52 
INTRODUCTION. 
they are doubtless deserving of this preference. 
Their wings are augmented to a size that seems 
quite disproportioned to that of the body, as if na- 
ture had wished to enlarge the surface on which she 
was to employ her pencil, that it might admit of 
more varied and profuse decoration. Even the un- 
der face of the wings, contrary to what is observed 
in other flying animals, is usually as much adorned 
as the surface, and often in an entirely different man- 
ner. Each wing, therefore, presents what may he 
called two different pictures. No kind of ornament 
found among other insects is omitted in this favoured 
tribe; and so many new modes of embellishment are 
employed, that Nature seems to have made them the 
objects of her peculiar care, and designed them, as 
has been remarked by the learned and pious Ray, 
for the adornment of the universe, and to form de- 
lightful objects for the contemplation of man, bear- 
ing conspicuous marks of the hand of a Divine Art- 
ist. * 
The habits of these insects are well fitted to con- 
firm the preference we assign to their beauty. Un- 
like many others of this class, which delight to riot 
among substances most offensive to our senses, or 
* Usub Papilionum — ad ornatum universi, ct ut liomi- 
nibus spectaculo sint ; ad rura illustranda velut tot brac- 
tese inservientes. Quis enim eximiam earum pulchritudi- 
nem et varietatem contemplans mira voluptate non afficia- 
tur ? Quis tot colorum et schematum elegantias nature? 
siiis d ivinaj artis vestigia eis impressa non agnoscat etmi- 
retur? — Kan, Hist. Insect. 109. 
