B UTTERFL T PS YCHOL OGY. 213 



were ; and I have seen a dozen or more 

 gathered thickly about a precious bit of 

 moist earth, all crowding and pushing for 

 place in a manner not to be outdone by the 

 most patriotic of office-seekers. 



It is my private heresy, perhaps, this 

 strong anthropomorphic turn of mind, 

 which impels me to assume the presence 

 of a soul in all animals, even in these airy 

 nothings ; and, having assumed its exist- 

 ence, to speculate as to what goes on within 

 it. I know perfectly well that such ques- 

 tions as I have been raising are not to be 

 answered. They are not meant to be an- 

 swered. But I please myself with asking 

 them, nevertheless, having little sympathy 

 with those precise intellectual economists 

 who count it a waste to let the fancy play 

 with insoluble mysteries. Why is fancy 

 winged, I should like to know, if it is never 

 to disport itself in fields out of which the 

 clumsy, heavy-footed understanding is de- 

 barred ? 



