318 The Young Lady's Book. 



If Lady Mary ground her strongest plea in favor of flowers on their 

 vitality, how much more powerfully may we, on the same score, 

 advocate the cause of the butterfly ! There is nothing so admira- 

 ble in the operations of nature, ' within the bourne of Flora's 

 reign,' as the metamorphosis of an insect — its gradual develop- 

 ment and- advance, through various stages of existence, until it 

 emerges from a tomb constructed by itself, endowed for the first 

 time with the means of soaring into the air. And what can the 

 mineral or vegetable kingdoms afford so attractive to the inquir- 

 ing mind, as the singular habits and instincts of many insects, and 

 of several of the animals, which, like ' the hermits of fairy-land, 

 abide in pearly grottoes on the shores of Oceanus?' — but notwith- 

 standing the potent claims on our attention of the insect, the shell, 

 the mineral, and the flower, it is a matter of doubt whether any 

 of them be more worthy of our investigation than birds. The 

 forms of an immense number of birds are remarkably graceful; the 

 plumage of many exhibit tints as rich, brilliant, and diversified, 

 as can be found in the entire range of animated nature; their 

 structure is various, and, in all cases, admirably well adapted to 

 their wants and habits. Their utility to mankind is obvious: they 

 afford us articles of ornament as well as of use: the plume of the 

 ostrich is associated, at the toilet, with the flower, the gem, the 

 pearl, and the produce of the silkworm ; to neither of which are 

 we indebted for such important benefits as have been afforded us 

 by the quill of the goose. The nidification of many birds is quite 

 as ingenuous as that of insects ; their migration have attracted the 

 notice of philosophers for ages past; and their familiarity in a do- 

 mestic state, and the affection they display toward their nestlings, 

 elevate them, as objects of human interest, above all the other 

 classes of creation which we have noticed.' 



' Your remarks,' said Aunt Elinor, ' appear to me to be very 

 correct: and you act discreetly in suffering Ornithology to occupy 

 a niche by the side of her sister sciences. Thus far would I go, 

 but no farther.' 



L 'OVERTURE. 



Here, in this classic bower, — the Muse's home,- 

 Fair Science sits upon a throne cmpcarl'il ; 



And, at tlie waving of her wand, a Gnome 

 Reveals the treasures of the mineral world. 



