352 SYMBIOGENESIS 



What taught the ants to carry on regular agricultural operations, 

 to collect the seeds of certain grasses, let them germinate, then to bite 

 off the germ to malt, in fact, and to dry the seeds, and keep them for 

 future requirements ? 



My own answer is : symbiogenetic experience, that is, 

 the age-long benefit accruing from their physiologically 

 righteous feeding and other correlated habits has given them a 

 margin for brain development along lines parallel to our own, 

 however much less in degree. 



The interesting facts concerning animal psychology and 

 mentality now coming to light go a long way to justify Prof. 

 Eimer's views and his further remark that people in general, 

 and many naturalists, immensely under-estimate the mental 

 faculties of animals. 



Men have an idea they must at any price preserve their fancied 

 exceptional position in the animal world, even though it be at the 

 cost of their delight in nature, and of their own intellectual progress. 



