What has nature produced more worthy of our admiration? Such
an animal coming upon the stage of the world, and playing its part there
under so many different masks! In the egg of the Papilio, the epidermis
or external integument falling off, a caterpillar is disclosed; the
second epidermis drying, and being detached, it is a chrysalis; and the
third, a butterfly. It should seem that the ancients were so struck with
the transformations of the butterfly, and its revival from a seeming
temporary death, as to have considered it an emblem of the soul, the
Greek word _psyche_ signifying both the soul and a butterfly. This is
also confirmed by their allegorical sculptures, in which the butterfly
occurs as an emblem of immortality." Swammerdam, speaking of the
metamorphosis of insects, uses these strong words: "This process is
formed in so remarkable a manner in butterflies, that we see therein the
resurrection painted before our eyes, and exemplified so as to be
examined by our hands." "There is no one," says Paley, "who does not
possess some particular train of thought, to which the mind naturally
directs itself, when left entirely to its own operations. It is certain
too, that the choice of this train of thinking may be directed to
different ends, and may appear to be more or less judiciously fixed, but
in a _moral view_, if one train of thinking be more desirable than
another, it is that which regards phenomena of nature with a constant
reference to a supreme intelligent Author.
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