38 INTRODUCTION. 



and the perfect animal, the renovated body when it 

 rises from the tomb to enter upon a more exalted 

 state of existence. " But although the analogy be- 

 tween the different states of insects and those of the 

 body of man is only general, yet it is much more com- 

 plete with respect to his soul. He first appears in 

 this frail body, a child of the earth, a crawling worm, 

 his soul being in a course of training and prepara- 

 tion for a more perfect and glorious existence. When 

 it has finished this course, it casts off this vile body, 

 and goes into a hidden state of being in Hades, 

 where it rests from its works, and is prepared for its 

 final consummation. The time for this being ar- 

 rived, it comes forth with a glorious body, not like 

 its former, though germinating from it ; for though 

 " it was sown an animal body, it shall be raised a 

 spiritual body," endowed witii augmented powers, 

 faculties, and privileges, commensurate to its new 

 and happy state. And here the parallel holds por- 

 fectly true between the insect and the man. The 

 butterfly, the representative of the soul, is prepared 

 in the larva for its future state of glory ; and if it 

 be not destroyed by the ichneumons, and other ene- 

 mies to which it is exposed, symbolical of tlie vices 

 that destroy the spiritual life of the soul, it will come 

 to its state of repose in the pupa^ which is its Hades ; 

 and at length, when it assumes the imago, break 

 forth with new powers and beauty to its final glory 

 and reign of love. So that in this view of the sub- 

 ject, well might the Italian poet exclaim, 



