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COMMUNITY OF ANTS.

of galleries, communicating with chambers and recesses, the life-long abodes of a busy and ingenious community. While the queen ant lives royally, though a perpetual prisoner, in the basement story of the structure, attended by sedulous courtiers, and surrounded by a guard of honour, restless artificers are engaged in constructing and tunnelling roads, and labourers bring in provisions, and distribute them to the consumers. Indeed, were I to set down all that is told of the white ant, and its wondrous and unaccountable faculties, I should seem, from the marvellous nature of the narrative, to be relating fables, requiring as wide a latitude of belief as those of Æsop. The facts, however, are well authenticated, and in all probability, were known to philosophers in the earliest times. The industry and providence of the ant, its two greatest characteristics, are indeed referred to

very pointedly by Solomon. "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

NATURE OF INSTINCT.

her food in the harvest."

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And again: "The

ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer."

What, then, is this influence, this divine and mysterious property, which governs and directs every irrational being?. In what does it differ from judgment, from reason? How are we to separate the two principles, and allot to each its precise and especial dominion?

One thing seems clear, that if we invest any individual of the brute kingdom with reason, we must, as an inevitable consequence, extend the gift to every species; and it is equally obvious, if the matter is viewed in a candid spirit, that the moment an animal receives this endowment, he becomes a rational and an accountable being. Yet no one will be brought to imagine, by the wildest stretch of speculation, that a spider is responsible for its actions, or a tiger for its propensities. Their pursuits are shaped, not by themselves-not by a free and reflective capacity, but by a law of nature— by INSTINCT, from which all their impulses pro

ceed. They are not unshackled and independent agents, but slaves.

We thus see that instinct is involuntary, and not governed by will. Its limits are fixed, and, whatever may be the condition of the animal, it cannot travel out of them. From age to age, under every variety of circumstance, it pursues the same beaten track, and never either retrogrades or advances. Instinct is an unerring guide, but it is a blind one.

On the other hand, the ruling faculty of reason, its most absolute and leading characteristic, is CONSCIOUSNESS-the knowledge of good and evil. It is not impulsive, but reflective— not inflexible, but yielding. In a word, it is an emanation of the Divine Intelligence, immortal and imperishable-the seal of God, stamping His image on the noblest of His creatures.

THE RACE OF MAN.

THE head of the Creation is Man. Endowed with the greatest beauty of form, the noblest aspect, and an organization every way peculiar, he is designed by God to rule over all things, and to be an immediate reflection of His own image. As if to symbolise this preeminence, he is the only animal that walks erect, or that is invested, in compensation for physical deficiencies, with the sovereign attributes of

reason.

The erect position is not only the most natural to man-the most becoming to his appearance, and the best suited to his habits,

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NATURAL POSTURE.

but he could not, if inclined, move for any length of time on his hands and feet. In such a posture, the action of the heart, which is differently placed from that of other animals, would be impeded, and the whole circulation of the blood deranged. His eyes, being adapted only for looking straight forward, would be useless, as the head could not be sustained by the small indented muscle on which it rests, and, keeping the line of the spine, would be continually bent towards the ground. Thus his majestic features would always be hidden, while his movements, instead of being remarkable for dignity and grace, would be ludicrously grotesque and clumsy.

On the other hand, his body is admirably formed for vertical motion, and, in this attitude, displays a singular combination of beauty and proportion. The feet, instead of resting on the outer edge, as with monkeys, have an expanded heel and almost flattened surface, supporting easily the whole weight of the legs. The toes are short, and not opposable to each other, so that, while no way adapted for climbing, they