INTRODUCTIOX. 1 3 



attraction. Even the most formidable insects, both in 

 appearance and reality, — the dragon-fly, which is perfectly 

 harmless to man, and the wasp, whose sting every human 

 being almost instinctively shuns, — are splendid in their 

 appearance, and are painted with all the brilliancy of 

 natural hues. It has been remarked, that the plumage of 

 tropical birds is not superior in vivid colouring to what 

 may be observed in the greater number of butterflies and 

 moths.* "See," exclaims Linnt^eus, "the large, elegant 

 painted wings of the butterfly, four in number, covered 

 with delicate feathery scales ! With these it sustains itself 

 in the air a whole day, rivalling the flight of birds and the 

 brilliancy of the peacock. Consider this insect through 

 the wonderful progress of its life, — how different is the 

 first period of its being from the second, and both from the 

 parent insect! Its changes are an inexplicable enigma to 

 us : we see a green caterpillar, furnished with sixteen feet, 

 feeding upon the leaves of a plant ; this is changed into a 

 chrysalis, smooth, of golden lustre, hanging suspended to a 

 fixed point, without feet, and subsisting without food ; this 

 insect again undergoes another transformation, acquires 

 wings, and six feet, and becomes a gay butterfly, sporting 

 in the air, and living by suction upon the honey of plants. 

 What has Nature produced more worthy of our admiration 

 than such an animal, coming upon the stage of the world, 

 and playing its part there under so many different masks ?" 

 The ancients were so struck with the transformations of 

 the butterfly, and its revival from a seeming temporary 

 death, as to have considered it an emblem of the soul, the 

 Greek word psyche signifying both the soul and a butterfly ; 

 and it is for this reason that we find the butterfly intro- 

 duced into their allegorical sculptures as an emblem of 

 immortality. Trifling, therefore, and perhaps, contempt- 

 ible, as to the unthinking may seem the study of a butter- 

 fly, yet when we consider the art and mechanism displayed 

 in so minute a structure, — the fluids circulating in vessels 

 so small as alm.ost to escape the sight— the beauty of the 

 wings and covering — and the manner in which each part is 

 * Miss Jermyn's Butterfly Collector, p. 11. 



