Para "Insectarium": Lord Byron

"While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven", writes Lord Byron, in his characteristic demeaning of the human  race. An observation which could be interpreted as a true belief in the miserable character of humanity. This view, of course, goes hand to hand with the exalted, spiritual profile of our species, its vanity, the vanity of an insignificant insect.

Belittling our nature is a form of praising our passionate aims and actions, dreams and delusions. We are as insects in our weaknesses and limitations, the lowest form of life, but full of ideals and foolish grandiosity. Like the biblical "vermis sum", the "vain insect" is as much an humiliating confession of inferiority in front of the divine power.