98 



The Naturalist. 



apparently, as it can do nothing but "wriggle," and sometimes has 

 not the small satisfaction of being able to do even that. 



The instincts of the butterfly impel it to struggle from its pupa 

 case, to fly, to feed, to bask in the sunshine, to hide from the storm, 

 to seek for its own kind, and perpetuate its species — and what else ? 

 Nothing. 



Let me here remark, parenthetically, that it was a beautiful idea of 

 the Greeks to embody their belief in the existence of the souls of the 

 departed by the sculpture of a butterfly on their memorial tablets. 

 A more advanced but less poetical people has adopted a death's head 

 and crossbones as the most fitting emblems for the consolation of 

 the living ! 



It may be supposed that a butterfly, a creature all life and activity, 

 is possessed of a greater amount of intellection than a caterpillar 

 with comparatively such limited powers ; but the instincts of the 

 butterfly must necessarily exist, although latent, in the caterpillar, as 

 in changing its form it does not alter its identity ; and I see no 

 reason to suppose that in its final state of existence it displays more 

 intellectual capacity than it did before. And when we consider that 

 the same being has been possessed, at different periods of its life, of 

 entirely different instincts, powers, and capabilities, we are led to 

 enquire, with a curiosity difficult to satisfy, how far does self- 

 consciousness extend ? How far does memory reach ? Has the 

 insect in the one stage of its existence, any inkling of the future 

 before it 1 or has the imago, the perfect insect, any recollection of its 

 previous condition ? Probably not, but I imagine it would be difficult 

 to prove it an impossibility. 



Paley, in his " Natural Theology," when writing on the metamor- 

 phoses of insects, puts forward the hypothesis " that in the grub 

 there exist at the same time three animals, one within another, all 

 nourished by the same digestion and by a communicating circulation, 

 but in different stages of maturity." This solution I venture to 

 submit is not satisfactory. If for the term " grub " we substitute 

 " egg " (and certainly what exists in one must exist in the other), the 

 difficulty is still more apparent. Altogether, this explanation of the 

 mysteries of transformation appears to me to be one of those that 

 create a greater difficulty in getting rid of a less ; and I am quite at 

 a loss to understand in what sense the caterpillar, the chrysalis, and 

 the butterfly can be considered as " three animals." 



I have not been able to ascertain that the sex of the future butterfly 



