6 HARVESTING ANTS. 



did the tide begin to turn, and the current of infor- 

 mation to flow from north to south, than the story 

 became discredited. 



It is interesting now to recal a few of the allusions 

 to the harvesting ants made by ancient authors, some 

 of which contain tolerably accurate accounts of what 

 was to them a familiar sight or a universally accepted 

 fact. 



The passages in Proverbs* are the following : " Go 

 to the ant, thou sluggard : consider her ways and be 

 wise ; which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler, pro- 

 videth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her 

 food in the harvest." " The ants are a people not 

 strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." 

 Hesiodf speaks of the time 



" When the provident one (the ant) harvests the grain." 

 OTi r' icfjOif awpov df^arai. 



Horace I also alludes to the foresight of the ant, who is 

 *' haudignara ac non incauta futuri." Virgil § compares 

 the Trojans hastening their departure to harvesting 

 ants, and the passage has been thus rendered by 

 Dryden : — 



' ' The beach is covered o'er 

 With Trojan bands, that blacken all the shore : 

 On every side are seen, descending down. 

 Thick swarms of soldiers, loaden from the town, 

 Thus, in battalia, march embodied auts, 

 Fearful of winter, and of future wants, 



* vi. 6-8 and xxx. 25. 

 + Works and Days, 776. X Satires I. i. 33. 



§ ^neid, Bk. iv. I. 402. 

 " Ac velut ingentem formicae farris acervum 



Quum populant, hiemis memores, tectoque reponunt : 

 It nigrum campis agmen, pra?damque j^er herbas 

 Convectant calle angusto ; pars grandia trudunt 

 Obnixffi frumenta humeris ; pars agmina cogunt, 

 Castigantque moras ; opere omnis semita fervet." 



