PHILOSOPHIC ANTS i8i 



(2.2.3) That where a number of ants had their 

 home and were congregated together, 

 there the virtue resided in larger bulk and 

 with greater effect, but that abroad, where 

 ants were scattered and away from hearth, 

 home, and altar, the demon of irregularity 

 exerted greater sway. 



This doctrine held the field for centuries. 

 ****** 



But at last a Philosopher arose. He was not 

 satisfied with the current explanation, although this 

 had been held for so long that it had acquired the 

 odour and force of a religious dogma. He decided to 

 put the matter to the test. He took a pupa {anglice 

 * ant's egg ') and on a windless day suspended it from 

 a twig outside the nest. There he had it swung back 

 and forth, counting its swings. He then (having 

 previously obtained permission from the Royal Sacer- 

 dotal College) suspended the pupa by the same length 

 of thread from the roof of the largest chamber of the 

 nest — a dome devoted to spiritual exercises — ^and 

 repeated the swinging and the counting. The living 

 pendulum-bob achieved the same daily number of 

 oscillations inside the nest as outside, although it was 

 full summer, and the foragers found the day quite 

 twice as long as did the home-stayers. The trial 

 was repeated with another pupa and other lengths 

 of thread ; the result was always the same. 



It was then that he laid the foundations of ant 



