Swallow-Tailed Butterflies 151 



Your specimen is not a real butterfly and it bears 

 no more relationship to the live insect than does an 

 Egyptian mummy to a life-loving, rollicking wild 

 cowboy. 



A butterfly is something more than an insect, 

 it is an idea, — it is everything that you want it to 

 be, and it is beautiful in proportion to your ability 

 to appreciate and understand beauty. 



What is the object of its life? What is it for? 

 These are questions which come to the mind of any 

 healthy boy ; stupid men seldom think of them, even 

 when they see one of these exquisite insects floating 

 in the air apparently as aimlessly as a piece of 

 tissue paper wafted on the summer breeze. Why, 

 boys, if we knew all the hidden secrets of the life 

 of one single butterfly we would know more than 

 any man who ever lived. But there are lots of 

 secrets we can discover and that is what gives charm 

 to our collecting hikes. 



This book is written as an ajjpeal to the sen- 

 sitive nature of you boys — boys whose souls are 

 nearer to nature and whose spiritual ideality, if 

 you can understand what that means, is greater 

 than that of men, at least greater than that of most 

 men. niere was once a man by the name of 



