140 ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. [lect. iv. 



facts as these, it is impossible not to ask ourselves, How 

 far are ants mere exquisite automatons ; how far are 

 they conscious beings ? When we see an ant-hill, 

 tenanted by thousands of industrious inhabitants, ex- 

 cavating chambers, forming tunnels, making roads, 

 guarding their home, gathering food, feeding the young, 

 tending their domestic animals — each one fulfilling its 

 duties industriously, and without confusion — it is diffi- 

 cult altogether to deny to them the gift of reason ; and 

 the preceding observations tend to confirm the opinion 

 that their mental powers differ from those of men not so 

 much in kind as in degree. 



Let me in conclusion once more say, that, notwith- 

 standing the labours of those great naturalists to whom 

 I gratefully referred in commencing, it seems to me that 

 there are in natural history few more promising or 

 extensive fields for research than the habits of ants. 



