3 



thousand inhabitants, seems to have no difficulty 

 with either. 



Man can through the ao-ency of a specially 

 educated fellow creature build himself a house to 

 live in, provided that special tools be given to the 

 various aitificers employed. A bird, on the other 

 hand, when the time comes for »t to take to 

 itself a wife and provide a home for a possible 

 family, has the power of building a house which 

 shall nut only be suitable, but also shall 

 le precisely similar to other houses, although 

 the builder has no plans before him, and 

 probably had never seen such a house in 

 course uf construction. This does not apply to 

 the Tailor Bird, whose nests are exceptions to the 

 rule, firstly because they are not re-made 

 every year, and, secondly, because they are 

 the only birds who build colonies of nests, 

 i.e., several nests in one group. Their young 

 would have the opportunity of studying the con- 

 struction of a suitable nest. Man, with much 

 labour and anxiety, and only by destroying other 

 forms of life, can find food for himself; the members 

 of the Vegetable Kingdom obtain what is neces- 

 sary for their existence from the earth they grow 

 in, and can adjust the growth of their branches so 

 as to oppose a counterbalancing weight to the 

 pressure of the prevailing wxnds, which might 

 otherwise uproot it; while Man cannot alter his 

 shape under any circumstances. 



A young shark, or a domestic fowl emerges from 

 his egg ready to meet life, swims, flies, eats, or 

 digests his food from the moment of his birth ; 

 while Man comes into the world utterly unable to 

 exist without the help and experience of f'thers. 

 must be fed by others until, perhaps, a fourth 

 part of his life is gone, when with the help of men, 

 machinery, and implements, he may, if he happens 

 to be favourably placed, have strength enough 

 and sense enough to find the means of existence 

 for himself. 



To Man is given the power to avail himself, to 

 a limited extent, of the forces of nature, and year 

 by year, generation by generation, he is permitted 

 by the exercise of his brain power to meet the ever 

 increasing variety of his needs, while, apparently, 

 the birds, the beasts, the fishes, perform their 

 functions, serve their purpose, eat, live, die, combine 

 in herds or communities with well-defined rules of 

 government, now, as they did from the beginning. 

 I have seen with amazement, a horde of ants at 

 work under such strict discipline and supervision 

 as would make leaders of men envious, and have 

 breathlessly watched a herd of wild buffaloes 

 in their native haunts, preceded by a watchful 

 scout and followed by an equally alert rear-guard 

 move in regular order, and instantaneously obey 

 the command of their leaders in a way that a Lord 

 Roberts might well desire to see his armies move, 

 and have thought how little we realise that such 

 creatures must have a wonderful intelligence, and 

 marvellous organization to do that which Man is 

 only now, after all these centuries cf his existence, 

 learning to do. Man, indeed, attains a high degree 

 of proficiency in military evolution by constant 

 drilling, and can execute wonderful works if he 

 has the tools and machinery made for him ; but 

 the ant conducts his warfare with soldiers who 

 go through no course of drilling, and builds his 



towns and colonies with no tools save those which 

 are provided by his own limbs. 



More than S.OCMJ years ago a very wise man, 

 using his powers of observation and his reiisoning 

 powers to such good effect that his writings con- 

 tinue to command the admiration of men even in 

 the present age — 1 allude to Solomon, the wise 

 king — desired men to study the ant if thay 

 desired to improve themselves ; and in the most 

 recent work on Natural History I find these 

 remarkable words, '* We can scarcely avoid the 

 conclusion that they (the ants) have acquired in 

 many respects the art of living t)gether in 

 societies more perfectly than Man has, and that 

 they have anticipated us in the acquisition of some 

 of the industries and arts ^hat greatly facilitate 

 social life. The competence of the ant is not as 

 that of Man ; it is devoted to the weltare of the 

 species rather than that of the individual, which 

 is, as it were, sacrificed or specialised for the 

 benefit of the communities." Hear that, ye 

 Socialists. Anarchists, or Revolutionists ; about a 

 division of the insect world, which takes special 

 care of its queens, which apportions to each its 

 particular work, which has its masters and 

 servants, nay I even slaves ; and then, obeying 

 the wise command "to study the ant." join a 

 Natural History Society if the improvement of 

 your species is your desire. 



We do not know that ants are civilized enough 

 to have doctors, possibly they are so civilized as 

 to be able to do without them ; but we do know 

 that they move their tender and delicate larvse 

 about from place to place as the necessities of 

 temperature, air.humidity.and other requirements 

 demand ; and that. I think, is what most doctors 

 of men recommend no^-a-days. 



St. Augustine wrote "creavit in caelum angelos, 

 in terrara vernieulos: i-^-c major in illis.nec minor 

 in istis," which may be translated " God created 

 Angels in Heaven and even little insects on this 

 Earth, the former in their sphere arn no more 

 wonderful than the latter in theirs " ; and Linuseas 

 goes further and says "the most wonderful things 

 in Nature aie to be fourid in the smallest;" and 

 that sentiment all naturalists will agree with, even 

 if it be at the expense of their previously con- 

 ceived high opinion of the superiority of Man. 



Other creatures besides Man caa take advantage 

 of alteration in their surroundings, and thereby 

 show their equality with Man's power of advanc- 

 ing with the times, as is proved by the fact that 

 the Tailor Bird in its natural and wild state will 

 use discarded pieces of wool to sew the leaves 

 together that form his nest. v. here formerly or 

 where under other conditions he uses vegetable 

 fibre gathered by himself, as I have personally 

 observed. Man protects himself while alive, but 

 does he always make such provision for realisation 

 of his hopes of a/uture life, as does a hairy cater- 

 pillar that I have often seen in India, who, know- 

 ing the perils that may await him when in the 

 chrysalis state, begins to prepare for that state 

 by biting off his hairs and fastening them down 

 in an elliptical rintj.on the wall or stone on which 

 he is to pass from the larval stage, in the form of 

 chevaux de frise impenetrable to his enemies, the 

 ants. 



