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[1] 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[2] speaks of the time
"When the provident one (the ant) harvests the grain."
[Greek: hote t' idris sôron amatai.]
Horace[3] also alludes to the foresight of the ant, who is
"haud ignara ac non incauta futuri." Virgil[4] 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,
- ↑ vi. 6-8 and xxx. 25.
- ↑ Works and Days, 776.
- ↑ Satires I. i. 33.
- ↑ Æneid, Bk. iv. l. 402.
"Ac velut ingentem formicæ farris acervum
Quum populant, hiemis memores, tectoque reponunt:
It nigrum campis agmen, prædamque per herbas
Convectant calle angusto; pars grandia trudunt
Obnixæ frumenta humeris; pars agmina cogunt,
Castigantque moras; opere omnis semita fervet."
