in their metamorphosis, first as an ugly larva, 

 leading a lowly and obscure life; then as a pupa 

 encased in a shroud and to all appearance lifeless ; 

 and finally emerging from this sarcophagus 

 clothed perhaps in the richest colors, with daz- 

 zling wings which permit the image to raise itself 

 aloft, above the earth where it has hitherto only 

 crawled, our author says : " And this life of ours 

 which we lead on the earth, is it really our per- 

 fect state ? That which we call death, is it really 

 the end of life? Shall we not also have to take 

 wing and soar up toward the sun, above the level 

 of all the miseries and passions and wants of a 

 primary state of existence?" 



Individual existence, as I have said, is but a 

 transitory condition or phase of the eternal life 

 of matter and force, which themselves may both 

 be one, and yet in our weakness and folly we lay 

 great store by our so-called possessions. My fas- 

 cinating author, Alphonse Karr, says : " I remem- 

 bered how small were my wants and desires ; the 

 greatest, the surest, and the most independent 

 of fortunes," and again : " What a strange thing 

 is this possession of which men are so envious! 

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