122 EFFECT OF THE INNER LIFE. 
circles which it makes with azure and emerald wings on the meadow 
or over the waters? A flight apparently capricious; but not really so, 
for it is a chase, a rapid and elegant extermination of myriads of insects. 
What seems to you a pastime, is the greedy absorption with which 
this brilliant creature of war feeds its season of love. 
Do not believe that these riches are simply the gifts of genial climates; 
that these glittering festal garments which they assume to love and die 
in are only the sheen of the sun, the all-powerful decorator, which with 
its rays intensifies the enamel and gems we admire upon their wings. 
Another sun—a sun which shines for the whole earth, even for the ice- 
regions of the pole—profits them far more considerably. It exalts in 
them the inner life, evokes all their powers, and, on the given day, calls 
forth the supreme flower. Yonder scintillating colours are their visible 
energies which become speaking and eloquent. .It is the pride of a 
complete life, which, having attained its climax, displays its energy in 
triumph, wishes to expand and diffuse ; it is the tradition of desire, the 
imperious prayer and urgent appeal to the beloved objects. 
In pale and temperate climates, you will meet with those brilliant 
liveries which one would think belonged to the tropics. Who, under 
our gloomy and variable sky, has not seen the sparkling Spanish fly ? 
Even in the fatal deserts where summer beams but for an instant, as 
if in despite of the sun,—in despite of the poor and naked earth,—love 
supports some beings of a sumptuous splendour, of opulent raiment and 
rich decoration. Miserable Siberia sees the princes and great lords of 
