PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 45 



The ant has attracted universal notice, and been cele- 

 brated from the earliest ages, both by sacred and profane 

 writers, as a pattern of prudence, foresight, wisdom, and 

 diligence. Upon Solomon's testimony in their favour 

 I have enlarged before ; and for those of other ancient 

 writers, I must refer you to the learned Bochart, who 

 has collected them in lijs Hierozoicon. 



In reading what the ancients say on this subject, we 

 must be careful, however, to separate truth from error, 

 or we shall attribute much more to ants than of right 

 belongs to them. Who does not smile when he reads 

 of ants that emulate the wolf in size, the dog in shape, 

 the lion in its feet, and the leopard in its skin; ants, 

 whose employment is to mine for gold, and from whose 

 vengeance the furtive Indian is constrained to fly on 

 the swift camel's back * ? But when we find the writers 

 of all nations and ages unite in affirming, that, having 

 deprived it of the power of vegetating, ants store up 

 grain in their nests, we feel disposed to give larger 

 credit to an assertion, which, at first sight, seems to 

 savour more of fact than of fable, and does not attri- 

 bute more sagacity and foresight to these insects than 

 in other instances they are found to possess. Writers 

 in general, therefore, who have considered this subject, 

 and some even of very late date, have taken it for 

 granted that the ancients were correct in this notion. 

 But when observers of nature began to examine the 

 manners and economy of these creatures more narrowly, 

 it was found, at least with respect to the European spe- 

 cies of ants, that no such hoards of grain were made by 

 them, and, in fact, that they had no magazines in their 

 " Bochart, Hierozoic. ii. 1. iv. c. 22. 



