ACTS OF SEEMING REASON. 407 



phantine performance, can be at a loss for facts, not isolated, 

 entirely at variance with the idea of making of the elephant a 

 mere monster machine ; and as for the ant, the following rela- 

 tion, 1 with a thousand more, would read strangely of a mechanic 

 agent : 



" I saw an ant pulling with his mouth a piece of wood. The 

 rest were busy in their own way ; but when he came to an 

 ascent, and the load became too much for him, three others 

 came immediately behind, pushed it up to level ground, and 

 then left him. The end he pulled was the smallest, and, as 

 he drew it between two things, it stuck there. After several 

 fruitless efforts, he went behind, pulled it back, and turned it 

 round." 



Proceedings such as these accord certainly much more closely 

 with the opinion of the enlightened and pious Sharon Turner 

 (by whom the fact is quoted), that " the actions and habits of 

 the insect world display the same kind of animal mind [allowed 

 by the same writer to be judging mind] and feeling which birds 

 and quadrupeds exhibit. If there be a difference, it is not to 

 the disadvantage of insects, for ants, bees, and wasps, and espe- 

 cially the smallest of these, ants, do things, and exercise sensi- 

 bilities, and combine for purposes, and achieve ends, that bring 

 them nearer to mankind than any other class of animated 

 nature/'' 2 



We insect men may not relish, perhaps, or care to observe, 

 this approximation towards ourselves, of men-like insects. We 

 would rather, perhaps, make the most of the inferential argu- 

 ment, that because insects proper have avowedly a very large 

 share of instinct, they have therefore no reason at all. We 

 might as well infer of ourselves, contrary to facts, that because 

 we may have a large share of reason we are utterly devoid of 

 instinct. 



The practice of ants to rear aphides for the future consump- 



1 From the " Imperial Magazine." 



2 " Sacred History of the World," vol. iii. 



E R 



