ENTOMOLOGY. 217 



forms of living beings, and that particularly 

 with respect to the functions of generation 

 a minute study of the modifications of which 

 the forms of animals seem susceptible, parti- 

 cularly in the hymenopterous, or bee tribe, 

 might lead to very important results. 



POIET. Even in a moral point of view, 

 I think the analogies derived from the trans- 

 formation of insects admit of some beautiful 

 applications, which have not been neglected 

 by pious entomologists. The three states 

 of the caterpillar, larva, and butterfly have, 

 since the time of the Greek poets, been ap- 

 plied to typify the human being its terres- 

 trial form, apparent death, and ultimate 

 celestial destination; and it seems more ex- 

 traordinary that a sordid and crawling worm 

 should become a beautiful and active fly 

 that an inhabitant of the dark and fetid 

 dunghill should in an instant entirely change 

 its form, rise into the blue air, and enjoy 

 the sunbeams, than that a being, whose 

 pursuits here have been after an undying 

 name, and whose purest happiness has been 

 derived from the acquisition of intellectual 



