those of insects, whose multiplication is prodigious, and affords a very great quantity of organized matter for the nourishment and support of almost every animated being. Thus, from the apparent vilest and most contemptible species of matter, the richest productions derive their origin. The most beautiful flowers, the most exquisite fruits, and the most useful grain, all proceed from the bosom of corruption. The earth is continually bestowing fresh gifts upon us; and her powers would soon be exhausted, if what she perpetually gives were not perpetually restored to her. It is a law of Nature, that all organized bodies should be decomposed, and gradually transformed into earth. While undergoing this species of dissolution, their more volatile particles pass into the air, and are diffused through the atmosphere. Thus animals, at least portions of them, are buried in the air, as well as in the earth, or in water. These floating particles soon enter into the composition of new organized beings, who are themselves destined to undergo the same revolutions. This circulation of organized matter has continued since the commencement of the world, and will proceed in the same course till its final destruction. With regard to the intentions of Nature in changing forms, a complete investigation of them exceeds the powers of human research. One great intention, from the examples above enumerated, cannot escape observation. In the animal world, every successive change is a new approach to the perfection of the individuals. Men, and the larger animals, some time after the age of puberty, remain stationary, and continue to multiply their species for periods proportioned to their respective species. When these periods terminate, they gradually decay till their final dissolution. The same observation is applicable to the insect tribes, whose trans formations strike us with wonder. The caterpillar repeatedly moults, or casts its skin. The butterfly existed originally in the body of the caterpillar; but the organs of the fly were too soft, and not sufficiently unfolded. It remains unfit to encounter the open air, or to perform the functions of a perfect animal, till some time after its transformation into a chrysalis. It then bursts through its envelope, arrives at a state of perfection, multiplies its species, and dies. All the changes in the vegetable kingdom tend to the same point. In the process of growing, they are perpetually changing forms till they produce fruit, and then they decay. Some plants, like caterpillars, go through all their transformations, death not excepted, in one year. But others, like man and the larger animals, beside the common changes produced by growth and the evolution of different organs, continue for many years in a state of perfection before the periods of decay and of dissolution arrive. But these perennial plants undergo, every year, all the vicissitudes of the annuals. They every year increase in magnitude, send forth new leaves and branches, ripen and disseminate their seeds, and, during winter, remain in a torpid state, or suffer a temporary death. With respect to man in particular, it might be inquired, why he is confined to so very short a period of existence here, whose intellectual attainments seem to be too vast, his ambition too exalted, to perish for ever? He undergoes a momentary change; he perishes for a season; to him, who improves his powers, and perseveres in the paths of piety and virtue, is promised another and more glorious transformation-a resurrection to immortal life and everlasting joy. I shall conclude this Paper by observing, that to some of the preceding observations nothing can be more applicable than the awful reflections of Dr. Young: Lorenzo! such the glories of the world! What is the world itself? Thy world-a grave. The spade, the plough, disturb our ancestors; From human mould we reap our daily bread. The globe around earth's hollow surface shakes, No. XXXVII. ON THE BEAUTY AND VARIETY OF Behold! ye pilgrims of this earth, behold! THOMSON. AMID the vast profusion of beautiful objects in the creation, no one seems more admirably formed to attract the attention of a Contemplative Philoso pher, than the Papilio or Butterfly. The beauty of this insect, the splendour and astonishing variety of its colours, its elegant form, its sprightly air, with its roving and fluttering life, all unite to captivate the least observant eye. A collection of butterflies, such as that in the British Museum, or in Mr. Bullock's Museum, is a spectacle for the most philosophic mind. These insects, indeed, seem to vie with each other in beauty of tints and elegance of shape. The butterflies of China, and particularly those of America, on the river Amazon, are remarkable for their size, and for the richness and vivid lustre of their colours. Nor is it too bold an assertion, perhaps, that the butterflies of these hot climates afford instances of the most perfect art of colouring that even Deity itself can produce. But no description can be adequate to that of which the sight alone can form a competent idea. Hence, in the oriental countries, where the butterfly is so much larger and more beautiful than ours, it is no wonder, that it forms a principal ornament of their poetry. To this superiority, as well as to the evanescent and fragile splendour of the butterfly, Lord Byron alludes in the following exquisite simile: As rising on its purple wing The insect queen of eastern spring, The blue-winged butterfly of Kashmeer, the most rare and beautiful of the species. If won, to equal ills betrayed, With wounded wing, or bleeding breast, From rose to tulip as before? Or Beauty, blighted in an hour, Nature, in these insects, seems to have been fond to sport in the artificial mixture and display of her most radiant treasures. In some, what elaborate harmony of colouring, what brilliancy of tints, what soft and gradual transitions from one to another! In the wings of others we may observe the lustre and variety of all the colours of gold, and silver, and azure, and mother of pearl; the eyes that sparkle on the peacock's tail; the edges bordered with shining silks and furbelows, the blended dies of Hungary point, and the magnificence of the richest fringe. In China, the finest and most extraordinary of these insects are sent to court, and applied to the decorations of the emperor's palace. But with whatever admiration we view this beautiful insect with the naked eye, how greatly is the admiration augmented, when we examine it through the microscope! Would an uninformed |