268 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



the early winter evenings. As it is, all is well. 

 The insect and the day are made for one another ; 

 for it the flower blossoms, and the warm air 

 breathes, and all nature is spread out in warmth 

 and happiness. Its career run through, it de- 

 parts from the scene it has enlivened, leaving 

 behind, just at the proper time, and in the proper 

 place, the eggs which are to become quickened, 

 live, and die, like itself, all in their appointed 

 time. We thus perceive that it is chiefly the 

 increasing temperature of the air which fixes the 

 time of the insect's duration as a pupa, and sets in 

 movement all the great chain of the events of exter- 

 nal nature. In what way an increase of warmth 

 thus acts we are still unable to say ; perhaps, indeed, 

 we may never be able to tell. Neither can we un- 

 derstand how it should be, that the principle of life 

 should be ready at a moment's notice to complete 

 its work in the perfection of the insect, and yet 

 held in abeyance by a few degrees of a lower, or 

 quickened into activity by a few degrees higher, 

 temperature. We know that this has been God's 

 doing, and marvellous it is in our eyes ; but 

 the wisest of men feels himself ignorant if asked 

 the question, how it is thus arranged? Truly 



