THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 151 



aim of which puzzles us. They act, foreseeing a future 

 the existence of which no really existing picture could have 

 revealed to them. 



Everything in the life of the insect astonishes us, not 

 only the prodigious extent and finish of its work, but also 

 the fact of its being impelled to a task the necessity for 

 which cannot have been taught it by tradition. 



This butterfly which escapes at spring from its mummy 

 coflin never yet held intercourse Avith its kin; how can it 

 in autumn display so much provident care for an oflfspring 

 which it will never see ? This delicate care, this deep fore- 

 sight, cannot even be a reflection of its first impressions ! 

 The traces of them were effaced during the metamorphoses 

 which shook it to the very base. 



Who revealed to this dragon-fly {Libelhda), born 

 beneath the water, living in shadow and sunk in the mud, 

 that its last country is the brilliant sky '? And Avheii, 

 hurried away by a supreme instinct, it prepares to throw 

 off' the ignoble garment of the larva, to drink in the air 

 and light, Avho points out to it the precise moment at 

 which it ought to tear itself away from the depths of the 

 marsh, adorn itself with its brilliant holiday robe, and 

 launch itself like a bird into the atmosphere 1 



Gall and Camper, who computed the intelligence of 

 mammals according to the proportion of the brain or the 

 facial angle, would have found something also to o1:)serve 

 in insects. It has been remarked, indeed, that the most 

 intelligent among them possess a more centralized nervous 

 system than the others, and a proportionally larger head. 



This observation has been made l)y celelirated physio- 

 logists in respect to l^ees and spiders, which assuredly 

 possess more elevated faculties than any other animals of 

 their tribe. Ratzeburg, indeed, in the magnificent plates 



