SPHINX. 21Q 



1804, iii which the caterpillar was so common in 

 some counties as to be very prejudicial to the 

 potatoe-plants, particularly in some parts of Corn- 

 wall, Surry, c. 



The alteration of form which the whole of the 

 papilionaceous tribe undergo, and in a particular 

 manner the changes above-described of the genus 

 Sphinx, afford a subject of the most pleasing 

 contemplation to the mind of the naturalist, and 

 though a deeply philosophical survey demonstrates 

 that there is no real or absolute change produced 

 in the identity of the creature itself, or that it is 

 in reality no other than the gradual and progres- 

 sive evolution of parts before concealed, and which 

 lay masqued under the form of an insect of a 

 widely different appearance, yet it is justly viewed 

 with the highest admiration, and even generally 

 acknowledged as in the most lively manner typical 

 of the last eventful change. 



If any regard is to be paid to a similarity of 

 names, it should seem that the ancients were suf- 

 ficiently struck with the transformations of the 

 Butterfly, and its revival from a seeming tempo- 

 rary death, as to have considered it as an emblem 

 of the soul; the Greek word ^vyy signifying both 

 the soul and a butterfly. This is also confirmed 

 by their allegorical sculptures, in which the butter- 

 fly occurs as an emblem of immortality. 



Modern naturalists, impressed with the same 

 idea, and laudably solicitous to apply it as an 

 illustration of the awful mystery revealed in the 

 sacred writings, have drawn their allusions to it 



