14 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. I 



the various kinds of transformations undergone 

 either by the moths or insects of other orders, we 

 shall enter into tlie subject at further detail, feeling 

 convinced that it is impossible for us to lay before 

 our readers any subject connected with these little 

 animals which so fully coincides with the title of 

 our work — "The Natural History of Insects." 



The manner in which Messrs. Kirby and Spence 

 introduce this subject is so appropriate, that we can- 

 not resist the temptation to quote it, as being admi- 

 rably adapted to rouse the attention of the student 

 to the metamorphoses of the insect world : — " Were 

 a naturalist to announce to the world the discovery 

 of an animal which for the first five years of its life 

 existed in the form of a serpent, which then pene- 

 trating into the earth, and weaving a shroud of pure 

 silk of the finest texture, contracted itself within 

 this covering into a body without external mouth or 

 limbs, and resembling more than any thing else an 

 Egyptian mummy ; and which, lastly, after remain- 

 ing in this state, without food and without motion, 

 for three years longer, should, at the end of that pe- 

 riod, burst its silken cerements, struggle through its 

 earthy covering, and start into day a winged bird — 

 "what think you w^ould be, the sensation excited by 

 this strange piece of intelligence '? After the first 

 doubts of its truth were dispelled, what astonish- 

 ment would succeed ! — among the learned what sur- 

 mises ! what investigations ! — among the vulgar 

 what eager curiosity ! what amazement !" 



Swammerdam, indeed, justly observes — " This 

 history is so amazing in all its circumstances, that it 

 might very well pass for a romance were it not 

 built upon the most firm foundations of truth ;" and 

 the illustrious Goethe, whose knowledge of mankind 

 was only equalled by his love of nature, says of 

 these changes, " I would call these transmutations 

 wonderful, if the wonderful in nature were not that 

 which occurs everv moment." 



