LECT. IX.] METAMORPHOSIS OF THE DRAGON-FLY. 203 



LECTUKE IX. 



CONCLUSION. 



THE hardest part of my task has yet to be done. There 

 is one thing, however, comfortable to you and to me in 

 the matter; we may now "take courage, for we see 

 land." Once through these stormy straits, we shall 

 come to a haven of rest. 



We can then meditate upon our mysterious origin 

 at leisure, making ourselves certain of this one thing, 

 that we are what we are ; no theorising as to our 

 origin can upset that fact. 



You very much mistake me if you think that I make 

 a boast of being an organism a compound of flesh and 

 blood, bones and nerves. If the manifestation of what 

 we generally call " spirit " has hitherto taken place 

 through the medium of matter in some organised form, 

 it may still be hoped, that as it appears to be the most 

 homogeneous thing in us, it may survive the breaking up 

 of the organised shell which now imprisons it. 



A frightful attack of spasms, passing into tetanus, 

 falls suddenly upon the "pupa" of the Dragon-Fly. 

 In the agony of his last moult (ecdysis), he little 



