INSECTS IN EDEN. 155 



flowers even of Paradise, must have wanted a charm without 

 the basking Butterfly and humming Bee ; while, on the other 

 hand, we can hardly imagine the leaves of Adam's garden ever 

 to have been gnawed by tooth of Caterpillar, or that "the 

 worm i' the bud " ever preyed on the unexpanded cheeks of his 

 damask roses ; still less, that the fair fingers of our common 

 mother were ever, when employed to cull or train them, in 

 danger of being wounded by the poisoned dart of a Bee lurker. 

 We have, indeed, the authority of our mighty Milton, for sup- 

 posing that across the threshold of Eve's bower, where 



-Underfoot, the violet, 



Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay 



Broidered the ground more coloured than with stone 



Of costliest emblem other creatures there, 



Beast, bird, insect or worm, durst enter none : 



Such was their awe of man." 



But from this it must not be inferred that their entrance would 

 have been dangerous, but that their absence was essential to 

 the strict retirement of that " blest retreat." To meet then the 

 supposition, that nothing save what was gentle and uninjurious 

 existed before man's fall, we must needs conclude, in harmless 

 speculation, that the first Butterflies (knowing no Caterpillar 

 youth) were created Butterflies from the beginning, to sport 

 over roses without thorns, and that the first race of Bees were 

 formed stingless, to collect their nectiferous harvest from 

 " Cassia, nard, and balm, that wilderness of sweets" without a 

 bitter. A Bee without a sting is not, by-the-way, even now a 



