THE BUTTERFLY. 103 



tonic to the grub. These are the Scylla and Charybdis 

 between which you must steer. 



Many silly people still call butterfly-hunting puerile 

 amusement, and so it would be if they pursued it ; for the 

 profit which any one extracts from it is always pretty 

 much according to the measure of his own capacity. It is 

 curioos to notice how exactly in the face of the fact this 

 old notion of the childishness of entomology is. All chil- 

 dren take an interest in animals, and may with very little 

 encouragement be developed into naturalists while the 

 observing faculties are still active and they have not yet 

 learned the art of going blindfold through the world ; but 

 it is wild beasts that fascinate them first. Lions and 

 tigers rank with Bluebeard and Jack the Giant-killer. By 

 degrees the boy will go on to love birds and become mad 

 on bird-nesting ; but not until he is growing into a mature 

 naturalist will he go down the scale of life, and discover in 

 a gall-fly or a sea-jelly, a rotifer or a hydra, a wonder and 

 a mystery not to be found in what are called the higher 

 orders of animals. The pursuit of butterflies is not so 

 full of deep interest as many other branches even of 

 entomology, but it is more of a science for the million. It 

 has the peculiar advantage that it is a recreation as well as 



