152 NOTICES OF IT BY THE POET&", 



" Behold ! ye pilgrims of this earth, behold ! 

 See all, but man, with unearn'd pleasure gay : 

 See her brig-ht robes the butterfly unfold, 

 Broke from her wintry tomb in prime of May '. 

 What youtliful bride can equal her array ? 

 Who can, with her, for easy pleasure vie ? 

 From mead to mead with gentle wing to stray, 

 From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly, 



Is all she hath to do beneath the radiant sky." 



Stanza IX. 



Wordsworth hath noticed the butterfly in a manner 

 to which the feelings of every naturalist will respond : 



— — " Tlie mute insect, fix'd upon the plant 

 On whose soft leaves it hangs, and from whose cup 

 Drains imperceptibly its nourishment, 

 Endear'd my wanderings." The Exemsion. 



He has again depicted the same insect when she 

 springs from her place of momentary rest, and wings 

 her wandering and changeful flight high in the sum- 

 mer air : — 



" Before your sight, 



Mounts on the breeze the butterfly, and soars. 

 Small creature as she is, from earth's bright flowers 

 Into the dewy clouds." Idem. 



The flight is so variable, so inconstant, so fai- 

 beyond any laws which we can lay down for its 

 guidance or its object, that Mrs. Hemans has likened 

 the butterfly to 



"an embotlied breeze at play." 



In Lord Byron's "Giaour," a highly popular passage 

 on this subject is to be found ; one where, however, 



