60 



IMETAMOEPHOSES. 



Go sip the rose's fragrant dew. 



The lily's honeyed cup explore, 

 From flower to flower the search renew 



And rifle all the woodbine's store : 



And let me trace thy vagrant flight, 



Thy moments too of short repose. 

 And mark thee then with fresh delight 



Thy golden pinions ope and close. 



But hark ! whilst thus I musing stand, 



Pours on the gale an airy note, 

 And breathing from a viewless band, 



Soft silvery tones around me float ! 



— They cease — but still a voice I hear, 



A whisper'd voice of hope and joy, 

 " Thy hour of rest approaches near, 



" Prepare thee, mortal ! — thou must die ! 



" Yet start not ! — on thy closing eyes 



" Another day shall still unfold, 

 *' A sun of milder radiance rise, 



" A happier age of joys untold. 



" Shall the poor worm that shocks thy sight. 



*' The humblest form in nature's train, 

 " Thus rise in new-born lustre bright, 



" And yet the emblem teach in vain ? 



" Ah ! where were once her golden eyes, 

 " Her glittering wings of purple pride ? 



" Concealed beneath a rude disguise, 

 " A shapeless mass to earth allied. 



*' Like thee the hapless reptile lived, 

 " Like thee he toil'd, like thee he spun, 



" Like thine his closing hour arrived, 

 " His labour ceased, his web was done. 



" And shalt thou, number'd with the dead, 



" No happier state of being know ? 

 " And shall no future morrow shed 



" On thee a beam of brighter glow ? ' 



" Is this the bound of power divine, 



" To animate an insect frame ? 

 " Or shall not He who moulded thine 



" Wake at his will the vital flame ? 



" Go, mortal ! in thy reptile state, 



" Enough to know to thee is given ; 

 " Go, and the joyful truth relate ; 



" Frail child of earth ! high heir of heaven !" 



A question here naturally presents itself — Why are in- 

 sects subject to these changes? For what end is it that, 

 instead of preserving, like other animals the same general 



1 A few vertebrate animals, viz. frogs, toads, and newts, undergo metamor- 

 phoses in some respects analogous to those of insects ; their first form as tadpoles 

 being very diflTerent from that which they afterwards assume. These reptiles, 



