LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD. 21 



beauties of creation, and instead of feeling in- 

 clined to pass by any object merely because it 

 is common, you should, on that very account, 

 be disposed to examine it more closely. 



If you do this, you will find wonders where 

 you least expected them, and will be continually 

 supplied with sources of innocent gratification. 

 Kirby and Spence, in an interesting work writ- 

 ten upon insects, say: 



" Were a naturalist to announce to the world, 

 the discovery of an animal which, for the first 

 five years of its life, existed in the form of a 

 serpent ; which then, penetrating into the earth 

 and weaving a shroud of pure silk of the finest 

 texture, contracted itself within this covering into 

 a body without external mouth or limbs, and 

 resembling, more than any thing else, an Egyp- 

 tian mummy ; and which lastly, after remain- 

 ing in this state, without food and without mo- 

 tion, for three years longer, should, at the end 

 of that period, burst its silken cerements, strug- 

 gle through its earthy covering, and start into 

 day, a winged bird, what, think yon, would 

 be the sensation excited by this intelli- 

 gence?" 



3 



