THE ANT. 175 



do not labour personally, but furnish the fighting and 

 are ready to die in defence of their country. The over- 

 seers, generally larger and more intelligent than the mass 

 of workers, direct the operations, chastise the indolent, see 

 that all is done with order and regularity, and generally 

 supervise and control the operations. These may be taken 

 as the type of the middle class, the merchants and manu- 

 facturers. Then there are the nurses, who take charge of 

 the eggs, feed the young, transport the pupae into the sun, 

 and carry them back into the recesses of the city when rain 

 threatens; while below them are the bulk of the com- 

 munity, the labourers and masons, the huntsmen, and the 

 cowherds who tend the insects from whom the ants obtain 

 a supply of natural honey. Lastly, there are the slave 

 population, captives in war, who are the servants of the 

 whole community. The result of this perfect combination 

 of labour is the erection of edifices, by the side of which 

 man's greatest efforts are in comparison utterly dwarfed and 

 puny. 



One reason of the great success of the ant communities, 

 and of the perfect order and regularity with which they con- 

 duct their operations, is that strikes and labour combinations 

 are unknown to them, and all classes are content to do 

 their allotted work contentedly, willingly, and zealously. It 

 must be painful to members of peace societies to know 

 that they are warlike in the extreme, and that among them 

 the principles of universal brotherhood have made abso- 

 lutely no progress. The bravest knight of the days of early 

 romance, riding out to attack the giants, was but a poor 

 creature by the side of the warrior ant, who will do battle 

 fearlessly with the largest and strongest animal that may 



