50 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



change could, by taking thought, prolong life and 

 live for a thousand years, like the adder and tortoise, 

 or for ever. But no, he would not leave the poor boy 

 to grope alone and blindly after that hidden know- 

 ledge he was burning to possess. He pitied him too 

 much. The means were simple and near to hand 

 the earth teemed with the virtue that would save 

 him from the dissolution which so appalled him. 

 He would be startled to hear in how small a thing 

 and in how insignificant a creature resided the 

 principle that could make his body, like his spirit, 

 immortal. But exceeding great power often existed 

 in small compass : witness the adder's tooth, which 

 was to our sight no more than the point of the 

 smallest thorn. Now, in the small ant there existed 

 a principle of a greater potency than any other in 

 nature ; so strong and penetrating was it that even 

 the dull and brutish kind of men who enquired not 

 into hidden things knew something of its power. 

 But the greatest of all the many qualities of this 

 acid was unknown to them. The ants were a small 

 people, but exceedingly wise and powerful. If a 

 little human child had the strength of an ant he would 

 surpass in power the mightiest giant that ever lived. 

 In the same way ants surpassed men in wisdom ; 

 and this strength and wisdom was the result of that 

 acid principle in them. Now, if any person should 

 be able to overcome his repugnance to so strange 



