Note 61 — LETTER XXIX.
Reading edition
The word μεταμορφοω, and its derivative μεταμορφωσις, are not extant in any Greek writer before the date of the New Testament. They are used to express any external change of form or colour, and metaphorically an inward change and progressive improvement of the mind. Comp. Matth. xvii. 2. Ælian. Var. Hist. l. i. c. 1. Rom. xiii. 2. 2 Cor. iii. 18. They are, therefore, not improperly applied, as some have supposed, to the changes of insects.