THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSFORMATION 271 



those highly-organized family and social life-relations which 

 fascinate students of their habits in these latter days. 



In this brief and imperfect discussion of the problems 

 presented by the transformations of insects, it has been seen 

 how details of the varying life-histories of different types 

 grasshopper, dragon-fly, beetle, butterfly, bee, blue-bottle 

 throw light on the development of the class as a whole through 

 the ages of geological time As one traces the life-cycle of 

 an individual insect, lasting perhaps for a few weeks only, 

 or at most for a few years, it is inspiring to think of the changing 

 forms and conditions which are indicated in the countless 

 thousands of generations of the creature's ancestry, reaching 

 back to the far-off period of the Coal-Measures and beyond. 

 The changes undergone by the humblest insect may serve to 

 introduce the observer to the great mysteries of life. In the 

 interpretation of these long, racial life-histories there is con- 

 siderable uncertainty in many points of detail and in some 

 features of importance. It is right, therefore, that the student 

 approach these questions with humility, because his knowledge 

 is but " in part ", as well as with teachable spirit and with 

 open mind. It is necessary also that the hope of attaining 

 fuller knowledge should be a constant incentive to research, 

 and such hope is possible only to those who have faith that 

 there is an orderly scheme of things into which, with growing 

 comprehension, the humble and the teachable may enter. 

 As we turn back to the observation of the myriad insects of 

 our countryside, from which our discussions started, we hear 

 again, in their cheerful noise, some notes in the great call of 

 Nature to the earnest student : 



" Come, wander with me," she said, 



" Into regions yet untrod, 

 And read what is still unread 



In the manuscripts of God." 



