Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-03-29
Change in Life.

The butterfly lays an egg. This
egg, aside from its protecting enyel-
opes, is the germ of a new being
After a time it is hatched and comes
forth as a little worm-like caterpillar.
This eats voraciously, grows rapidly,
and ends its larval existence by cast
ing its skin, and changing as to form,
appearance, and habits so as to be-
come pupa or chrysalis, which nei-
ther eats nor moves. But under the
brown skin wonderful change occurs ;
in place of thick and horny jaws there
comes long and tubular tongue; the
enormous reservoir of masticated
leaves dwindles into a slender stom-
ach which Graves only honey; broad
wings appear upon the shoulders, the
legs increase in length, delicate hairs
are formed upon the surface; and all
at once, after an interval of apparent
death, these and many other transfer.
nations are disclosed by the splitting
Of the pupa skin and the resurrection,
so to speak, of the insect under the
form of butterfly: and this, by lay
ing its eggs, sets in motion again the
same wonderful cycle of changes,
which to the Greeks seemed to typify
the birth and death of the body and
the resurrection Of the immortal soul ;
| for Psvche was one of their names for
the butterfly.
Again, at a given hour to-day, each
of US is in certain condition Of body.
Tomorrow we see no change with
the eye, but one has occurred ; we have
lost hair from the head or beard, or
our morning bath has cost US a few
effete branny scales of the outer skin
and this loss, were it but single hair
or a single scale, is an alI-suficient
cause of a difference between to day
and yesterday.
From the surface Of the sun and
the crust OF our globe to the drop o.
protopla5m that circulateS In the one
celled plant, all is motion; and mo
ton implies a change of position al
least. and that of molecular relation
which is the simplest form of structu
raj differentiation. Motion is the vi
tai process, and time the physical con
dition under which it is carried on
and the two together give US in more
or less definite divisions all that VIZ
/ call seasons and epochs and ages anC
states.
The riddle Of the Sphinx, which
only E lipuS was able to solve, ha;
been er atty improved upon by mod
ern comparative anatomy; for, no
| confined to going first upon four, theI
upon two, and finally upon three legs
man is by some believed to be the an
imal which, as the head and archetypC
of all inferior species, actually repre-
sents them all in his Development
the several stages through and beyond
which he passes typifying the states
which the various species reach, anC
in which they remain.
All men are born, and we all mus
die; birth implies death, and both ep
ochs are attended with marked chang
es in all the vital processes; it is tn,
beginning of respiration which an
nounces the birth, and the cessation
Of it which marks the legal death o
the individual and with the entrance
and exit of the breath comes and goe.
the distinctively animal powers o
consciousness aud voluntary motion
but there is life in the unborn bab,
and in the motionless corpse befor,
and after the lungs begin and ceas,
to act; a life which in the one case in
duced all the wonderful changes mere
Iy alluded to, and in the other shine
out to mourning friends in the placi(
smile of the dead.