Helping the Emperor Moth

F. W. Boreham in one of his essays refers to the occasion when the great naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace, tried to help an emperor moth, and only harmed it by his well-intentioned efforts.

He discovered the moth struggling wildly to break its way through the cocoon which covered it. It was a handsome creature of fine proportions, and Wallace was moved by the sight of its severe ordeal. So he split the cocoon, and released the moth from further struggle. But that moth never developed; its wings never expanded; the colors and tints that should have adorned them never appeared.

In the end it died undeveloped, stunted, ruined. That hard and severe struggle with the cocoon was Nature’s method of developing its splendid wings, of bringing forth the glory and beauty of the creature. The moth had been saved from struggle, but the naturalist’s illconsidered ministry had ruined and slain it.