48 



METAMORPHOSES. 



behold it. At its first exclusion from the egg, and for some 

 months of its existence afterwards, it was a worm-like cater- 

 pillar, crawling upon sixteen short legs, greedily devouring 

 leaves with two jaws, and seeing by means of twelve eyes so 

 minute as to be nearly imperceptible without the aid of a 

 microscope. You now view it furnished with wings capable 

 of rapid and extensive flights : of its sixteen feet ten have 

 disappeared, and the remaining six are in most respects 

 wholly unlike those to which they have succeeded ; its jaws 

 have vanished, and are replaced by a curled-up proboscis 

 suited only for sipping liquid sweets ; the form of its head 

 is entirely changed, — two long horns project from its upper 

 surface; and, instead of twelve invisible eyes, you behold 

 two, very large, and composed of at least seventeen thousand 

 convex lenses, each supposed to be a distinct and elFective 

 eye ! 



Were you to push your examination further, and by dis- 

 section to compare the internal conformation of the caterpillar 

 with that of the butterfly, you would witness changes even 

 more extraordinary. In the former you would find some 

 thousands of muscles, which in the latter are replaced by 

 others of a form and structure entirely diflerent. Nearly the 

 whole body of the caterpillar is occupied by a capacious 

 stomach. In the butterfly this has become converted into an 

 almost imperceptible thread-like viscus ; and the abdomen is 

 now filled by two large packets of eggs, or other organs not 

 visible in the first state. In the former, two spirally-convo- 

 luted tubes were filled with a silky gum ; in the latter, both 

 tubes and silk have almost totally vanished ; and changes 

 equally great have taken place in the economy and structure 

 of the nerves and other organs. 



What a surprising transformation ! Nor was this all. The 

 change from one form to the other was not direct. An in- i 

 termediate state not less singular intervened. After casting 

 its skin even to its very jaws several times, and attaining its 

 full growth, the caterpillar attached itself to a leaf by a 

 silken girth. Its body greatly contracted: its skin once 

 more split asunder, and disclosed an oviform mass, without 

 exterior mouth, eyes, or limbs, and exhibiting no other 



