ORDER IV.—MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 147 
tain the chrysalis, which, if allowed to remain undisturbed 
for two or three weeks, will be metamorphosed into a moth. 
But the moth, in escaping from its silky prison, breaks the 
threads of silk which encompass it, and of course renders 
the cocoon useless to man. MHence, in order to prevent 
this, the cocoons must be put into a warm oven, where the 
chrysalis will be suffocated, and then the cocoons may be 
preserved for any length of time, and their silk reeled off 
at pleasure. 
So easy and amusing is this process, it is surprising that 
young people living in our country villages, especially where 
there are white mulberry-trees (and they may be cultivated 
in almost any of our States), do not more often engage in 
it. Nothing would be easier than to raise silk enough 
every year for domestic use, and also enough for sale, from 
the proceeds of which each individual might realize a hand- 
some salary. But to say nothing of pecuniary advantage, 
the ennobling nature of the employment—tracing in the 
natural history of these little animals man’s own destiny, 
and reading so plainly the invariable order of nature which 
is the foundation of his hopes for the future—one would 
think, ought to be ample compensation for all the care their 
culture requires, certainly a. sufficient remuneration for so 
many otherwise idle or misspent hours. To see the suc- 
cessive transformations of these little caterpillars—to watch 
their development from the tiny egg to their full growth, 
and then, instead of gradually decaying into death and cor- 
ruption, as human beings do, to see them in full maturity 
climbing off the earth, weaving joyously their silken shroud, 
and calmly folding themselves up, not to die, but only to 
exchange a crawling body for a winged and ethereal form— 
what scene in nature more elevating, more consoling, more 
full of promise to man, the most miserable of all animal 
creations, and yet the most capable of the highest happiness! 
In hopes of encouraging the young to engage in this 
