INTRODUCTION. XXX1U 



** Ah ! where were once her golden eyes, 

 Her glittering wings of purple pride ? 



Conceal'd beneath a rude disguise, 

 A shapeless mass, to earth allied. 



Like thee the hapless reptile lived, 



Like thee he toil'd, like thee he spun, 

 Like thine his closing hour arrived, 

 His labour ceased, his web was done. 



And shalt thou, number'd with the dead, 



No happier state of being know ? 

 And shall no future morrow shed 



On thee a beam of brighter glow ? 



*' Is this the bound of power divine 



To animate an insect frame ? 

 Or shall not he who moulded thine 



Wake at his will the vital flame ? 



'* Go, mortal ! in thy reptile state, 



Enough to know to thee is given ; 

 Go, and the joyful truth relate, 



Frail child of earth, high heir of heaven ! " 



It would be difficult to assign a cause, why insects 

 undergo so many changes before arriving at a state 

 of maturity. Why is it that they do not, like other 

 animals, preserve the same general form from infancy 

 to perfection ? This is a question which is not easy 

 to answer, but no doubt the thing was wisely ordered 



