52 Beautiful Butterflies. 



" Behold ! ye pilgrims of the earth, behold ! 

 See, all but man with unearned pleasure gay ; 

 See her bright robes the Butterfly unfold, 

 Broke from her wintry tomb in prime of day, " 

 What youthful bride can equal her array ? 

 Who can with her for easy pleasure vie ? 

 From mead to mead with gentle wings to stray, 

 From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly, 

 Is all she has to do beneath the radiant sky." 



Leaving unquoted those fanciful lines by Roscoe — 

 < The Butterfly's Ball/ and ' The Butterfly's Funeral/ 

 with which many of my readers must be familiar, as 

 well as other Butterfly poems which I have at hand, I 

 will conclude this Introductory Chapter with some 

 lines by the quaker poet, Bernard Barton, who thus 

 addresses the bright insect — 



Beautiful creature, I have been 



Moments uncounted watching thee, 

 Now flitting round the foliage green 



Of yonder dark, embowering tree ; 

 And now again in frolic glee, 



Hov'ring around those opening flowers, 

 Happy as nature's child should be, 



Born to enjoy her loveliest bowers. 



And I have gazed upon thy flight, 



Till feelings I can scarce define, 

 Awakened by so fair a sight, 



With desultory thoughts combine 



