222 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Mie 



more than he can turn to useful account. If he gains the whole 

 world, he is lean and hungry still. He works for flesh, obtains 

 it, and yet is skeletonic and solitary. When a number of these, 

 in the form of Israelites, craved for flesh, Heaven gave it them, 

 but even then leanness was sent into their souls. A. 



Metamorphosis a Law. 



A most curious and most important field of microscopic 

 inquiry has been opened up in the study of the transformations 

 which a large proportion of the lower animals undergo during 

 the early stages of their existence ; and notwithstanding that 

 it has even yet been very imperfectly cultivated, the unexpected 

 result has been already attained, that the fact of "metamorphosis," 

 previously known only in the cases of insects and tadpoles, and 

 commonly considered as an altogether exceptional phenomenon, 

 is almost universal among the inferior tribes ; it being a rare 

 occurrence for the offspring to come forth from the egg in a con- 

 dition bearing any resemblance to that which characterises the 

 adult, and the latter being in general attained only after a long 

 series of transformations in the course of which many curious 

 changes are presented. There is no monotony in Nature. " Pass 

 on," is ever the command. MI. 



Mien is Independent of Occupation. 



There is a very large tribe of beetles of which the British 

 type is the common dor beetle. Its colour is wondrously beauti- 

 ful, and its polished surface gleams as if made of burnished steel, 

 pure and bright as armour just out of the smith's hands. Yet 

 this creature has been burrowing deeply into the ground, has 

 been meddling with the most noxious substances, and still 

 retains no trace of its past labours. Not a speck of mould 

 remains upon its surface, not a stain defiles its limbs, neither 

 does it retain the least odour which would betray its occupation. 

 It serves to remind us that a man's mien need not be repulsive 

 merely by reason of the fact that his occupation is offensive. 

 He has within himself a power to make his individuality supe- 



