THE WOODLANDS. l8l 



CHAPTER X. 



BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 



THE most attractive of all insects are the Lepidoptera, 

 especially those which from their habit of flying about 

 during the day are called diurnal Lepidoptera or 

 Butterflies. As other perfect insects, so these pass 

 through three stages of existence, caterpillar, chrysalis, 

 and imago, or winged insect. The most beautiful, 

 as well as pleasing, emblem among the Egyptians 

 was exhibited under the character of Psyche the 

 soul. This was originally no other than a butterfly, 

 but it afterwards was represented as a lovely female 

 child with the beautiful wings of that insect. The 

 butterfly, after its first and second stages as an egg 

 and larva, lies for a season in a manner dead, and is 

 enclosed in a sort of coffin. In this state it remains 

 a shorter or longer period ; but at last, bursting its 

 bonds, it comes out with new life, and in the most 

 beautiful attire. The Egyptians thought this a very 

 proper picture of the soul of man, and of the immor- 

 tality to which it aspired. But they made it more 

 particularly an emblem of Osiris, who having been 

 confined in an ark or coffin, and in a state of death, 

 at last quitted his prison, and enjoyed a renewal of 



