INSECTS IN EDEN. 155 



flowers even of Paradise, must have wanted a charm without 

 the basking Butterfly and humming Bee ; while, on the other 

 hand, we can hardly imagine the leaves of Adam's garden ever 

 to have been gnawed by tooth of Caterpillar, or that "the 

 worm i 3 the bud " ever preyed on the unexpanded cheeks of his 

 damask roses ; still less, that the fair fingers of our common 

 mother were ever, when employed to cull or train them, in 

 danger of being wounded by the poisoned dart of a Bee lurker. 

 We have, indeed, the authority of our mighty Milton, for sup- 

 posing that across the threshold of Eve's bower, where 



" Underfoot, the violet, 



Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay 



Broidered the ground more coloured than with stone 



Of costliest emblem other creature there, 



Beast, bird, insect or worm, durst enter none : 



Such was their awe of man." 



But from this it must not be inferred that their entrance 

 would have been dangerous, but that their absence was essential 

 to the strict retirement of that ' ' blest retreat/' To meet then 

 the supposition, that nothing save what was gentle and unin- 

 jurious existed before man's fall, we must needs conclude, in 

 harmless speculation, that the first Butterflies (knowing no 

 Caterpillar youth) were created Butterflies from the beginning, 

 to sport over roses without thorns, and that the first race of 

 Bees were formed stingiess, to collect their nectiferous harvest 

 from "Cassia, nard, and balm, that wilderness of sweets' 

 without a bitter. A Bee without a sting is not, by-the-way, 



