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PREFACE. 



In the Preface to the first volume of this monograph, I, among other matters, gave a slight reference to the 

 labour and difficulties with which I had to contend in my desire to bring some small contribution to the commonwealth 

 of Natural Science. Now that the work is virtually completed, I may confess that those difficulties, and the labour, 

 have not been much diminished — it was not likely that they would be. During the 17 years since its commencement 

 the interruptions and impediments have been many and varied ; and though it has been my chief and almost 

 entire occupation, other work had to be accomplished also. This special task however has given me much 

 pleasure as well as anxiety, and my " Icones " has been a greater inspiration to me than any so-called sacred Icons 

 could be to the people of the East, and, I trust, will be much more useful. 



My chief desire (as I said in the first volume) has ever been, and, I hope, will ever be, not personal profit (that 

 was not probable) or aggrandisement (that was most unlikely) for such a humble enterprise, but to leave something 

 behind me that might be useful in making more fully known a few of the crystalised thoughts of God — of the creatures 

 which, though they, together with a vast host of other creatures, take a comparatively low rank in the continents of life, 

 are yet so entrancingly lovely that we are often asking ourselves, how inconceivably beautiful must be the Being who 

 thinks and designs as He does ? 



For the completion of this work I desire to render grateful thanks to the Friend of all friends, Who has enabled 

 me to succeed thus far ; and while each volume is dedicated to a greater disciple of Zoological science than I can ever 

 be in this world, my most heartfelt dedication is to Him who created the lovely objects of which these volumes treat, 

 and also the grateful writer and illustrator of them. I am abundantly conscious of many defects in this work. If I had 

 to do it all over again, I feel sure I could greatly improve it, and many regrettable blemishes would be removed ; it 

 would also be made a better and more exhaustive production, both textual and illustrative, especially if my resources 

 were to become more ample than they have been, But the present results must be accepted for what they are, and not 

 what they ought to have been. Our best efforts are only feeble attempts to grasp infinite perfection ; and the greatest 

 artists and masters of the world have always been most dissatisfied with the results of their labours ; for all art and 

 science, even the most advanced, are only provisional, a compromise — a step towards the unimaginable glory of a 

 vaster life than this, where our capacities will be unfolding more and more without end. 



It is my hope and prayer that whoever looks at the figures of the butterflies portrayed in the hundred or more 

 plates of this book, irrespective of the scientific or critical feeling, they may be inspired to feel like the Hebrew 

 anthologist when he wrote " For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised . . . Honour and majesty are before 

 Him ; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name." Of all the 

 Naturalists of the world before the Christian era, David was the greatest and most inspired ; for the earth and the 

 heavens with all their glory appealed to him as they appeal even now to few people, as revelations of the wonderful 

 mind of God, and often so entranced his contemplative mind, that it could only find partial relief in the many sublime 

 utterances which are now common treasures to us all In this respect and in his love to God, despite his great faults, 

 David was, like Job and others, a man after God's own heart. May we be able, as he was, to say, " O God, Thou hast 

 taught me from my youth : and hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works. Now also, when I am old and grey- 

 headed, O God, forsake me not ; till I have shewn Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to everyone that 

 is to come." " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed be His glorious name 

 for ever ; and let the whole earth be filled with His glory." 



David, Asaph, Ethan and others could see how well dressed all God's creatures are ; and we who think of the 

 matter can feel an inspiration also in the contemplation of this fact. But One, infinitely greater than they or we, who 

 ages after stood in the same Holy Land, with gentle and authoritative voice proclaimed to the whole world and to all 

 future ages : " Consider the lillies how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin, yet I say unto you that Solomon 

 in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God so clothe the grass of the field .... how much more will he 

 clothe you, O ye of little faith." If I might reverentially venture to paraphrase the foregoing words of One Who spake 

 as never man spake, I would point to these Ornithopterous gems, and say, " Consider the Butterflies how joyfully 



