62 



METAMORPHOSES. 



out against this hypothesis, yet I think none that would not 

 admit of a plausible answer. To these it is foreign to my 

 purpose now to attend, and I shall conclude this letter by 

 pointing out to you the variety of new relations which this 

 arrangement introduces into nature. One individual unites 

 in itself, in fact, three species, whose modes of existence are 

 often as different as those of the most distantly related animals 

 of other tribes. The same insect often lives successively in 

 three or four worlds. It is an inhabitant of the water during 

 one period ; of the earth during another ; and of the air 

 during a third ; and fitted for its various abodes by new 

 organs and instruments, and a new form in each. Think (to 

 use an illustration of Bonnet) but of the cocoon of the silk- 

 worm ! How many hands, how many machines does not 

 this little ball put into motion ! Of what riches should we 

 not have been deprived, if the moth of the silkworm had 

 been born a moth, without having been previously a cater- 

 pillar ! The domestic economy of a large portion of mankind 

 would have been formed on a plan altogether different from 

 that which now prevails. 



I am, &c. 



