THE RESURRECTION. 311 



that, although kept in bondage by the case, the 

 insect was in all respects the same as if we had 

 allowed it to break out of its prison in the ordi- 

 nary manner. In a word, the perfect insect is 

 after all only the same being which we saw in the 

 egg, larva, and pupa states, now having cast off 

 its last skin, and become an adult being. 



When a man or an animal dies, the particles of 

 the body are separated from each other, their union 

 is destroyed, and they themselves are dissipated in 

 various ways. The flesh returns to dust, the spirit 

 to God who gave it. How different this change 

 from that which the insect undergoes ! and how 

 inappropriate in strictness, as 



" Emblems of our own great resurrection, 

 Emblems of the bright and better land," 



as emblems of the mysterious union of the immor- 

 tal soul and its immortal, incorruptible body ! The 

 fable of the Phoenix was more expressive of the 

 real nature of this great change ; for there the 

 body of the creature was reduced to death first, 

 and the new-born being sprang from its ashes. As 

 we are anxious to convey only the most clear and 

 accurate idea to the reader's mind of the various 

 stages of insect life through which we are con- 



