418. 'Anyone can convince himself in favour of Divine origin by observing nature, when he looks at larvae, which are impelled by the pleasure of some desire to seek and long for a change in their terrestrial condition to one which is as it were an analogue of the heavenly condition. For this reason they creep into places where they can, so to speak, put themselves into a womb so as to be reborn, there turning into chrysalises, pupae, nymphs and finally butterflies. After undergoing this metamorphosis and putting on the lovely wings typical of their species, they fly up into the air, as into their own heaven, and engage there in agreeable play, mate, lay eggs and provide for their posterity; then too they take agreeable, sweet nutriment from flowers. Can anyone, who has convinced himself in favour of the Divine by observing nature, fail to see that the larval stage is a kind of picture of a person's earthly condition, and that of a butterfly of his heavenly condition? Those, however, who have convinced themselves in favour of nature, observe these facts, but because they have banished from their minds the heavenly condition of a person, they call these just natural instincts.