Читать книгу Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders. Notes and Observations on Their Habits and Dwellings онлайн

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So long as Europe was taught natural history by southern writers the belief prevailed; but no sooner 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 recall 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 Proverbsssss1 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." Hesiodssss1 speaks of the time

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

ὅτἐ τ ιδρις σωρὀυ ἁμαται.

ssss1 vi. 6-8 and xxx. 25.

ssss1 Works and Days, 776.

Horacessss1 also alludes to the foresight of the ant, who is "haud ignara ac non incauta futuri." Virgilssss1 compares the Trojans hastening their departure to harvesting ants, and the passage has been thus rendered by Dryden:—