The Fourth Day 87 



certain kind of herb or flower for his feeding, but 

 will boldly and disorderly wander up and down, 

 and not endure to be kept to a diet, or fixt to a 

 particular place. 



Nay, the very colours of caterpillars are, as one 

 has observed, very elegant and beautiful. I shall, 

 for a taste of the rest, describe one of them ; which 

 I will, some time the next month, shew you feeding 

 on a willow-tree ; and you shall find him punctually 

 to answer this very description : his lips and mouth 

 somewhat yellow ; his eyes black as jet ; his fore- 

 head purple ; his feet and hinder parts green ; his 

 tail two-forked and black ; the whole body stained 

 with a kind of red spots, which run along the neck 

 and shoulder-blade, not unlike the form of St. 

 Andrew's cross, or the letter X, made thus cross- 

 wise, and a white line drawn down his back to his 

 tail ; all which add much beauty to his whole body. 

 And it is to me observable, that at a fixed age this 

 caterpillar gives over to eat, and towards winter 

 comes to be covered over with a strange shell or 

 crust, called an aurelia ; and so lives a kind of dead 

 life, without eating all the winter. And as others 

 of several kinds turn to be several kinds of flies and 

 vermin, the Spring following; so this caterpillar 

 then turns to be a painted butterfly. 



Come, come, my scholar, you_see_the river stops 

 our morning walk : and I will also here stop my 

 discourse : only as we sit down under this honey- 

 suckle hedge, whilst I look a line to fit the rod that 

 our brother Peter hath lent you, I shall, for a little 

 confirmation of what I have said, repeat the observa- 

 tion of Du Bartas: 



God, not contented to each kind to give 

 And to infuse the virtue generative, 

 Made, by his wisdom, many creatures breed 

 Of lifeless bodies, without Venus' deed. 



