CARNIVOROUS ANTS 59 



yet the aperture of the nest was three feet above them. 

 So great was their folly and so impulsive was their 

 instinct that they found themselves driven to indulge 

 in the useless labour of clearing away the fragments 

 from a nest into the aperture of which they could not 

 possibly fall. 



And thus does folly seem to contradict intelligence 

 and ignorance to clash with reason. Would that we 

 could know what was working in the insect's brain 

 when it built up the valuable platform and when, on 

 the distant rubbish heap, it expended its energies in 

 useless toil. Why is it now intelligent, why now 

 foolish ? Why these inconsistencies ? For in Nature 

 there are no real contradictions ; all moves by 

 unalterable law. 



