Various

“ What though my readers have gone unsatisfied away from the table which I had spread for them?—the fruits of wisdom though harsh and austere in their taste, have not lost their savour with me; they still hang upon the tree of nature, and I can yet gather them for my own sustenance, though it be in solitude and obscurity. Minds, to whose gigantic proportions I feel myself a pigmy have exhausted their skill in portraying the beauty of virtue, and the world still lingers in corruption and defilement. ”

“ The probability is, that not one mortal now in being, of mature age, will be seen on the face of the earth in eighty years; although many of our youth will reach that proud era of American glory. What a solemn responsibility devolves on all the conspicuous actors of the present day, since this generation is destined to influence the happiness of one hundred millions of free born Americans in the short span of 80 years! ”

“ Rational economy, while it supplies him with the means of rendering every man his due, will prove also the legitimate fountain of charity. Profusion is no friend to pity; and how can he have a right to be liberal, whose debts are unpaid. The movings of Charity are silenced, by the "cry of the labourers whose wages are kept back;" while he, whose industry has satisfied the claims of justice, may make glad the hearts of theirs, while his own reproaches him not. May we not suppose that the remembrance of having ourselves known want, would soften the feelings to the wants of others? ”

“ Thus excited to perseverance, he ascertains the extent of his own talents, bends them to their proper objects, brightens them by exercise, and entrusts them "to the usurer, that the Giver, at his coming, may receive his own."—The indolent mind, weakened by indulgence, views knowledge as "an austere man," and committing its talent to the earth, beholds its harvest in the mildew, the mouldering, and decay of its own powers. ”

“ The mind that has been at all trained in the school of nature, and has drank of true philosophy at its source amid fields and groves and mountains, can catch the glow of inspiration even from these stern and rugged features. ”

“ Of all the enemies of the ant, those most dreaded are the ants themselves; the smallest not the least, since [459] several fasten at once upon the feet of the largest, drag them to the ground, embarrass their movements, and thus prevent their escape. One would be astonished at the fury of these insects in their combats; it would be more easy to tear away their limbs and cut them to pieces, than compel them to quit their hold. It is nothing uncommon to see the head of an ant suspended to the legs or antennæ of some worker, who bears about, in every place, this pledge of his victory. ”

“ We shall there see populous and rival cities, regular roads passing from the ant hill as so many rays from a centre, and frequently by an immense number of combatants, wars between hordes of the same species for they are naturally enemies and jealous of the territory which borders their own capital. It is in these forests I have witnessed the inhabitants of two large ant-hills engaged in spirited combat. I cannot pretend to say what occasioned discord between these republics. They were composed of ants of the same species, alike in their extent and population ”

“ How does nature work it? Why nature covers land with herbage; that herbage withers and rots upon the land; and gradually forms a rich black mould. But farmers, when they have used land till it will bear no crops, let it lie without feeding it. No herbage grows on the land, till the weeds and a little grass creep in by chance; after three or four years, the farmer ploughs it for a crop, and has a job at killing weeds. Surely the man does not work it right; but he says, it will do for the present.
But no body is so apt to put off things with, it will do for the present, as corporate bodies. ”

“ Who, with a warmer overflowing of charity, would impart bread to the hungry, and a garment to the shelterless, than the man, who had himself felt the need of one, or by his own labour obtained possession of the other? ”

“ A well-regulated mind, by accustoming itself to privation, and sacrifice, rises superior to selfish gratifications, and improves in that disinterested state of the affections, which is one of the greatest objects of piety to cultivate.—The man, whose narrow possessions are the fruit of his own industry, will better understand their value, more studiously avoid the vices that dissipate them, and more conscientiously limit his expenses by [464] his income.—Thus will he keep his spirit unhumbled by the embarrassments of debt, and his heart unchilled by dread at the face of a creditor. ”

“ I wish you indeed to be distinguished; but wealth is not essential to distinction. Look at the illustrious patriots, philosophers and philanthropists, who in various ages have blessed the world; was it their wealth that made them great? Where was the wealth of Aristides, Socrates, of Plato, of Epaminondas, of Fabricius, of Cincinnatus, and a countless host upon the rolls of fame. Their wealth was in the mind and the heart. ”

“ They struck against each other when they met, and had always their mandibles separated in the attitude of defiance. As soon as the Herculean Ants approached their camp, the centinals in front assailed them with fury; they fought at first in single combat. The Sanguine Ant threw himself upon the Herculean Ant, fastened upon its head, turned its abdomen against the chest of its adversary or against the lower part of its mouth, and inundated it with venom. ”

“ The wars entered into by ants of different size bear no resemblance to those in which ants engage who come to combat with an equal force. When the large attack the small, they appear to do it by surprise, most likely to prevent the latter from fastening upon their legs; they seize them in the upper part of the body and strangle them immediately between their pincers. But when the small ants have time to guard against an attack, they intimate to their companions the danger with which they are threatened, when the latter arrive in crowds to their assistance. ”

“ A class of distresses, of which the rich can have no conception, he has entered into; and in his humble gift there will be more charity, than in the ample donations of Pride, listening to hear Fame extol her bounty. As the Israelites were incited to hospitality, by the remembrance that they had once "been strangers in the land of Egypt," so the heart that has endured the privations of poverty, can better estimate, and more feelingly relieve them. ”

“ We could, without doubt, irritate ants on the surface of the nest, without alarming those in the interior, if they acted isolately, and had no means of communicating their mutual impressions. Those who are occupied at the bottom of their nest, removed from the scene of danger, ignorant of what menaces their companions, could not arrive to their assistance; but it appears, that they are quickly and well informed of what is passing on the exterior. When we attack those without, the most part engage in their defence with a considerable degree of courage ”

“ The scene of warfare occupied a space of about three feet square; a penetrating odour exhaled from all sides; numbers of dead ants were seen covered with venom. Those ants composing groups and chains, took hold of each other's legs and pincers, and dragged their antagonists on the ground. These groups formed successively. The fight usually commenced between two ants, who seized each other by the mandibles, and raised themselves upon their hind legs, to allow of their bringing their abdomen forward, and spirting the venom upon their adversary. ”

“ It is curious to observe, however, on the score of utility, that the more minute parts of creation are of infinitely greater importance than the superior creatures in the scale of animal life. A knowledge of entomology is calculated to elicit more for the benefit of man, than an acquaintance with the habits of the larger brutes: the bee, the silk-worm, the cochineal insect, the Spanish fly, &c. &c. are far more essential to our purposes than the lion, the elephant, the rhinoceros, or the bear; even the sheep and the cow, only compete with these insects, as clothiers and victuallers ”

“ The most efficacious preventive, of the evils attendant on poverty, is the general and extensive application of mental and moral discipline to the rising generation. This is the only radical remedy for the disease; a truth, which should never be lost sight of, by forecasting statesmen and enlightened philanthropists. But the urgency and immediate pressure of want, requires prompt relief, not to be derived from this source. The array of indigence will be unusually great during the approaching winter, for even honest industry is frequently disappointed in its search after employment. ”

“ I say, if a man proposes any reformation in those particulars, the public body says, away with your projects; let us go on in the good old way; it will do for the present. So in little public bodies, a town or a city, the poor must be provided for, bridges must be built, roads must be repaired—How? By a tax, or by labour. Is it best to raise money enough this year to pay the town debt? ”

“ But it should always be remembered, that wretchedness and misery from whatever cause they may proceed, are entitled to commiseration; and that genuine charity imitates though at infinite distance, the example of our beneficent Creator, who "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."
The most salutary mode of extending relief, is unquestionably that of employment. Idleness is uniformly prejudicial to sound morals, and intrinsically mischievous in its character. ”

“ The earth, strewed with the dead bodies of their compatriots, bore witness they had suffered the greatest carnage; they therefore, took the prudent part of fixing their habitation elsewhere, and with great activity transported to a distance of fifty feet from the spot, their companions, and the several objects that interested them. Small detachments of the workers were posted at little distances from the nest, apparently placed there to cover the march of the retreats and to preserve the city itself from any sudden attack. ”

“ In the ants nest are males whose sole business is to perpetuate the species and die; females who are waited upon like peeresses in their own right, who neither toil nor spin, but are served by neutrals, labourers, who tend their innumerable eggs, nourish and unfold the larvæ, and in short, do all the duties of mothers, nurses, and menials. The author devised means to observe their internal economy; and he says—
"Let us now open the shutter which conceals from us the interior of the ant hill, and let us see what is passing there. ”

“ In all his journies, he seems kick'd and cuff'd by the whole party, and subjected to the grossest contempt and derision, for the appearance of poverty he always thought it prudent to assume. His system was, that the less display of wealth a man makes in the east the safer he is. This may be true enough in general; but when he travelled with a caravan containing merchants who had ten or twelve camels, and twenty or thirty slaves each, he might surely have ventured on the display of one camel, and one or two slaves; for in one journey he travels upon an ass, without a slave ”

“ CULTIVATION OF FLOWERS IN HOLLAND.
After passing through the small town of Liss, the road continued with the sandhills in perfect barrenness till we approached that city; whose entrance is decorated with country seats of considerable magnificence and beautiful flower gardens which supply bulbs to the horticulturists of their own country, as well as furnish the most beautiful specimens of flowers to the rest of Europe.
The attention of the cultivation of flower roots and seeds, independent of the elegance of the pursuit, has by the profits it has brought become an object of some importance. ”

“ But when the western world is all peopled, what will our do for the present folks do for good land? The answer is easy; necessity will compel them to use common sense; and common sense will soon make old poor land rich again. When farmers learn to work it right, they will keep it good, for the Prompter ventures to assert, that a proper tillage will for ever keep land good. ”

“ They can all lay down plans, and continue to polish or retouch their work as occasion requires. The water furnishes the cement they require, and the sun and air hardens the materials of which their edifice is composed. They have no other chisel than their teeth, no other compass than their antennæ, and no other trowel than their fore-feet, of which they make use in an admirable manner, to affix and consolidate the moistened earth. ”

“ When the sun's rays fell upon the exterior portion of the nest, the ants, who were then on the surface, descended with great rapidity to the bottom of the ant-hill, struck with their antennæ the other ants, ran one after the other, and jostled their companions, who mounted at the moment under the bell glass, and redescended with the same speed, putting in their turn the whole colony in motion, so that we could observe a swarm of workers, filling up all the passages ”

“ If the navigation of a river wants improvement, the public body, that is, any body, every body, and no body, immediately exclaims, "how did our fathers get along? The river did well enough for them—it must do for the present." If a bad law exists, by which the public money is to be collected in the worst manner that can be imagined; or if a constitution is defective, in permitting the same men to be makers and judges of a law ”

“ When I disturbed those ants that were at the greatest distance from their companions, by either observing them too closely, or blowing upon them lightly, I saw them run towards the other ants, give them gentle blows with their heads against the corslet, communicating to them in this way, their fear or anger, passing rapidly from one to the other in a semicircular direction, and striking several times successively against those who did not put themselves in instant motion. ”