184 NOTKS OK THE ANT OP SCRIl'TDRE, 



Holy Land have to endure a degree of cold quite as severe as ever occurs 

 in Great Britain, therefore, concludes the writer just mentioned, "Is it not 

 highly probable that the Ants of Palestine, at such times become torpid 

 and need no magazine of provisions?" 



But let us see what all this comes to. The reader who feels interested 

 in our subject, must excuse our necessary brevity; and the reader who cares 

 nothing about the matter will no doubt feel very thankful that we intend 

 being short. 



We must either hold with one party that Solomon makes a reference, 

 although not directly, yet very clearly, to the Ants storing up corn for 

 winter use; or we must join the opposite party in affirming that Solomon's 

 words have not been properly interpreted, and that they do not in any way 

 sanction the popular and very prevalent notion. Then, let the consequences 

 that follow be strictly marked. If we adhere to the former supposition, the 

 investigations of our most learned naturalists lead to the conclusion that 

 Solomon is wrong ! Some (as Dr. Kitto, in a very interesting work recently 

 published — his "Daily Kble Illustrations") give utterance to an opinion which 

 we are grieved to see again brought to light. "Even taking the words of 

 Solomon," says the writer just mentioned, "in the sense commonly under- 

 stood, why might they not refer to the common opinion respecting any creature, 

 when it afforded the moral lesson which he desired to inculcate. The sacred 

 writers generally regard it as no part of their duty to set right all the popular 

 notions of common things, but use them, as poets and moralists have done in 

 all ages, to enforce their teachings, and illustrate their arguments." And will 

 Dr. Kitto say that they would refer to the comnon opinion if it were erro- 

 neous, or that they would base a moral lesson on a falsehood? The words 

 quoted amount to this: — This language is unworthy of any one who acknow- 

 ledges the Divine origin of the Bible, and is at complete variance with the 

 facts of the case. It is indeed a statement almost as rash as one which we 

 were astonished to see in a work, written by a minister, and differs in little, 

 except in the form of expression, from the assertion that '^the Scriptures are 

 not to be considered as unerring guides in natural, although they are in 

 moral and divine matters!" 



Again, if we take up the other opinion, we must of necessity admit, not- 

 withstanding the assertions of Hammond and others, that the illustration of 

 the Ant, although in many respects an excellent one, is altogether inappropriate 

 in the main point; and to believe this would be to hold an opinion in the most 

 direct opposition with the fact of Solomon's being an unrivalled naturalist, 

 and the '^visest of men!" 



Such then is the awkward situation in which matters remain, and no wonder 

 that the Bible-student should be at a loss what to do. And now having 

 attempted to fulfil the first promise made in the outset, we shall proceed in 

 the next place, (to repeat our own expression,) "to bring a light sufficient, we 

 trust, to enlighten his gloomy station, as well as to assist him in reaching the top." 



