DESIGN OF NATURAL BEAUTY. 319 



others which display shades of light, progressively warming 

 from white to orange, have been considered not unaptly as 

 " sacred to the day." Those concentric circles of colour, called 

 ocelli or eyes, which give, in some instances, such an accession 

 of life and brilliancy to the wings of Butterflies and Moths, 

 may be looked on as stars of distinction belonging to their 

 order (Lepidopterd), conferred solely on one other of the insect 

 race,* and eclipsed only by the magnitude and profusion of 

 those which are lavished on the strutting peacock. 



There are few people, perhaps, unwilling to bestow their 

 meed of praise on the beautiful object we have just described, 

 however they may be usually accustomed to defraud nature of 

 her just tribute of notice and admiration ; but how often has the 

 Butterfly's wing, like other exquisite works of Creation, drawn 

 from the beholder's lips, expressions ascending from the indif- 

 ferent " Yery pretty !" to the enraptured " How superlatively 

 beautiful !" without giving rise to one thought about the 

 taste and skill of its Divine Artificer, or one feeling about that 

 bounty and benevolence which has led him to bestow all this 

 elaborate ornament on a little creature, designed, as we cannot 

 doubt, to minister to the delight of our admiring eyes, to 

 give (for us) a living charm to the flowers he emulates, and 

 in his emblematic story, no less than in his exhilarating flights 

 towards the source of day, to raise our spirits above and 

 beyond it to the source of all things bright and beautiful. 



* The Orihaptera,. 



