WHAT I SAW IN AN ANT'S NEST. 345 



The recently published experiments of Sir John Lubbock 

 show that ants under certain circumstances are both stupid 

 and devoid of any intelligent comprehension in the way of 

 surmounting difficulties ; but this distinguished observer has 

 also shown that as regards communication between ants, and 

 in the regulation of the ordinary circumstances of their lives, 

 these insects evince a high degree of intelligence, and ex- 

 hibit instincts of a very highly developed kind. Still, making 

 every allowance for the development of extraordinary mental 

 powers in some species of ants, there can be little doubt of 

 the purely automatic beginnings and nature of most, if not 

 all, of the acts of ordinary ant existence. The young ant, 

 wasp, or bee, will begin its labours and discharge them as 

 perfectly at the beginning of its existence as a perfect insect, 

 as at the close of life. Here there is no experience, no 

 tuition, no consciousness, no reason, and no powers save 

 such as have been transferred to the insect as a mere matter 

 of heredity and derivation from its ancestors, who lived by 

 an unconscious rule of thumb, so to speak. It is very hard 

 at first to convince one's self, when watching an ant's nest, 

 that intelligence and consciousness play little or no part in 

 the apparently intelligent operations of these insects. But 

 to assume the contrary would be to maintain that the insect 

 stands on an equal footing to man himself, and for such a 

 supposition there is neither lawful ground nor sympathy. 

 The marvellous instinct of lower life stands on a platform of 

 its own, has its own phases of development, and probably its 

 own unconscious way of progress. The higher reason and 

 intellect of humanity similarly possesses its own peculiar 

 standard, rate, and method of culture. And man may seek 

 and find in the ways of lower existence not merely a lesson 

 in the ordering of his existence, but some comfort also in the 

 thought that the progress of lower nature is not unknown in 

 the domain of human hopes and aspirations. 



