236 



THE HAWTHORN. 



ful, for Solomon himself has referred us to the 

 insect world for wisdom,* as a wiser than he has 

 directed our attention to the vegetable. When, 

 therefore, in the bright joyous days of June, we 

 see so common an object as a white butterfly flit 

 by us, we may reflect with advantage on the 

 period of difficulty and danger, of watching and 

 painstaking, that it completed before it passed 

 into its grave — the chrysalis, soon to emerge 

 endued with a new body, new appetites, and new 

 powers. Is it presumption to say that God has 

 so ordered its ways that it might furnish us with 

 an example not merely of worldly, but of heavenly 

 prudence ? I believe not : the devotional and 

 faithful observer of the objects of sense sees in 

 all the works of Nature the works of God, and 

 must not be condemned if he can derive from the 

 few, which he is permitted to a limited degree to 

 comprehend, inducements to prepare himself for 

 his own approaching change, with the patience, 

 industry, and watchfulness of an insect, which, 

 obedient to the dictates of instinct, has completed 

 the grovelling stage of its existence, as God in- 

 tended that it should, and has reached its desti- 

 nation. And, after all, the poor worm had only 

 instinct for its guide, and its perfect state was 

 but a butterfly's life. We have reason and 

 Revelation, and the Holy Spirit, for our guides, 

 and our perfect state is for eternity ; yet how 

 many of us would reverse the order of God's 

 Providence, and are bent on leading the butter- 

 fly's life flrst ! 



* "Go to tlie ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise."- 

 Prov. vi. 6. 



