BUTTERFLY AESTHETICS. . 153 



XVI. 



BUTTERFLY AESTHETICS. 



THE other day, when I was watching that 

 little red-spotted butterfly whose psychology 

 I found so interesting, I hardly took enough 

 account, perhaps, of the insect's own subjec- 

 tive feelings of pleasure and pain. The first 

 great point to understand about these minute 

 creatures is that they are, after all, mainly 

 pieces of automatic mechanism : the second 

 great point is to understand that they are 

 probably something more than that as well. 

 To-day I have found another exactly similar 

 butterfly, and I am going to work out with 

 myself the other half of the problem about 

 him. Granted that the insect is, viewed 

 intellectually, a cunning bit of nervous 



