at it in all simplicity, astounded that such fine pictures should
be done by hand, without a copy and without compasses. They at once
recognize the mushroom represented; they tell me its popular name, thus
proving the fidelity of my brush.

Well, what will become of this great pile of drawings, the object of
so much work? No doubt, my family will keep the relic for a time; but,
sooner or later, taking up too much space, shifted from cupboard to
cupboard, from attic to attic, gnawed by the rats, foxed, dirtied and
stained, it will fall int