EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



butterfly. Plutarch, in tlie second book of 

 his "Symposiacon," says : " A chrysalis, after 

 being stiffened and cracked from dryness, 

 emits through its opening a second animal 

 with wings, which is called Psyche." 



" The winged animal," Mrs, Strutt says,* 

 " thus designated by Plutarch under the name 

 of Psyche, the word by which the Greeks ex- 

 pressed likewise the soul, is in all probability 

 that which -3]]lian (iaS\s Pyraustes (Uvpaia-rns), 

 a word denoting the attractive influence 

 which light or fire exercises upon the moth. 

 This truth in natural philosophy is poetically 

 depicted to the eye by the device, which 



Fio. 4. 



we see on many ancient gems, of Ciipid hold- 

 ing a butterfly over his torch (Fig. 4), by 

 which act is at the same time typified the 

 suffering of the soul from being subjugated 

 by passion ; and, mystically, its purification 

 * as by fire ' from the defilement of matter. 

 Such an ingenious allegory was not likely to 

 escape the attention of the poets, and we 

 accordingly find it alluded to by them at 



* A very beautiful and talented work, " The 

 Story of Psyche, with a Classical Inquiry into the Sig- 

 nification and Origin of the Fable," by Elizabeth Strutt ; 

 with designs in outline by John Gibson, Esq., E.A. : to 

 which we are chiefly indebted for the remarks here 

 made in allusion to the fable. 



an early period. Thus Meleager, B. c. 160, 

 plays very prettily, in one of his epigrams, 

 upon the double meaning of the woyd 

 Psyche, as a moth and as the soul, introduc- 

 ing it in immediate connection with JEros, or 

 Love." 



The same authoress, in allusion to the 

 caterpillar says : " At the close of its final 

 existence as a worm, crawling upon this 

 lower earth, an emblem of man encumbered 

 with his material body, this insect lies dead 

 as it were for a season, in a sort of tomb or 

 grave, which bears a great resemblance to the 

 mummies found ia the Egyptian tombs. In 

 this state of darkness," the authoress con- 

 tinues, " it remains throughout the gloom of 

 winter; at the joyous return of spring, the 

 torpid chrysalis bursts its bonds, leaves its 

 earthly body (or rather case), never more to 

 be resumed, and soars up towards heaven, 

 decked in the most gorgeous attire, and 

 rejoicing in new life; a beauteous type of the 

 celestial soul freed from the restraints of 

 matter, and exulting in liberty and light." 



"Like other animal symbols," says Payne 

 Knight, in his " Inquiry into the Symbolical 

 Language of the Ancients," "as the owl, 

 under which Minerva was first depicted, 

 this of Psyche was by degrees melted into 

 the human form, the original wings only 

 being retained to mark its meaning. So 

 elegant an allegory would naturally be a 

 favourite subject of art among a refined and 

 ingenious people ; and it accordingly appears 

 to have been diversified and repeated by the 

 Greek sculptors more than any other which 

 this system of emanation so favourable to 

 art could have formed." 



It would take us far beyond the province 

 of this work to enumerate all the interpre- 

 tations which have been given of this fable, 

 for there are few authors who have written 

 upon ancient literature or the arts but have 

 given their ideas as to its symbolical meaning; 

 in the arts, especially that of sculpture and 

 engraving upon gems and stones, even down 



