"Ordre, harmonie, obéissance et beauté"

Il nous a rapprochés des forêts vierges, des cieux immaculés, des plantes et des fauves. Il a montré la solidarité profonde qui unit l'homme aux phénomènes vivants qui l'entourent. Il a dégagé les lois immuables de la jungle et proposé à l'homme destructeur l'exemple de l'oeuvre divine, où tout est ordre, harmonie, obéissance et beauté.

He brought us close to the virgin forests, to the immaculate skies, to the plants and the wild animals. He showed the profound solidarity which unites man to the living phenomena which surround him. He disengaged the unchanging laws of the jungle and proposed to destructive man the example of the divine work, where all is order, harmony, obedience and beauty.

This is a tribute paid by the Duke of Brabant, future King Leopold III of the Belgians, to Rudyard Kipling, one of his favorite authors, in 1933. Nonetheless, it sheds a striking light on Leopold's own love of nature and sense of ethics.