The Red Ants 



is no difference in climate between the spot 

 where their nest lies and the spot at which 

 they are released; so that does not help them 

 to settle the direction in which they arc to 

 travel. 



To explain these many mysteries, wc are 

 driven, therefore, to appeal to yet another 

 mystery, that is to say, a special sense denied 

 to mankind. Charles Darwin, whose weighty 

 authority no one will gainsay, arrives at the 

 same conclusion. To ask if the animal be 

 not impressed by the terrestrial currents, to 

 enquire if it be not influenced by the close 

 proximity of a magnetic needle: what is this 

 but the recognition of a magnetic sense? Do 

 we possess a similar faculty? I am speak- 

 ing, of course, of the magnetism of the physi- 

 cists and not of the magnetism of the Mes- 

 mers and Cagliostros. Assuredly we possess 

 nothing remotely like it. What need would 

 the mariner have of a compass were he him- 

 self a compass? 



And this is what the great scientist ac- 

 knowledges : a special sense, so foreign to our 

 organism that we are not able to form a con- 

 ception of it, guides the Pigeon, the Swallow, 

 the Cat, the Mason-bee and a host of others 

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