ANT, a very common Infect, which hath furnished the Wise Man with a symbolical expression representing a diligent Prov. vi. 6. Gen. x. 18. 1 Chron. i. 16.and laborious life. See likewise Prov. xxx. 24, 25. where the Wise Man commends the prudence of the Ant, in gathering together in the summer, what is necessary for its subsistence in the winter1.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. I shall be excused, if to what the wisest of men has observed of this little Insect, I add what one of the most ingenious of mankind has said much to the same purpose. Parvula nam exemplo est, magni formica laboris Ore trahit quodcunque potest, atque addit acervo Quem struit haud ignara ac non incauta futuri. Quæ simul in versum contristat Aquarius annum, Non usquam prorepit & illis utitur ante Quæsitis sapiens. Horat. Serm. l. 1. 1. And Pliny gives us so agreeable a description of the prudence and good œconomy, &c. of this little creature, that it may not be improper to insert it at length Et iis, says he, Reipublicæ ratio, memoria, cura, semina arrosa condunt, ne rursus infruges exeant e terrâ majora ad introitum dividunt: madefacta imbre proferunt, atque siccant: operantur & noctu plenâ Lunâ: eædem interlunio cessant. Jam in opere qui labor, quæ sedulitas? Et quoniam ex diverso convehunt altera alterius ignara, certi dies ad recognitionem mutuam nundinis dantur. Quæ tunc earum concursatio, quam diligens cum obviis quædam collocutio atque percontatio! Plin. Hist. Nat. l. xi. c. 30. ↩