150 EXCURSIONS ROUND LONDON. 



butterfly cannot be instructed by the parent 

 insect, since it becomes the prey of death 

 long before its offspring is hatched; it re- 

 Quires not to be instructed in the school of 

 experience, in order to distinguish the leaves 

 of different vegetables ; but, directed by un- 

 erring instinct, at once fixes on those appro- 

 priate to its nature. Why, after various 

 changes, does the caterpillar prepare the 

 shell in which it envelopes itself^ Has it any 

 internal feeling of its future metamorphosis? 

 How could it acquire such an idea, since it 

 has received neither lessons from experience 

 nor tradition ? How, when the caterpillar is 

 inclosed alive in its tomb, and becomes trans- 

 formed into a chrysalis: .how is it instructed 



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that it will immerse under a new mode of ex- 



, o 



istence, and under a more gaudy form ? Why 



* 



has it contrived an aperture by which it 

 may one day fly away ? if we allow that the 

 actions of the caterpillar, of which I have 

 been speaking, are not the mere effect of a 



blind instinct, it must certainly be admitted, 



- , j 



that 



