38 



PEKFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



this order, (which you will find as fertile in the instructors of 

 mankind, as you have seen it to be in our benefactors,) that, 

 varying considerably from each other in their proceedings as 

 social animals, separately merit your attention ; namely, ants, 

 wasps and hornets, humble-bees, and the hive-bee. I begin 

 with the first. 



Full of interesting traits as are the history and economy 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 con- 

 stantly passing under our eye. The ant has attracted uni- 

 versal notice, and been celebrated from the earliest ages, both 

 by sacred and profane writers, as a pattern of prudence, fore- 

 sight, 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 Hierozoicon. 



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 con- 

 strained to fly on the swift camel's back ? 1 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 attribute 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. But when observers of nature began to examine the 

 manners and economy of these creatures more narrowly, it 

 was found, at least with respect to the European species of 



1 Bochart, Hierozoic, ii. 1. iv. c. 22. 



