ORDER IV. -MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 125 



vades the universe. Of all the glittering orbs that roll in 

 endless space, probably no two are alike in substance or liv- 

 ing contents. So, of all the myriads of living creatures with 

 which the earth has swarmed since the animating Spirit first 

 breathed upon chaos, no two can be said to be precisely 

 ahke ; but, on the contrary, so inevitable is the law of va- 

 riation with regard to all the operations of nature or art, 

 that all similarity is rather relative than real. The animal, 

 the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms in all their devel- 

 opments, show the same endless diversification. In the hu- 

 man family, even, the highest and most perfect of animals, 

 we see multitudes of different forms and colors, of languages, 

 and manners and customs. We find an immense variety of 

 beasts and birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects ; and the same 

 of plants, trees, and shrubs, as well as of all the mineral 

 productions. And yet we find all these difi'erent varieties 

 of the three natural kingdoms united under one general law ; 

 all dependent upon one another, as component parts of one 

 great universal whole, and we are forced, with the great 

 philosopher, Humboldt, to exclaim, "Nature is the unity 

 in variety." 



Moths and Butterflies, in comparison with the- other or- 

 ders of insects, are well entitled to the rank of nobility, for 

 among them we find no impudent beggars and spongers, as 

 among the flies ; no parasites, as in some of the wingless in- 

 sects ; no working class, as among the hymenopterous in- 

 sects, bees, wasps, ants, and gall-flies ; no musicians, as 

 among the families of Crickets, Grasshoppers, Katydids, 

 and Cicadas ; but all of them are aristocratic idlers, who, 

 clothed with silver, and gold, and purple, and ornamented 

 with ever-varying splendor, have naught to do but to seek 

 their own pleasure, and charm away their brief existence 

 fluttering from bough to bough, and satiating themselves 

 with the sweet nectar of flowers. 



And, indeed, whether we look at them in their infancy 



