420 THE MOUNTAIN. 



From the observations of Dr. T. Savage, there are three or 

 four grades of ants, namely, " neuters, soldiers, workers, and 

 carriers." " The genus Polyergus make predatory excursions 

 to the nests of other species and take young workmen in 

 the pupa state. These captives assume their perfect state 

 in the domiciles of their captors, and become the slaves of 

 the community. All labor of building, collecting food, and 

 taking care of the young falls upon them."* St. Forgeau 

 thinks the Polyergus (ant) exhibits the "perfection of in- 

 stinct, being capable of laboring, but preferring idleness;" 

 while Huber asserts they have no talent but for war, and 

 that they would starve to death but for the working formica. 

 This " perfection of instinct" in the ant has a terrible ana- 

 logue in a larger ant called man, on a larger ant-hill called 

 the earth, and who is supposed to be its arbiter and king, 

 under the divine endowments of intellect, morality, and re- 

 ligion. 



Insects are also related to man through friendly qualities, 

 as luxuries, necessaries, and in the arts, medicine, and econo- 

 mies. Witness cantharides and cochineal, honey, the em- 

 blem of luxury and plenty, and silk, the badge of wealth, ex- 

 travagance, and, unhappily, of pride and folly. 



The biography and morphology of insects is a depart- 

 ment of perfect enchantment in nature, so entirely wonder- 

 ful that it seems incredible, and even absurd. In many, the 

 change of entire organization, justly called metamorphosis, 

 is one of the order of perpetual miracles, and is without 

 parallel in any other department of organic bodies. A wise 

 prophecy it would appear to the uninitiated, that that loath- 

 some, crawling worm, formless and disgusting, in mud and 

 slime eating filth and corruption, should ever soar through 



and two or three feet high. This ant is said by Heck to "make 

 slaves of the black ant, both being true Formica, and both work- 

 ing." 



* See Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature, and Art, 

 by J. G. Heck, translated by Baird, p. 174. 



