122 STORY OF INSECT LIFE. 



finish their education ; and then come before the 

 world in all the glory of their new attire. 



Up to this time they are nearly exactly alike in 

 habits and manners ; but, when freed from the 

 trammels that held them, they diverge, each in his 

 appointed way, each exulting for a short space in the 

 buoyancy of youth, and fluttering indeterminately in 

 the new world, but soon settling down to the business 

 for which they were made. 



So even in insects a human soul can find a compa- 

 nionship, and a solitary man need never feel entirely 

 alone as long as he can watch the life of a humble 

 moth, and see in that despised creature some mani- 

 festations of the same feelings which actuate him- 

 self. 



And it even seems that, through this companion- 

 ship, the higher nature communicates itself in some 

 degree to the lower, as is shown by the many 

 instances of men who have tamed spiders and other 

 creatures quite as far removed from the human 

 nature. In such a case it seems very clear that either 

 the higher nature gives to the lower an intelligence 

 not its own, or that it develops powers which would 

 have lain dormant had they not' been called forth by 

 the contact of a superior being. 



This subject is a very wide one, and well worth 

 following up. But as it runs through the whole 

 creation, and this book is only to consist of a few 

 pages, it must suffice merely to put forth the idea. 



