"That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten."—Joel i.
Lord Brougham, in a note upon the above, does not support Paley's view. He says "It is more than probable that the parts which are to appear in the perfect insect do not exist in the larvæ, where there is not much difference between the larva and pupa, excepting at the time just previous to its becoming a pupa, at which time the larva is motionless and torpid. The caterpillar of a moth, when about to turn into a pupa, provides for the protection of the latter state, either by surrounding itself with a web, or by some other means. Soon after this is accomplished, the caterpillar becomes motionless, or nearly so; it can neither eat nor crawl. At this time, and not before, the parts of the pupa are forming within the skin of the caterpillar, which may be easily seen by dissection."
It appears to the author, however, that Paley is partially right, and Lord Brougham totally wrong, in these remarks. When Lord Brougham asserts that the parts of the pupa are forming within the skin of the caterpillar at that time when the transformation begins, "and not before, which may be easily seen by dissection," he forgets, that although in some instances it is the first moment when, to the human eye, the organs of the new creature become perceptible, that the "three deep" nature which Paley attributes to the grub, must really have existed in the egg—that the butterfly originated in the egg, as certainly as did the caterpillar, or the chrysalis, and that unless that egg had possessed its three mysterious embryos, it would have been impossible for the grub to have progressed to the stages of transformation. No one has ever known the embryo of a bird's egg to pass through three distinct and dissimilar states of existence; nor has any one ever known the embryo of the butterfly's egg to stop short at either of the stages, if the proper conditions of its existence and development were supplied to it. Why? Because the embryo of the insect has a threefold nature, while that of the bird is single.
"They shall cut down her forest, saith the Lord, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable."—Jeremiah xlvi.