"that circumfcribed it. But he that toiled through "the valley was happy, because he looked forward

with hope. Thus, to the fojourner upon earth, it "is of little moment, whether the path he treads be "ftrewed with flowers or with thorns, if he perceives "himfelf to approach those regions, in comparison of "which the thorns and the flowers of this wilderness "lofe their diftinction, and are both alike impotent to "give pleasure or pain.

What then has ETERNAL WISDOM unequally "diftributed? That which can make every ftation "happy, and without which every ftation must be "wretched, is acquired by Virtue; and Virtue is pof"fible to all. Remember, Almet, the vifion which "thou haft feen; and let my words be written on the "tablet of thy heart, that thou may'ft direct the wan"derer to happiness, and justify GOD to men."

While the voice of Azóran was yet founding in my ear, the profpect vanished from before me, and I found myfelf again fitting at the porch of the temple. The fun was going down, the multitude was retired to reft, and the folemn quiet of midnight concurred with the refolution of my doubts to compleat the tranquillity of my mind.

Such, my fon, was the vifion which the PROPHET "vouchsafed me, not for my fake only, but for thine. Thou haft fought felicity in temporal things; and, therefore, thou art difappointed. Let not inftruction be loft upon thee, as the leal of Mahomet in the well of Aris: but go thy way, let thy flock cloath the naked, and thy table feed the hungry; deliver the poor from oppreffion, and let thy converfation be ABOVE. Thus fhalt thou " rejoice in hope," and look forward to the end of life as the confummation of thy felicity.

Almet, in whofe breaft devotion kindled as he fpake, returned into the temple, and the ftranger departed in peace.

The Natural History of Ants.

[Guard. No. 156.]

Iype of my papers, a lively image of the

N one of my papers I fuppofed a molehill, inhabited

earth, peopled by human creatures. This fuppofition will not appear too forced or ftrained to those who are acquainted with the natural hiftory of these little infects; in order to which I fhall present my reader with the extract of a letter upon this curious fubject, as it was publifhed by the members of the French academy, and fince tranflated into English. I must confefs I was never in my life better entertained than with this narrative, which is of undoubted credit and authority.

In a room next to mine, which had been empty for a long time, there was upon a window a box full of earth, two foot deep, and fit to keep flowers in. That kind of parterre had been long uncultivated and therefore it was covered with old plaifter, and a great deal of rubbish that fell from the top of the houfe, and from the walls, which, together with the earth formerly imbibed with water, made a kind of a dry and barren foil. That place lying to the South, and out of the reach of the wind and rain, besides the neighbourhood of a granary, was a moft delightful fpot of ground for Ants; and therefore they had made three nefts there, without doubt for the fame ⚫ reason that men build cities in fruitful and convenient places, near springs and rivers.

Having a mind to cultivate fome flowers, I took a view of that place, and removed a tulip out of the garden into that box; but cafting my eyes upon the • Ants, continually taken up with a thousand cares, very inconfiderable with respect to us, but of the greatest importance for them, they appeared to me more worthy of my curiofity than all the flowers in the world. I quickly removed the tulip, to be the admirer and reftorer of that little commonwealth. This was the only thing they wanted; for their policy and the order obferved among them, are more perfect than thofe of the wifeft republicks: and therefore they

• have

have nothing to fear, unless a new legiflator fhould attempt to change the form of their government.

I made it my bufinefs to procure them all forts of ⚫ conveniencies. I took out of the box every thing that might be troublesome to them; and frequently vifited my Ants, and ftudied all their actions. Being used to go to bed very late, I went to fee them work in a moonshiny night; and I did frequently get up in the night, to take a view of their labours. I always found fome going up and down, and very bufy: one ⚫ would think that they never fleep. Every body knows that Ants come out of their holes in the day-time, and expofe to the fun the corn, which they keep under ground in the night. Those who have seen • ant-hillocks, have eafily perceived thofe fmall heaps ⚫ of corn about their nefts. What furprised me at fir was, that my Ants never brought out their corn, bus in the night when the moon did fhine, and kept is • under ground in the day-time; which was contrary to what I had feen, and faw ftill practifed by thofe infects in other places. I quickly found out the reafon of it: there was a pigeon-house not far from thence: pigeons and birds would have eaten their corn, if they had brought it out in the day-time, 'Tis highly probable they knew it by experience; and I frequently found pigeons and birds in that place, ⚫ when I went to it in a morning. I quickly delivered them from those robbers: I frighted the birds away ⚫ with fome pieces of paper tied to the end of a ftring over the window. As for the pigeons, I drove them away feveral times; and when they perceived that the place was more frequented than before, they never came to it again. What is most admirable, and what I could hardly believe, if I did not know it by experience,. 1s, that thofe Ants knew fome days after that they had nothing to fear, and began to lay out their corn in the fun. However, I perceived they were not fully, 'convinced of being out of all danger; for they durft not bring out their provifions all at once, but by degrees, first in a fmall quantity, and without any great order, that they might quickly carry them away

in cafe of any misfortune, watching, and looking every way. At last, being perfuaded that they had nothing to fear, they brought out all their corn, almost every day, and in good order, and carried it ⚫ in at night.

There is a ftraight hole in every Ant's nest about half an inch deep; and then it goes down floping into a place where they have their magazine, which I take to be a different place from that where they reft and eat. For it is highly improbable that an Ant, which is a very cleanly infect, and throws out ⚫ of her neft all the fmall remains of the corn on which the feeds, as I have obferved a thousand times, would " fill up her magazine, and mix her corn with dirt and

• ordure.

The corn, that is laid up by Ants, would shoot under ground, if thofe infects did not take care to prevent it. They bite off all the buds before they lay 16 it up: and therefore the corn that has lain in their nefts will produce nothing. Any one may eafily make this experiment, and even plainly fee that there is no bud in their corn. But though the bud be bitten off, there remains another inconvenience, that corn must needs fwell and rot under ground; and ⚫ therefore it could be of no ufe for the nourishment of Ants. Thofe infects prevent that inconvenience by their labour and induftry, and contrive the matter fo, that corn will keep as dry in their nefts as in our granaries,

They gather many fmall particles of dry earth, which they bring every day out of their holes, and place them round to heat them in the fun. Every Ant brings a fmall particle of that earth in her pincers, lays it by the hole, and then goes and fetches another. Thus, in lefs than a quarter of an hour, one may fee a vast number of fuch fmall particles of dry earth heaped up round the hole. They lay their corn under ground upon that earth, and cover it with ⚫ the fame. They perform this work almoft every day, ⚫ during the heat of the fun; and though the fun went from the window about three or four o'clock in the

6

afternoon,

afternoon, they did not remove their corn and their ⚫ particles of earth, because the ground was very hot, till the heat was over.

If any one fhould think that thofe animals fhould • use fand, or small particles of brick or stone, rather than take fo much pains about dry earth; I answer, that upon fuch an occafion nothing can be more proper than earth heated in the fun. Corn does not keep upon fand: Befides, a grain of corn that is cut, being deprived of its bud, would be filled with fmall fandy particles that could not eafily come out.

To

' which I add, that fand confifts of fuch small particles, that an Ant could not take them up one after an• other; and therefore those infects are seldom to be feen near rivers, or in a very fandy ground.

As for the fmall particles of brick or ftone, the • leaft moiftnefs would join them together, and turn ⚫ them into a kind of mastick, which those infects could not divide. Those particles fticking together could. not come out of an Ant's neft, and would spoil its fymmetry.

When Ants have brought out thofe particles of earth, they bring out their corn after the fame manner, and place it round the earth. Thus one may fee two heaps furrounding their hole, one of dry earth, ⚫ and the other of corn; and then they fetch out a remainder of dry earth, on which doubtlefs their corn was laid

up.

• Those infects never go about this work, but when the weather is clear, and the fun very hot. I obferved, that thofe little animals having one day brought out ⚫ their corn at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, removed it, against their usual custom, before one in the afternoon: The fun being very hot, and sky very clear, F could perceive no reafon for it. But half an hour after, the fky began to be overcaft, and there fell a fmall rain, which the Ants forefaw; whereas the • Milan almanac had foretold there would be no rain upon that day.

I have faid before, that those Ants which I did fo particularly confider, fetched their corn out of a gar

ret.