proportions or whose polish failed to suit the designed place, how much more will the Holy One reject from among his living stones, any one whose dispositions and whose delights are unsuited to the heavenly edifice! In Christ Jesus, Himself being the chief corner-stone, is all the building fitly framed together, and groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord; in whom all who love Him are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

The work is silent, the world heeds it not; or, if it hear, believes not in its reality; or again, if its reality is forced upon its conviction, it puts forth impious hands to pluck it down. But the building grows apace. The eye of God is not withdrawn from his designed and glorious habitation. If each stone of that wondrous work is "living," each instinct with the conscious presence and approbation of the Deity, each a temple for the Holy Spirit to inhabit, what must the grand united and completed temple be? Let not your heart die within you at the thought, as if you never could have an assigned place there. The scarcely living coral insect erects many a palace in the fathomless deep, because his Creator aids him; he applies his powers to that for which they are designed, and prospers; and will not God prosper you, when you apply yourself to do that for which you were bought with a price, namely, to "glorify Him in your body and in your spirit, which are God's ?"

As little will a single Christian, persecuted it may be, or tempted, or at best" faint, yet pursuing," give us a clear idea of the church triumphant, as a single cornice or pillar will represent the Vatican, or the labor of a single coralline enable us to form an idea of the far-extending submarine labors of a colony of these animalcules. Examine the coral insects alone, and suppose each individual to act independently of the rest, and they will appear as nothing. Imagine them departing from their coral cradle, and diverging to right and left at the bottom of the deep, they might toil there till the world had become hoary, they might spread themselves over the sands and rocks, as a carpet of moss is extended over the bosom

of a mountain; but they would not ascend to the surface of the waters; they would form no islands. Or, supposing them building each alone, or in feeble communities, their paltry edifices would be snapt in sunder by every billow, and themselves dispersed, to form other and still feebler settlements in other localities.

This forms too correct a representation of the church militant. Instead of being joined in one spirit to our head, we are subdivided, estranged, imbittered, enfeebled. Instead of having the simple design, which we follow with singleness of heart, to strive for the extension of the edifice, until the whole world produce living stones, we are distracted by some inferior design, which we place foremost, because it is our own, or of our own contriving. Instead of looking steadfastly to Him who is the cornerstone, and aiming to extend his glory to the ends of the earth, our efforts are cramped, and our strength paralyzed by upholding some Apollos or Cephas, who fills so large a section of our vision, as almost to exclude the view of the Redeemer.

Would that men aimed at the simplicity of purpose, and power of combination, which produce such amazing results in the insignificant coralline. Then, how swiftly would that house not made with hands be completed! Then, how many, who are now left unhewn in the quarry, would come forth as living stones! Then, how soon would that glorious consummation be achieved, on which the eye of the Master Builder is set, and "the headstone" of the building be brought forth "with shoutings," of "Grace! grace unto it !" M. G. L. D.

SIXTH WEEK-MONDAY.

INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS.-THEIR COCOONS.-THE SILK

WORM.

THE transformations which terrestrial insects undergo in the course of their existence, have been frequently

alluded to in the preceding volumes; and some of them have been described, in reference to their hybernation and reproduction. The subject, however, is at once copious and interesting; and as this is the season when many of these metamorphoses take place, I willingly recur to it.

The first process to which I shall advert, as connected, in many insects, with these transformations, is that by which they prepare for themselves a shroud of silk for their temporary retreat, during the insensible state into which they are thrown while undergoing their most important changes. It is interesting to observe the various ways in which similar contrivances are adapted by the Creator to the fulfilment of different purposes. The spider, as we have seen, spins and weaves nets to entrap her prey; she also spins cocoons for her eggs; while all the caterpillars of butterflies, of moths, and, in general, of insects with four wings, spin silk of various degrees of fineness and strength, for enveloping their bodies like mummies, while in the chrysalis state.

In order to understand the nature of the apparatus by which a caterpillar spins its silk, it is to be recollected, that its whole interior structure differs from that of warmblooded animals. It has, properly speaking, no heart, though a long tubular vessel, which runs along the back, and beats from twenty to a hundred times in a minute, has been called so. It differs also from the higher orders of animals, in having no brain, the nerves running along the body being only united by little knobs, or ganglions; and no lungs, their office being supplied by eighteen spiracles, situated along the sides. The spinning apparatus is placed near the mouth, and is connected with the silk-bags, which are long, slender, floating vessels, containing a liquid gum. The bags are closed at their extremity, become wider towards the middle, and more slender towards the head, where they unite to form the spinning-tube or spinneret. The bags, being in most cases longer than the body of the caterpillar, necessarily lie in a convoluted state, like the intestines of quadrupeds.

The following observations, by the Abbé de la Pluche, will explain the nature and use of the spinneret :-"You may sometimes have seen, in the work-rooms of goldsmiths or gold-wire-drawers, certain iron plates, pierced with holes of different calibres, through which they draw gold and silver wire, in order to render it finer. The silkworm has, under her mouth, such a kind of instrument, perforated with a pair of holes,* through which she draws two drops of the gum that fills her two bags. The instruments are like a pair of distaffs, for spinning the gum into a silken thread. She fixes the first drop of gum that issues, where she pleases, and then draws back her head, or lets herself fall, while the gum, continuing to flow, is drawn out and lengthened into a double stream. Upon being exposed to the air, it immediately loses its fluidity, becomes dry, and acquires consistence and strength. She is never deceived in adjusting the dimensions of the apertures, or in calculating the proper thickness of the thread, but invariably makes the strength of it proportionable to the weight of her body."+

The silkworm, to a description of which I intend at present to confine myself, like most other moths, changes its skin four times during its growth, at which times it attaches itself, by its silk, to the place where it happens to be reposing, evidently to prevent the accident of wind or other causes from disturbing it while the operation of sloughing proceeds. About ten days after the fourth moulting, before which it has attained its full growth, and subsequent to which it has ceased to eat, and begun to diminish in size, having carefully sought for itself a safe retreat, it commences the operation of spinning itself a shroud. The author above quoted, gives the following description of this operation.

"When my curiosity led me to know how they spun

* These two holes Lyonnet has discovered, on minute inspection, to be united into one. He has also discovered, that the united tube has a power of contraction and expansion, by which the insect can make the silk coarser or finer at pleasure.

+ Spectacle de la Nature, vol. i.

and placed their beautiful silk, I took one of them, and frequently removed the floss with which it first attempted to make itself a covering; and, as by this means I weakened it exceedingly, when it at last became tired of beginning anew, it fastened its threads on the first thing it encountered, and began to spin very regularly in my presence, bending its head up and down, and crossing on every side. It soon confined its movements to a very contracted space, and, by degrees, entirely surrounded itself with silk, and the remainder of its operations became invisible, though these may be understood, from examining the work after it is finished. In order to complete the structure, it must draw out of the gum-bag a more delicate silk, and then, with a stronger gum, bind all the inner threads over one another.

“Here, then, are three coverings, entirely different, which afford a succession of shelter. The outer loose silk, or floss, is for keeping out the rain; the fine silk, in the middle, prevents the wind from causing injury; and the glued silk, which composes the tapestry of the chamber where the insect lodges, repels both air and water, and prevents the intrusion of cold.

"After building her cocoon, she divests herself of her fourth skin, and is transformed into a chrysalis, and subsequently into a moth, (Bombyx mori,) when, without saw or centre-bit, she makes her way through the shell, the silk, and the floss; for the Being who teaches her how to build herself a place of rest, where the delicate limbs of the moth may be formed without interruption, instructs her also how to open a passage to escape."

After giving some further minute particulars, the Abbé thus describes the change from the state of a chrysalis to that of a moth :-" Its nourishment is already in its stomach, and consists of a yellowish mucus, but gradually the rudiments of the moth unfold themselves, the wings, the antennæ, and the legs, becoming solid. In about a fortnight or three weeks, a slight swelling in the chrysalis may be remarked, which at length produces

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