The food of the caterpillar is gross and solid, and even this it is obliged to earn with much labour and danger; but, when freed as it were from the jaws of death, and arrived at its perfect form, the purest nectar is its potion, and the air its element. It was supplied with coarse food, in the first state, by the painful operation of its teeth, which was afterwards digested by a violent trituration of the stomach. The intestines are now formed in a more delicate manner, and suited to a more pure and elegant aliment, which nature has prepared for its use from the most fragrant and beautiful flowers. Many internal parts of the caterpillar disappear in the chrysalis, and many that could not be perceived before, are now rendered visible: the interior changes are not less surprizing than those of the exterior form, and are, properly speaking, creative of them; for it is from these the exterior form originates, and with these it always corresponds. In a word, the creature that heretofore crept upon the earth, now flies freely through the air; and far from creating our aversion by its frightful prickles and foul appearance, it attracts our notice by the most elegant shape and apparel, and, from being scarce able to move from one shrub to another, acquires strength and agility to tower far above the tallest inhabitant of the forest. OF THE SILK-WORM. The industry of those that spin cones or cases, in which they inclose themselves, in order to prepare for their transformation in security, is more generally known, as it is from one species of these that we derive so many benefits, namely from the silk-worm, whose works afford an ornament for greatness, and add magnificence to royalty. All caterpillars undergo similar changes with it, and many in the butterfly state greatly exceed it in beauty: but the golden tissue, in which the silk-worm wraps itself, far surpasses the silky threads of all the other kinds; they may indeed come forth with a variety of colours, and wings bedecked with gold and scarlet, yet they are but the beings of a summer’s day; both their life and beauty quickly vanish, and leave no remembrance after them; but the silk-worm leaves behind it such beneficial monuments, as at once record the wisdom of its Creator, and his bounty to man.[70] [70] Pullein on the Culture of Silk.