MULTUM IN PARVO. 
113 
All this seems clear, does it not ? The ancient mystery has perished ? 
Man has discovered, in its fulness, the secret of things ? 
Reaumur does not think so; Reaumur himself, who has guided us 
so far. In recording his observations he does not appear satisfied, and 
confesses “ that they still leave very much to be desired.”* 
In truth, it is a thing to confound and almost to terrify the imagi¬ 
nation, to think that a grub, at the outset no bigger than a thread, 
should include in itself all the elements of its moultings and meta¬ 
morphoses ; should contain its triple, and even octuple envelopes; nay 
more, the sheath or case of its nympha and its complete butterfly, all 
folded up one in another, with an immense apparatus of vessels, respira¬ 
tory and digestive, of nerves for feeling and muscles for moving! A 
prodigious system of anatomy! first traced out in complete detail in 
Lyonnet’s colossal work on the willow-grub. The twofold monster, 
endowed with a strong grub-stomach for the destruction of innumer¬ 
able hard leaves, will possess ere long a light and delicate apparatus 
for extracting the honey of flowers. And yet the clothed creature, 
which contains in its organism a complete silk-manufactory, will almost 
immediately sweep away the complex system. 
One knows the gentle manoeuvres by which nature conducts the 
young of the higher animals from the embryonic existence to the 
independent life, adapting the old organs to new functions. Here, this 
is not done. It is not a simple change of condition. The destination 
is not merely different, but contrary, with a violent contrast. There¬ 
fore, instruments fitted for an entirely novel existence are required, and 
the abolition and definitive sacrifice of the primitive organism. 
The revolution, which for all other beings is so well concealed, is here 
entirely thrown open. And we are enabled to scrutinize with our eyes 
this astonishing tour de force in numerous grubs which undergo the 
great change in the light of day, suspended to the branch of a tree by 
a silken cable. 
The effort is worthy of our admiration and pity. To see yonder 
nymph, short and feeble, soft and gelatinous, without arms or paws, 
contriving, by the skill with which it expands and contracts its rings, 
* Reaumur, “ Histoire des Insectes,” tome i., p. 351. 
