58 ANTS AND ANT LIFE 



spending intellectual capabilities would certainly be present. 

 For of what use would such senses be to a creature which 

 was unable to utilise them on account of its poor intellectual 

 organisation ? Or for what object would insects, and espe- 

 cially ants, possess such great muscular and bodily strength, 

 which renders them capable of performances which com- 

 paratively surpass twenty, thirty, and even a hundredfold 

 those of men or of the larger animals ? 



Even in the last century Hermann Samuel Reimarus, 

 the then most distinguished writer on animal intelli- 

 gence, and one who in many ways is unsurpassed to-day, 

 says practically nothing about ants in his famous book 

 on the skill of animals (Hamburg, 1762). He merely 

 mentions in cursory fashion in section 121, a " good story of 

 an Ant-Republic destroyed by him " related by Professor Meyer 

 (" Attempt at a new science of the Intelligence of Animals," 

 Halle, 1750), Avhile he appears to throw some doubt on the 

 consequences thence deduced by Meyer. But it is at least 

 evident from this that something was even then known as 

 to the peculiar character of the social polity of ants, and 

 that it was designated a " Republic." Ants do in reality 

 live in a Republic, in the fullest sense of the word, that is, in 

 a state " on the widest democratic foundations," as people 

 used to say in 1848 ; and it is very noteworthy and signifi- 

 cant that just the most intelligent family among socially- 

 living insects enjoys and has made for itself a polity which 

 is regarded among men as the relatively best and most ideal, 

 while a step lower, among bees, we recognise a distinct 

 inclination to the form of so-called constitutional monarchy. 

 Among men it is usual to say that the republican form of 

 government, from the theoretical standpoint, best represents 

 the ideal of the state and the principles of justice, as well 

 as of universal equality ; but that having regard to the 

 ineradicable weakness of human nature and the consequent 

 impossibility of self-government, it is not practically 

 realisable. If this be true, we men have certainly no ground 

 from which to look down contemptuously upon the little 

 ant-nation, every tribe of which considers itself intelligent 

 and civilised enough to be able to live under the principles 

 of universal equality and liberty. 



But, as though this were not enough, the Ant Republic is 

 not only a political, but also a social or socialistic Republic,, 



