150 FORMICID^ — ANTS. 



t 

 garner f 



Nor rests she here her providence, but nips 

 With subtle tooth the grain, lest from her gam 

 In mischievous fertility, it steal. 

 And hack to daylight vegetate its way.i 



Milton also entertained this erroneous opinion : 



First crept 

 The parsijiionious Emmet, provident 

 Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd; 

 Pattern of just equality perhaps 

 Hereafter, join'd in her popular tribes 

 Of commonalty. 2 



And also Dr. Johnson : 



Turn on ih^ pr^ident Ant thy heedless eyes, 

 Observe her labors, sluggard ! and be wise. 

 No stern command, no monitory voice, 

 Prescribes her duties or directs her choice; 

 Yet timely provident she hastes away. 

 To snatch the blessings of a plenteous day ; 

 When fruitful Summer loads the teeming plain, 

 She crops the harvest, and she stores the grain.^ 



There is an old Eastern proverb, that "what the Ant col- 

 lects in a year the monks eat up in a night," which seems to 

 be founded on the supposition that the Ants provide them- 

 selves with stores of food. Juvenal, also, observes, in his 

 Sixth Satire, that "after the example of the Ant, some 

 have learned to provide against cold and hunger."* 



" Since, therefore," says Moufet, " (to winde up all in a few 

 words) they (the Ants) are so exemplary for their great piety, 

 prudence, justice, valour, temperance, modesty, charity, friend- 

 ship, frugality, perseverance, industry and art; it is no won- 

 der that Plato, in Phi\3done, hath determined, that they who 

 without the help of philosophy have lead a civill life by cus- 

 tom or from their own diligence, they had their souls from 

 Ants, and when they die they are turned to Ants again. 

 To this may be added the fable of the Myrmidons, who being 

 a people of ^gina, applied themselves to diligent labour in 

 tilling the ground, continual digging, hard toiling, and con- 



1 On the Omnis. of God. 



2 Par. Lost, 13. vii. 1. 484. 



3 Saturday Mag., xix. 190. 



* Lawson's Bible Cyclop., ii. 505. 



