aleable by the ton, like the cochineal
insects, and that, commercially speaking, they are just worth nothing at
all, excepting the few paltry pence or shillings that the dealer gets for
their little dried bodies occasionally; so they are of no more use than
poetry, painting, and music--than flowers, rainbows, and all such {34}
unbusinesslike things. In fact, I have nothing to say in the butterfly's
favour, except that it is a joy to the deep-minded and to the
simple-hearted, to the sage, and, still better, to the child--that it gives
an earnest of a better world, not vaguely and generally, as does every
"thing of beauty," but with clearest aim and purpose, through one of the
most strikingly perfect and beautiful analogies that we can find throughout
that vast Creation, where--

"All animals are living hieroglyphs."[5]

The butterfly, then, in its own progressive stages of caterpillar,
chrysalis, and perfect insect, is an emblem of the human soul's progress
through earthly life and death, to heavenly life.

Even the ancient Greeks, with their imperfect lights, recognised this
truth, when they gave the same name, Psyche ([Greek: Psuche]), to the soul,
or spirit of life, and to the butterfly, and sculptured over the effigy of
one dead the figure of a butterfly, floating away, as it were, in his
breath; while poets of all nations have since followed up the simile.

And this analogy is not only a mere general resemblance, but holds good
through its minute details to a marvellous extent; to trace which fully
would require volumes, while in this place the slightest sketch only can be
given.

First, there is the grovelling caterpillar-state, {35} emblematical of our
present imperfection, but yet the state of preparation and increase towards
perfection, and that, too, which largely influences the future existence.

Many troubles and changes are the lot of the caterpillar. Repeated
skin-shiftings and ceaseless industry in his vocation are necessary, that
within his set time he may attain full growth and vigour.

Then comes a mighty change: the caterpillar is to exchange his worm-like
form and nature for an existence unspeakably higher and better. But, as we
have seen, to arrive at this glory there is only one condition, which is,
that the creature must pass through another, and, as it might seem, a
gloomy state--one anything but cheerful to contemplate; for it must cease
to eat, to move, and--_to the eye_--_to live_. Yet,