NOTES ON BUTTEKFLIES. 
57 
longed artificially for weeks. Nature’s great object being the 
continuation of the species, life is prolonged in the hope of so 
doing. Then if allowed its liberty it still seeks its mate ; and 
perhaps this accounts for the hibernation of such specimens as 
are the earliest every year ; creeping out with faded glories, to 
try if they can accomplish their destiny, which was not fulfilled 
before the winter. 
Having settled their eggs on the chosen plant, the 
parent butterfly never sees them come to maturity : a fair 
lesson for faith to rejoice in. Trust may never be felt by the 
insect, but is evidently taught us through it. And how won- 
derful is the destined change of the eggs it trusts, while itself 
will not be there to watch ! At all times the glorious change 
from a first stage of grub or caterpillar, through the trance-like 
sleep of the chrysalis, into the joyous creature that might well 
be called a “ flutter-by,” has been a theme for poets and 
philosophers. 
