LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 117 
life, how different is the first period of its being 
from the second, and both from the parent insect ! 
Its changes are an inexplicable enigma to us: we 
see a green caterpillar, furnished with sixteen feet, 
feeding upon the leaves of a plant ; this is changed 
into a chrysalis, smooth, and of golden lustre, hang- 
ing suspended to a fixed point, without feet, and 
subsisting without food. ‘This insect again under- 
goes another transformation, acquiring wings and six 
feet, and becomes a gay butterfly, sporting in the 
air, and living by suction upon the honey of plants. 
What has Nature produced more worthy of our 
admiration than such an animal coming upon the 
stage of the world, and playing its part there under 
so many different masks ?” 
It is no wonder that mankind were early struck 
with these wonderful phenomena, and that the 
ancients should have considered a butterfly as an 
emblem of the human soul. It has afforded much 
scope for poetry, and served to heighten the beauty 
of allegorical fictions: here is an example of the 
latter :— 
Now on broad pinions from the realms above, 
Descending Cupid seeks the Cyprian grove ; 
To his wide arms enamour’d Psyche springs, 
And clasps her lover in aurelian wings. * 
* Darwin’s Temple of Nature. 
