INTRODUCTION. XXV 



In the Annals of Tacitus, * it is stated, that, in 

 the year 787 of Rome, the phoenix revisited Egypt, 

 which created much speculation among the learned. 

 The accounts of the longevity of this creature vary 

 from five hundred to one thousand five hundred 

 years. It was considered sacred to the sun. 



The ancients made many allusions to the wonderful 

 changes which the insect tribes undergo, and built 

 a number of their fictions on them. The mytho- 

 logical tale of Cupid and Psyche, is an allegory of 

 the human soul, which is sometimes cherished, and 

 sometimes tormented by the passions. Psyche, in 

 Greek -^s>%?j, signifies the soul, as also a butterfly ; 

 shewing that the ancients were sufficiently struck 

 with the transformation of the butterfly, and its 

 revival from a seeming temporary death. Cupid is 

 an emblem of desire. Psyche is frequently repre- 

 sented by a butterfly, not merely from the beautiful 

 appearance of that insect, but on account of its 

 surviving the chrysalis condition ; and this breaking 

 from its confinement certainly finely designates man's 

 future existence, after he shall rise from the dead. 

 This fable is perhaps the invention of Apuleius, as no 

 mention of Psyche, nor any allusion to such amours 

 of Cupid, occurs in any Greek or Latin writer of an 



* Book vi, sect. 28, 



