348 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. X. 



way on the following morning, but at an earlier hour, 

 when only a few comers and goers were to be seen 

 near the nest : and soon leaving the nest, I had no 

 further opportunity to attend to them." * 



(350.) We must now conclude our history of the 

 ants. If the reader, on commencing this narrative, en- 

 tertained any latent doubt that everything with which 

 the Almighty has surrounded us was not intended to 

 convey instruction, that feeling must surely have passed 

 away. It is the pre-eminent distinction of the im- 

 mortal soul by which we are animated, that it can be 

 exalted and refined by contemplating the works of that 

 Being from which it emanated ; and these perceptions 

 are followed by the natural consequence of expressing 

 praise and adoration. That which we admire calls 

 forth admiration in proportion as the mind is impressed 

 with the sublimity of the subject. This sensation, 

 alone, is the peculiar privilege of MAN. In vain may 

 we strive to blend reason and instinct. We see ani- 

 mals, the most mean and contemptible to vulgar eyes, 

 endowed with qualities which have every semblance of 

 reason ; but there is no reflection and no improvement 

 in succeeding generations : all that gives glory to man, 

 the cultivation and enlargement of his mind, by 

 which new inventions, new views, and new ideas re- 

 sult, are altogether wanting. Wonderful as these fa- 

 culties are, they are limited to those things only which 

 regard the wellbeing of the creature - the preservation 

 and enjoyment of life, and the fulfilment of their 

 destined end. Those higher qualities, those larger 

 expansions, which man, taught by reason and revela- 

 tion, enjoys, and which instruct him in the knowledge 

 of spiritual things, are denied to all other living beings ; 

 for the inevitable consequence of such faculties would 

 lead to the adoration of the Creator. And yet all those 

 practical duties which regard the wellbeing of society, 

 and promote the temporal happiness of the individual, 

 during his sojourn upon earth, may be learned from the 



Int. to Ent. vol. ii. D. 105. 



