‘On Butterflies’

‘On Butterflies’ is included in Scudéry’s 1692 Moral Dialogues [Entretiens de morale] and features the same friends who read ‘The Story of Prince Ariamène’ together. They reflect on this story, and particularly on Democritus to whom, it is suggested, the examples of quinine and lodestones should have been offered to make a case for the limitations of what can be known. The friends share a poem about quinine before they decide to read aloud the ‘Observations on Butterflies’. It transpires that these ‘Observations’ are not in fact by Democritus but rather a ‘friend of the translator’ of the manuscript in which they were purported to be found, glossed in the margins as ‘M. Betoul’: that is Élie de Bétoulaud, author of the first Chameleon poem from ‘The Story of Two Chameleons’. In the natural-historical ‘Observation on Butterflies’ we are then given a demonstration of knowledge and its limits. This text draws on a natural history tradition of copia and of descriptive language to direct attention to description over an enquiry into causes, as the author deliberately avoids the most topical contemporary question relating to the butterfly — its generation — to focus instead primarily on wing pattern and colour. After reading these ‘Observations’, the friends share some short poems celebrating the sun and close the discussion by reflecting on the necessity of worshipping God without trying to know with certainty how he operates.