Although the mind of an ant can not be at all like to the mind of the human being, it is so intelligent that we are justified in trying to describe its existence by a kind of allegorical comparison with human life.  Imagine, then, a world full of women, working night and day,—­building, tunnelling, bridging,—­also engaged in agriculture, in horticulture, and in taking care of many kinds of domestic animals. (I may remark that ants have domesticated no fewer than five hundred and eighty-four different kinds of creatures.) This world of women is scrupulously clean; busy as they are, all of them carry combs and brushes about them, and arrange themselves several times a day.  In addition to this constant work, these women have to take care of myriads of children,—­children so delicate that the slightest change in the weather may kill them.  So the children have to be carried constantly from one place to another in order to keep them warm.

Though this multitude of workers are always gathering food, no one of them would eat or drink a single atom more than is necessary; and none of them would sleep for one second longer than is necessary.  Now comes a surprising fact, about which a great deal must be said later on.  These women have no sex.  They are women, for they sometimes actually give birth, as virgins, to children; but they are incapable of wedlock.  They are more than vestals.  Sex is practically suppressed.

This world of workers is protected by an army of soldiers.  The soldiers are very large, very strong, and shaped so differently from the working females that they do not seem at first to belong to the same race.  They help in the work, though they are not able to help in some delicate kinds of work—­they are too clumsy and strong.  Now comes the second astonishing fact:  these soldiers are all women—­amazons, we might call them; but they are sexless women.  In these also sex has been suppressed.

You ask, where do the children come from?  Most of the children are born of special mothers—­females chosen for the purpose of bearing offspring, and not allowed to do anything else.  They are treated almost like empresses, being constantly fed and attended and served, and being lodged in the best way possible.  Only these can eat and drink at all times—­they must do so for the sake of their offspring.  They are not suffered to go out, unless strongly attended, and they are not allowed to run any risk of danger or of injury The life of the whole race circles about them and about their children, but they are very few.

Last of all are the males, the men.  One naturally asks why females should have been specialized into soldiers instead of men.  It appears that the females have more reserve force, and all the force that might have been utilized in the giving of life has been diverted to the making of aggressive powers.  The real males are very small and weak.  They appear to be treated with indifference and contempt.  They are suffered to become the bridegrooms of one night, after which they die very quickly.  By contrast, the lives of the rest are very long.  Ants live for at least three or four years, but the males live only long enough to perform their solitary function.