Of the Metamorphoses of ANIMALS, and the several Changes observable in ANIMAL LIFE.
BUT the most complete, and at the same time the most universal of all these metamorphoses is that wherein the animal appears in four several shapes: which is the case with much the greatest part of the winged inhabitants of the air of the infect tribe; some of which in their different states have been by turns tenants of earth, air, and water. Endless would it be to enumerate all the various genera of infects who undergo these changes. We shall therefore content ourselves, as in the last case, with only mentioning one of each sort, viz. Of those whose origin is water, and of those whose rise is from the earth.
Of the first, let the common gnat be taken for our example. This little delicate tender insect, which the gentlest touch will destroy, the least breath of wind waft upon its bosom, and the least drop of rain buries in its waves, yet first sees existence in that rough and turbulent element the water. There it is the parent lays her egg, which is hatched by some means we can little comprehend, (for heat can have no influence at the bottom of the water) comes out a little groveling worm, minute and unobservable; changing from this, however, it soon arises towards the surface of the water, where, hanging suspended on an air-bubble, no bad emblem of the general dependence of human affairs, it passes thro’ a thousand fluctuations; now hurried onwards by the rapid power of tides, or the uncertain gust of winds varying at every moment, and now gliding smoothly on the calm even surface of a glassy dream, till at length seizing on the happy moment for deliverance from this suspence, it drops the slough which now envelops it, and mounting into air, quits and disdains alike its helpless state of infancy, and its precarious anxious situation when brought to somewhat more apparent ripeness. Reflect on this, oh man, and think what art thou but a poor insect, crushed before the moth!
As to the land metamorphosis of this compleatest kind, we need go no further to illustrate it, than to that useful animal the silk-worm, as he is perhaps the most perfect of this class of insects. His first state is, as that of all others of his kind, the egg. From this he issues a small black maggot, which, after having shifted many various coats, and increased his bulk to upwards of a thousand times its original size, weaves out of his own bowels a silken monument in which he lies interred for a short space, and then sallies forth an elegant fly, compleat in every part, and as different from the worm it sprung from as fire from earth, or any the most pure can be from the grossest being. In this most perfect state, he ranges through creation, seems to be diverted even of the necessities of nature (for in the fly-state none of those creatures take any food) and in short appears to be transformed into a perfect sylph, destined to nothing but the perpetuating of its species, which being once insured, it resigns its life as no longer worth the preservation.
To the first class of these changes may be referred every one of the gnat, midge, dragon-fly, and ichneumon class; and to the latter all the fly, moth, and butterfly species. Were we to enter into particulars, the detail would be endless. This sketch, however, may suffice to turn the soul of man to a reflection on the vicissitude and fluctuation of his own state, and to remind him that after the alterations he meets with in this life, which only lead him to that state of insensibility, that even the minutest insect seems obliged to pass thro’ ere it can reach its limited degree of perfection; there must be some final state superior to them all, and which, with him, has the advantage denied to these symbols of his happiness, that it shall last to all eternity.
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