Nay, the very colours of caterpillars are, as one has observed, very elegant and beautiful I shall, for a taste of the rest, describe one of them; which I will, some time the next month, shew you feeding on a willow-tree; and you shall find him punctually to answer this very description: his lips and mouth somewhat yellow; his eyes black as jet; his forehead purple; his feet and hinder parts green; his tail two-forked and black; the whole body stained with a kind of red spots, which run along the neck and shoulder-blade, not unlike the form of St. Andrew's cross, or the letter X, made thus crosswise, and a white line drawn down his back to his tail; all which add much beauty to his whole body. And it is to me observable, that at a fixed age this caterpillar gives over to eat, and towards winter comes to be covered over with a strange shell or crust, called an aurelia; and so lives a kind of dead life, without eating all the winter. And as others of several kinds turn to be several kinds of flies and vermin, the Spring following; so this caterpillar then turns to be a painted butterfly.
Come, come, my scholar, you see the river stops our morning walk: and I will also here stop my discourse: only as we sit down under this honeysuckle hedge, whilst I look a line to fit the rod that our brother Peter hath lent you, I shall, for a little confirmation of what I have said, repeat the observation of Du Bartas:
God, not contented to each kind to give And to infuse the virtue generative, Made, by his wisdom, many creatures breed Of lifeless bodies, without Venus' deed.
So, the cold humour breeds the Salamander, Who, in effect, like to her birth's commander, With child with hundred winters, with her touch Quencheth the fire, tho'glowing ne'er so much.
So of the fire, in burning furnace, springs The fly Pyrausta with the flaming wings: Without the fire, it dies: within it joys, Living in that which each shine else destroys.
So, slow Boôtes underneath him sees In th' icy isles those goslings hatch'd of trees; Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water, Are turn'd, they say, to living fowls soon after.
So, rotten sides of broken ships do change To barnacles. O transformation strange! 'Twas first a green tree; then, a gallant hull; Lately a mushroom; now, a flying gull.