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INTRODUCTION. 
and the perfect animal, the renovated body when it 
rises from the tomb to enter upon a more exalted 
state of existence. “ But although the analogy be- 
tween the different states of insects and those of the 
body of man is only general, yet it is much more com- 
plete with respect to his soul. He first appears in 
this frail body, a child of the earth, a crawling worm, 
his soul being in a course of training and prepara- 
tion for a more perfect and glorious existence. When 
it has finished this course, it casts off this vile body, 
and goes into a hidden state of being in Hades, 
where it rests from its works, and is prepared for its 
final consummation. The time for this being ar- 
rived, it comes forth with a glorious body, not like 
its former, though germinating from it ; for though 
“ it was sown an animal body, it shall be raised a 
spiritual body,” endowed with augmented powers, 
faculties, and privileges, commensurate to its new 
and happy state. And here the parallel holds per- 
fectly true between the insect and the man. The 
butterfly, the representative of the soul, is prepared 
in the larva for its future state of glory ; and if it 
be not destroyed by the ichneumons, and other ene- 
mies to which it is exposed, symbolical of the vices 
that destroy the spiritual life of the soul, it will come 
to its state of repose in the pupa, which is its Hades ; 
and at length, when it assumes the imago, break 
forth with new powers and beauty to its final glory 
and reign of love. So that in this view of the sub- 
ject, well might the Italian poet exclaim, 
