300 SYMBOLIC ANALOGIES. 



reflecting us in these respects so faithfully as the bee, the ant, 

 the butterfly, and self-destructive moth. 



V ' 



Or if, lastly, and as more generally considered, we view both 

 insect development and insect perfection as strictly repre- 

 sentative of our spiritual progression and final state, then, 

 while we look delighted on a host of innocent and beautiful 

 flutterers, as creatures progressing towards that happy state, 

 can we shut our eyes upon their numerous opposites winged 

 creatures, fierce and destructive, or creeping things in prepa- 

 ration only for such perfection ? And if the former, then must 

 the latter have corresponding forms of spirit forms which, in 

 all their dire maturity, are existent in the world unseen, though 

 nearer than we think of, and which nnty be also (and awful is 

 the thought !) in course of daily development and progres- 

 sion i'-ilJiin ourselves. 



Besides these insect "Beelzebubs and Belials," so named 

 from their figure, attributes, and dark localities, and more de- 

 structive than them all, though in outward semblance less re- 

 pulsive, there is the insidious tribe of Ichneumon flies, the slow 

 ck'vourers of living caterpillars; and herein the striking 

 emblems of those lurking, parasitic vices which prey on and 

 destroy the soul,* the " Angelica forf alia" which they never 

 suffer to arrive at the bright maturity for which it was created. 



In connection with Insect Development regarded as a type 

 oi our spiritual progress, we may mention here a speculative 



* Kirby. 



