72 THE CHRISTIAN NATUEALISff. 



which Solomon thought worth inculcating.* (Pror. vi. 6) 

 So also the painted Butterfly, tricked out in all the 

 hues of Summer, and fluttering to and fro continually 

 amidst the sunshine, may remind the sons and daugh- 

 ters of pleasure, by the brevity and apparent inutility 

 of its existence, of the vanity and shortness of that 

 life of pleasure to which they devote themselves. But 

 this lovely attendant upon a Summer's day may also 

 teach us a nobler truth. The changes through which 

 this and many other of the insect tlibes pass, from the 

 egg to the caterpillar, from the caterpillar to the chry- 

 salis, and from this to a perfect fly, is one of the most 

 striking things in nature, and is no mean type of man 

 in his translation from a mortal to an immortal state. 

 An elegant Poet of the present day has thus apostro- 

 phized the butterfly, and sketched out its typical exist- 

 ence : — 



* It is not necessary to suppose from this passage that the 

 Ant usually stores up grain against the winter, which is not 

 agreeable to the fact at least in our climate, where the Ant is 

 perfectly torpid during the winter. It appear, however, that 

 one species of Ant has lately been discovered in the East Indies 

 which does lay up com agreeable to the commonly received 

 opinion. The name of this species is * Atta providens. * — See 

 Kirhy'sBridgewater Treatise, v. 2. p. 344. ti,nd Entomology, v. 2. 

 pA6. 



