1'cauty of Insects. 269 



then the combinations of colors are more varied 

 and beautiful than can be found in any work of 

 human art ; the colors themselves are absolutely un- 

 approachable. The colors alone would not strike us 



>o remarkable, were it not for their distribution 

 to produce ornamentation. \Ye are sure here that 

 \ve have the work of nature pure and simple, and 

 we are beyond the influence of that potent principle, 

 natural selection, b it is a question of mere 



distribution of color. And when the principle is 

 pointed n of insects, 



or recall the fairy forms that have reappeared every 



,r upon the flowers, to understand its force. We 

 can recall ; [en yellow wing, with a line of 



ebon following the wavy outline of the edge the 

 IS blue and red of other >, with silky 



sheen, in rings and spots and lines, and ''beetles 

 panoplied in -'en old" 



\\V need not multi mples ; for the same 



exhibitions of beauty meet us from the lowest to 

 the highest ranks of the animal kingdom. The 

 same idea is secured by means so different that it 

 speaks of a great provision for the enjoyment of 

 rational creatures. In the coral polyp and jelly-fish 

 the color is generally in the animal itself. In the 

 shell-fish tribe it is made permanent in the shell, 

 which is solid as the stone split from the quarry; 

 in the insect tribe, it burnishes the wings of beetles 

 and tints the delicate scales upon the wings of the 

 lepidoptera. In the vertebrates, it appears in the 

 scales of fishes and reptiles ; in the goodly feathers 



