98 A TOUE ROUND MY GARDEN. 



There are several species of ants which seldom quit their 

 dwelling, but these are like pastoral nations, they dig their 

 ant-hill beneath the roots of certain herbs or grasses much 

 relished by aphides, when they transport thither those little 

 green cows, which find in the roots, laid bare by the ants, 

 a nourishment which they transmit to what may be called 

 the cow-keepers, in the form of a saccharine liquor. 



Whither are those ants going in such close battahon? I will 

 not say with Virgil : nigrum it campis agmen, a black bat- 

 talion marches across the fields. These are of a diiferent 

 species, they are of a red or russet colour, and are on their 

 way to attack a hiH of black ants. 



We may fancy we see the Cimbri and the Teutons with 

 their fair hair, invading the countries of the south. 



They have discovered the fort of their enemy, and descend 

 to the assault, spreading death and terror. Becoming im- 

 mediately acquainted with the place, they bear away the eggs 

 and the larvse of the black ants in triumph to their own re- 

 treats. There they will see them born, and bring them up 

 in obedience and in ignorance of their true family. These 

 black ants become the Helots, the slaves, of the red ants, who 

 make them work with them for their own profit. 



If, my friend, you have got rid of the habit of measuring 

 the importance of things by the size of those who perform 

 them, you wUl readily confess that there is no diiference be- 

 tween these insects which live under the grass and men who 

 walk upon it. If the size be of such vast importance, horses, 

 oxen, camels and elephants are much above man. Can you 

 find me, in the annals of the military glory of man, a battle 

 which can be otherwise described than that of these ants 

 before our eyes? And when we think that the Sovereign 

 Creator and Master of men and ants beholds them from on 

 high, can we convince ourselves that the one can have 

 really so much more importance in His eyes than the others? 

 How many men there are who would smile at seeing us look- 

 ing at ants, and who think that God has his eyes constantly 

 upon them, and passes his eternity in observing what they 

 think of him ! 



Have we not, as these ants have, wings which we unfold at 

 the period at which love raises us to the heavens; these 



