Page:Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders. Notes and observations on their habits and dwellings (IA harvestingantstr00mogg).pdf/24

 did the tide begin to turn, and the current of information to flow from north to south, than the story became discredited.

It is interesting now to recal a few of the allusions to the harvesting ants made by ancient authors, some of which contain tolerably accurate accounts of what was to them a familiar sight or a universally accepted fact.

The passages in Proverbs are the following: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard: consider her ways and be wise; which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." "The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Hesiod speaks of the time

"When the provident one (the ant) harvests the grain."

[Greek: hote t' idris sôron amatai.]

Horace also alludes to the foresight of the ant, who is "haud ignara ac non incauta futuri." Virgil compares the Trojans hastening their departure to harvesting ants, and the passage has been thus rendered by Dryden:—

"The beach is covered o'er With Trojan bands, that blacken all the shore: On every side are seen, descending down, Thick swarms of soldiers, loaden from the town, Thus, in battalia, march embodied ants, Fearful of winter, and of future wants,