PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 45 
Full of interesting traits as are the history and eco- 
nomy of the white-ants, and however earnestly they 
may induce you to wish you could be.a spectator of 
them, yet they scarcely exceed those of an industrious 
tribe of insects, which are constantly passing under our 
eye. The ant has attracted universal notice, and been 
celebrated from the earliest ages, both by sacred and 
profane writers, as a pattern of prudence, foresight, 
wisdom, and diligence. Upon Solomon’s testimony in 
their favour I have enlarged before; and for those of 
other ancient writers, I must refer you to the learned 
_ Bochart, who has collected them in his Hzerozoicon. 
In reading what the ancients say on this subject, we 
must be careful, however, to separate truth from error, 
or we shall attribute much more to ants than of right 
belongs to them. Who does not smile when he reads 
of ants that emulate the wolf in size, the dog in shape, 
the lion in its feet, and the leopard in its skin; ants, 
whose employment is to mine for gold, and from whose 
vengeance the furtive Indian is constrained to fly on 
the swift camel’s back*? But when we find the writers 
of all nations and ages unite in affirming, that, having 
deprived it of the power of vegetating, ants store up 
grain in their nests, we feel disposed to give larger 
credit to an assertion, which, at first sight, seems to 
savour more of fact than of fable, and does not attri- 
bute more sagacity and foresight to these insects than 
in other instances they are found to possess. Writers 
in general, therefore, who have considered this subject, 
and some even of very late date, have taken it for 
granted that the ancients were correct in this notion. 
* Bochart, Hicrozoic. ii. |, iv. ¢. 22. 
