Ants and Butterflies. 1 73 



By what instruction does she bite the grain f 

 Lest hid in earth and taking root again 

 It might elude the foresight of her care." 



" The sage industrious ant, the wisest insect, 

 And best economist of all the field : 

 For when as yet the favourable sun 

 Gives to the genial earth the enlivening ray, 



all her subterraneous avenues, 



And storm-proof cells, with management most meet, 

 And unexampled housewif'ry she frames ; 

 Then to the field she hies, and on her back 

 Burden immense ! brings home the cumbrous corn : 

 Then many a weary step, and many a strain, 

 And many a grievous groan subdued, at length 

 Up the huge hill she hardly heaves it home : 

 Nor rests she here her providence, but nips 

 With subtle teeth the grain, lest from her garner 

 In mischievous fertility it steal, 

 And back to daylight vegetate its way." Smart. 



Milton, as always, is characteristic : 



"First crept 



The parsimonious emmet, provident, 

 Of future, in small room large heart enclosed : 

 Pattern of just equality perhaps 

 Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes of commonalty." 



King Solomon is responsible for many errors, and among 

 others this of the providence of ants. Twice in his Proverbs 

 he speaks of the insect laying up food in the summer 

 " having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in 

 the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest." And 

 it is said by naturalists, " devilling " for King Solomon, that 

 the ants of Palestine do, as a matter of fact, hoard supplies 

 for "the winter." Let this be as it may, the ants of Great 

 Britain do nothing of the kind. These wonderful com- 

 munities comprise, as is well known, males, females and 

 neuters. Of these, the neuters alone do work in the sense 

 which attracts the poet's admiration, and certainly if industry 

 is ever praiseworthy, it is here. Their lives are one unceasing 

 round of unselfish toil. The young, whether as eggs, grubs 



