PHILOSOPHIC ANTS 179 



alteration with their movements, they found it sim- 

 plest and most natural to believe in the fixity and uni- 

 formity of their own life and its processes, and to 

 refer all changes to the already obvious mutability 

 of external nature. 



The Wise Ants were summoned: they were or- 

 dered by the Queen to investigate the matter; and so, 

 after consultation, decided to apply the test of ex- 

 periment. Several of their numbers, at stated inter- 

 vals throughout the year, stayed in and went out on 

 alternate days, performing identical tasks on the two 

 occasions. The task was the repeated recitation of 

 the most efficacious of the myrmecine sacred formulae. 



The rough-and-ready calculations of the workers 

 were speedily corroborated. ''Great is God, and we 

 are the people of God" could be recited out-of-doors 

 some twenty thousand times a day in summer, less 

 than four thousand times in winter; while the corre- 

 sponding indoor figures were about fifteen thousand 

 and six thousand. 



There was the fact ; now for the explanation. After 

 many conclaves, a most ingenious hypothesis was 

 put forward, which found universal credence. Let 

 me give it in an elegant and logical form. 



(1) It was well-known — indeed self-evident — that 

 the Ant race was the offspring and special 

 care of the Power who made and ruled the 

 universe. 



(1.1) Therefore a great deal of the virtue and 



