ITS INCONSTANT FLIGHT. 153 



we dissent from the conclusion, as forcibly as we 

 admire the description. The beginning is the only 

 part I have occasion to quote : — 



" As, rising on its purple wing', 

 The insect-queen of Eastern spring, 

 O'er emerald meadows of Kashmeer 

 Invites the young pursuer near. 

 And leads him on, from flower to flower, 

 A weary chase, and wasted hour." 



Moore has introduced these insects amid the splen- 

 dour of " The Light of the Haram :" — 



" And they, before whose sleepy- eyes. 



In their own bright Kathain bowers, 

 Sparkle such rainbow butterflies ; 



Tliat they might fancy the rich flowers 

 That round them in the sun lay sighing, 

 Had been by magic all set flying I " 



The flight of the butterfly, thus beautifully described 

 by the two most distinguished poets of the present 

 day, has not been passed by Shakspeare unnoticed 

 or unrecorded. "When Valeria visits Virgilia during 

 the absence of Coriolanus, she asks — " How does 

 your little son.?" and her question having been 

 answered, she proceeds in the strain most likely to 

 gratify his mother : — "O' my word, the father's son ; 

 I'll swear 'tis a very pretty boy. O' my troth, I looked 

 upon him o' Wednesday half an hour together." — 

 " I saw him run after a gilded butterfly ; and when he 

 caught it, he let it go again ; and after it again, and 



