TERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 45 



ings as social animals, separately merit your attention : 

 namely, ants, wasps and hornets, humble-bees, and the 

 hive-bee. I begin with the first. 



Full of interesting- traits as are the history and eco- 

 nomy of the white-ants, and however earnestly they 

 may induce you to wish you could be a spectator of 

 them, yet they scarcely exceed those of an industrious 

 tribe of insects, which are constantly passing under our 

 eye. The ant has attracted universal notice, and been 

 celebrated 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 tp the learned 

 Bocliart, who has collected them in his Jlierozoicon. 



In reading what the ancients say on this subject, we 

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

 or we sliall 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 sub- 



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



