CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DA K 97 



abode, nor any 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 fixed 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, de- 

 scribe one of them ; which I will, some time the next month, show 

 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 forehead 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 crosswise, 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 cater- 

 pillar 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 honeysuckle hedge, whilst I look a line to fit 

 the rod that our brother feter hath lent you, I shall, for a little 

 confirmation of what I have said, repeat the observation of Du 

 Bartas : 8 



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. 



So, the cold humour breeds the Salamander, 

 Who, in effect, like to her birth's commander, 

 With child with hundred winters, with her touch 

 Quencheth the fire, tho' glowing ne'er so much. 



So of the fire, in burning furnnce, springs 

 The fly Pyrausta with the flaming wings : 

 Without the fire it dies : within it joys, 

 Living in that which each thing else destroys. 

 So slow Bootes underneath him sees.f 

 In th' icy isles, those goslings hatch'd of trees ; 

 Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water, 

 Are turn'd, they say, to living fowls soon after. 



VARIATION.] 8 the Lord Bartas. \st edit. 



* View Sir Fra. Bncnn's Exper. 728 and 90, in his Natural History. 

 1 View Gcrh. Herbal and Camden. 



