136 A REIGN OF TERROR. 



threatening, as it did, to rob them of a monopoly of bug- 

 bears, sprung of ignorance, to wrench from their grasp a 

 variety of rusty weapons, such as they had been used to wield 

 for the subjugation of minds yet darker than their own. Thus 

 wrote, in 1735, the journalists of Trevoux, in comment on 

 another shower of sanguine hue, like the one of 1G08, and 

 occasioned, like that, by discharges from butterflies on emerge- 

 mcnt from their chrysalides. " Le public a toujours drolt de 

 s'dlarmer ; il est covpable : et tout ce qni lui rappelle I 3 idee 

 d' an Dleu "cengeur n'cst jamais nn sv jet faux, de quelque igno- 

 rance pldlosopliique qu'il soit aceompagne" Truly a precious 

 doctrine of darkness and distortion ! and who can read it 

 without being thankful that with us, at least, the reign of 

 superstition, as a reign of terror, is near its close ? Some super- 

 stitions one may venerate, others one can scarce help loving ; 

 but such as the above such as would derive, even from the 

 most beautiful and innocent of God's creatures, ideas of an 

 avcHjmiff Dcitv. instead of an all-merciful and beneficent Creator 



O O */ ' 



thank Heaven, such incull have nearly taken flight ! 



The caterpillar of the death's-head moth is one of the 

 largest and most beautiful of its tribe, and presents, in its 

 brilliant colouring, a striking contrast to the lugubrious 

 colouring of its perfect form. It is of a fine yellow, obliquely 

 barred by seven green stripes on each side, with intervening 

 lines of blue and black spots. It has the pointed tail-like 

 horn common to hawk-moths, and is endowed, moreover, as in 



