128 HIDDEN BEAUTIES OF NATURE 



1 Poor insect, what a little day 

 Of sunny bliss is thine ! 

 And yet thou spread'st thy light wings gay, 

 And spreading, bid'st them shine.' 



The poet, looking at the insect life from the egg 

 until it arrives at the imago or perfect stage, 

 exclaims : 



' Which the tomb a willing guest descends. 

 But when revolving months have won their way, 

 When smile the woods, and when the zephyrs play, 

 When laughs the vivid world in summer's bloom, 

 He bursts, and flies triumphant from the tomb ; 

 And while his new-born beauties he displays, 

 With conscious joys his altered form surveys.' 



Well might the poet add : 



And deems weak man the future promise vain, 

 When worms can die, and, glorious, rise ngain?' 



Making allowance for the poet's lack of scientific 

 accuracy, in that the creature does not actually die, 

 the sentiment is good. 



The creature that in its early stages of life crawls 

 along the earth as a grub, and that as a perfect insect 

 comes up into the sunshine, and unfolds its beauteous 

 wings in the light of God's glorious day, is to some a 

 type of human life in its earthly and heavenly con- 

 ditions, and supplies us with hopes of a future state. 

 This may not be accepted by every one, yet all must 

 admit that, however hard life's struggle may be, the 



