The curious insect which thus serves as an animated9 sweetmeat for the Mexican children is the honey-ant of the Garden of the Gods; and it affords a beautiful example of Mandeville's charming paradox10 that personal vices11 are public benefits—vitia privata humana commoda. The honey-ant is a greedy individual who has nevertheless nobly devoted12 himself for the good of the community by converting himself into a living honey-jar, from which all the other ants in his own nest may help themselves freely from time to time, as occasion demands. The tribe to which he belongs lives underground, in a dome-roofed vault13, and only one particular caste among the workers, known as rotunds from their expansive girth, is told off for this special duty of storing honey within their own bodies. Clinging to the top of their nest, with their round, transparent14 abdomens16 hanging down loosely, mere17 globules of skin enclosing the pale amber18-coloured honey, these Daniel Lamberts of the insect race look for all the world like clusters of the little American Delaware grapes, with an ant's legs and head stuck awkwardly on to the end instead of a stalk. They have, in fact, realised in everyday life the awful fate of Mr. Gilbert's discontented sugar-broker, who laid on flesh and 'adipose19 deposit' until he became converted at last into a perfect rolling ball of globular humanity.
The manners of the honey-ant race are very simple. Most of the members of each community are active and roving in their dispositions20, and show no tendency to undue21 distension22 of the nether23 extremities24. They go out at night and collect nectar or honey-dew from the gall-insects on oak-trees; for the gall-insect, like love in the old Latin saw, is fruitful both in sweets and bitters, melle et felle. This nectar they then carry home, and give it to the rotunds or honey-bearers, who swallow it and store it in their round abdomen15 until they can hold no more, having stretched their skins literally25 to the very point of bursting. They pass their time, like the Fat Boy in 'Pickwick,' chiefly in sleeping, but they cling upside down meanwhile to the roof of their residence. When the workers in turn require a meal, they go up to the nearest honey-bearer and stroke her gently with their antenn?. The honey-bearer thereupon throws up her head and regurgitates a large drop of the amber liquid. ('Regurgitates' is a good word which I borrow from Dr. McCook, of Philadelphia, the great authority upon honey-ants; and it saves an immense deal of trouble in looking about for a respectable periphrasis.) The workers feed upon the drops thus exuded26, two or three at once often standing27 around the living honey-jar, and lapping nectar together from the lips of their devoted comrade. This may seem at first sight rather an unpleasant practice on the part of the ants; but after all, how does it really differ from our own habit of eating honey which has been treated in very much the same unsophisticated manner by the domestic bee?
Worse things than these, however, Dr. McCook records to the discredit28 of the Colorado honey-ant. When he was opening some nests in the Garden of the Gods, he happened accidentally to knock down some of the rotunds, which straightway burst asunder29 in the middle, and scattered30 their store of honey on the floor of the nest. At once the other ants, tempted31 away from their instinctive32 task of carrying off the cocoons33 and young grubs, clustered around their unfortunate companion, like street boys around a broken molasses barrel, and, instead of forming themselves forthwith into a volunteer ambulance company, proceeded immediately to lap up the honey from their dying brother. On the other hand it must be said, to the credit of the race, that (unlike the members of Arctic expeditions) they never desecrate36 the remains37 of the dead. When a honey-bearer dies at his post, a victim to his zeal38 for the common good, the workers carefully remove his cold corpse39 from the roof where it still clings, clip off the head and shoulders from the distended abdomen, and convey their deceased brother piecemeal40, in two detachments, to the formican cemetery41, undisturbed. If they chose, they might only bury the front half of their late relation, while they retained his remaining moiety42 as an available honey-bag: but from this cannibal proceeding43 ant-etiquette recoils44 in decent horror; and the amber globes are 'pulled up galleries, rolled along rooms, and bowled into the graveyard45, along with the juiceless heads, legs, and other members.' Such fraternal conduct would be very creditable to the worker honey-ants, were it not for a horrid46 doubt insinuated48 by Dr. McCook that perhaps the insects don't know they could get at the honey by breaking up the body of their lamented49 relative. If so, their apparent disregard of utilitarian50 considerations may really be due not to their sentimentality but to their hopeless stupidity.
The reason why the ants have taken thus to storing honey in the living bodies of their own fellows is easy enough to understand. They want to lay up for the future like prudent51 insects that they are; but they can't make wax, as the bees do, and they have not yet evolved the purely52 human art of pottery53. Consequently—happy thought—why not tell off some of our number to act as jars on behalf of the others? Some of the community work by going out and gathering54 honey; they also serve who only stand and wait—who receive it from the workers, and keep it stored up in their own capacious indiarubber maws till further notice. So obvious is this plan for converting ants into animated honey-jars, that several different kinds of ants in different parts of the world, belonging to the most widely distinct families, have independently hit upon the very self-same device. Besides the Mexican species, there is a totally different Australian honey-ant, and another equally separate in Borneo and Singapore. This last kind does not store the honey in the hind55 part of the body technically56 known as the abdomen, but in the middle division which naturalists57 call the thorax, where it forms a transparent bladder-like swelling60, and makes the creature look as though it were suffering with an acute attack of dropsy. In any case, the life of a honey-bearer must be singularly uneventful, not to say dull and monotonous61; but no doubt any small inconvenience in this respect must be more than compensated62 for by the glorious consciousness that one is sacrificing one's own personal comfort for the common good of universal anthood. Perhaps, however, the ants have not yet reached the Positivist stage, and may be totally ignorant of the enthusiasm of formicity.
Equally curious are the habits and manners of the harvesting ants, the species which Solomon seems to have had specially63 in view when he advised his hearers to go to the ant—a piece of advice which I have also adopted as the title of the present article, though I by no means intend thereby64 to insinuate47 that the readers of this volume ought properly to be classed as sluggards. These industrious66 little creatures abound67 in India: they are so small that it takes eight or ten of them to carry a single grain of wheat or barley68; and yet they will patiently drag along their big burden for five hundred or a thousand yards to the door of their formicary. To prevent the grain from germinating69, they bite off the embryo70 root—a piece of animal intelligence outdone by another species of ant, which actually allows the process of budding to begin, so as to produce sugar, as in malting. After the last thunderstorms of the monsoon71 the little proprietors72 bring up all the grain from their granaries to dry in the tropical sunshine. The quantity of grain stored up by the harvesting ants is often so large that the hair-splitting Jewish casuists of the Mishna have seriously discussed the question whether it belongs to the landowner or may lawfully73 be appropriated by the gleaners. 'They do not appear,' says Sir John Lubbock, 'to have considered the rights of the ants.' Indeed our duty towards insects is a question which seems hitherto to have escaped the notice of all moral philosophers. Even Mr. Herbert Spencer, the prophet of individualism, has never taken exception to our gross disregard of the proprietary74 rights of bees in their honey, or of silkworms in their cocoons. There are signs, however, that the obtuse75 human conscience is awakening76 in this respect; for when Dr. Loew suggested to bee-keepers the desirability of testing the commercial value of honey-ants, as rivals to the bee, Dr. McCook replied that 'the sentiment against the use of honey thus taken from living insects, which is worthy77 of all respect, would not be easily overcome.'
There are no harvesting ants in Northern Europe, though they extend as far as Syria, Italy, and the Riviera, in which latter station I have often observed them busily working. What most careless observers take for grain in the nests of English ants are of course really the cocoons of the pup?. For many years, therefore, entomologists were under the impression that Solomon had fallen into this popular error, and that when he described the ant as 'gathering her food in the harvest' and 'preparing her meat in the summer,' he was speaking rather as a poet than as a strict naturalist58. Later observations, however, have vindicated78 the general accuracy of the much-married king by showing that true harvesting ants do actually occur in Syria, and that they lay by stores for the winter in the very way stated by that early entomologist, whose knowledge of 'creeping things' is specially enumerated79 in the long list of his universal accomplishments80.
Dr. Lincecum of Texan fame has even improved upon Solomon by his discovery of those still more interesting and curious creatures, the agricultural ants of Texas. America is essentially81 a farming country, and the agricultural ants are born farmers. They make regular clearings around their nests, and on these clearings they allow nothing to grow except a particular kind of grain, known as ant-rice. Dr. Lincecum maintains that the tiny farmers actually sow and cultivate the ant-rice. Dr. McCook, on the other hand, is of opinion that the rice sows itself, and that the insects' part is limited to preventing any other plants or weeds from encroaching on the appropriated area. In any case, be they squatters or planters, it is certain that the rice, when ripe, is duly harvested, and that it is, to say the least, encouraged by the ants, to the exclusion82 of all other competitors. 'After the maturing and harvesting of the seed,' says Dr. Lincecum, 'the dry stubble is cut away and removed from the pavement, which is thus left fallow until the ensuing autumn, when the same species of grass, and in the same circle, appears again, and receives the same agricultural care as did the previous crop.' Sir John Lubbock, indeed, goes so far as to say that the three stages of human progress—the hunter, the herdsman, and the agriculturist—are all to be found among various species of existing ants.
The Saüba ants of tropical America carry their agricultural operations a step further. Dwelling84 in underground nests, they sally forth35 upon the trees, and cut out of the leaves large round pieces, about as big as a shilling. These pieces they drop upon the ground, where another detachment is in waiting to convey them to the galleries of the nest. There they store enormous quantities of these round pieces, which they allow to decay in the dark, so as to form a sort of miniature mushroom bed. On the mouldering85 vegetable heap they have thus piled up, they induce a fungus86 to grow, and with this fungus they feed their young grubs during their helpless infancy87. Mr. Belt, the 'Naturalist in Nicaragua,' found that native trees suffered far less from their depredations88 than imported ones. The ants hardly touched the local forests, but they stripped young plantations89 of orange, coffee, and mango trees stark91 naked. He ingeniously accounts for this curious fact by supposing that an internecine92 struggle has long been going on in the countries inhabited by the Saübas between the ants and the forest trees. Those trees that best resisted the ants, owing either to some unpleasant taste or to hardness of foliage93, have in the long run survived destruction; but those which were suited for the purpose of the ants have been reduced to nonentity94, while the ants in turn were getting slowly adapted to attack other trees. In this way almost all the native trees have at last acquired some special means of protection against the ravages95 of the leaf-cutters; so that they immediately fall upon all imported and unprotected kinds as their natural prey96. This ingenious and wholly satisfactory explanation must of course go far to console the Brazilian planters for the frequent loss of their orange and coffee crops.
Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of the Darwinian theory (whose honours he waived97 with rare generosity98 in favour of the older and more distinguished99 naturalist), tells a curious story about the predatory habits of these same Saübas. On one occasion, when he was wandering about in search of specimens100 on the Rio Negro, he bought a peck of rice, which was tied up, Indian fashion, in the local bandanna101 of the happy plantation90 slave. At night he left his rice incautiously on the bench of the hut where he was sleeping; and next morning the Saübas had riddled102 the handkerchief like a sieve103, and carried away a gallon of the grain for their own felonious purposes. The underground galleries which they dig can often be traced for hundreds of yards; and Mr. Hamlet Clarke even asserts that in one case they have tunnelled under the bed of a river where it is a quarter of a mile wide. This beats Brunel on his own ground into the proverbial cocked hat, both for depth and distance.
Within doors, in the tropics, ants are apt to put themselves obtrusively104 forward in a manner little gratifying to any except the enthusiastically entomological mind. The winged females, after their marriage flight, have a disagreeable habit of flying in at the open doors and windows at lunch time, settling upon the table like the Harpies in the ?neid, and then quietly shuffling105 off their wings one at a time, by holding them down against the table-cloth with one leg, and running away vigorously with the five others. As soon as they have thus disembarrassed themselves of their superfluous106 members, they proceed to run about over the lunch as if the house belonged to them, and to make a series of experiments upon the edible107 qualities of the different dishes. One doesn't so much mind their philosophical108 inquiries110 into the nature of the bread or even the meat; but when they come to drowning themselves by dozens, in the pursuit of knowledge, in the soup and sherry, one feels bound to protest energetically against the spirit of martyrdom by which they are too profoundly animated. That is one of the slight drawbacks of the realms of perpetual summer; in the poets you see only one side of the picture—the palms, the orchids111, the humming-birds, the great trailing lianas: in practical life you see the reverse side—the thermometer at 98°, the tepid112 drinking-water, the prickly heat, the perpetual languor113, the endless shoals of aggressive insects. A lady of my acquaintance, indeed, made a valuable entomological collection in her own dining-room, by the simple process of consigning114 to pill-boxes all the moths115 and flies and beetles117 that settled upon the mangoes and star-apples in the course of dessert.
Another objectionable habit of the tropical ants, viewed practically, is their total disregard of vested interests in the case of house property. Like Mr. George and his communistic friends, they disbelieve entirely in the principle of private rights in real estate. They will eat their way through the beams of your house till there is only a slender core of solid wood left to support the entire burden. I have taken down a rafter in my own house in Jamaica, originally 18 inches thick each way, with a sound circular centre of no more than 6 inches in diameter, upon which all the weight necessarily fell. With the material extracted from the wooden beams they proceed to add insult to injury by building long covered galleries right across the ceiling of your drawing-room. As may be easily imagined, these galleries do not tend to improve the appearance of the ceiling; and it becomes necessary to form a Liberty and Property Defence League for the protection of one's personal interests against the insect enemy. I have no objection to ants building galleries on their own freehold, or even to their nationalising the land in their native forests; but I do object strongly to their unwarrantable intrusion upon the domain118 of private life. Expostulation and active warfare119, however, are equally useless. The carpenter-ant has no moral sense, and is not amenable120 either to kindness or blows. On one occasion, when a body of these intrusive121 creatures had constructed an absurdly conspicuous122 brown gallery straight across the ceiling of my drawing-room, I determined123 to declare open war against them, and, getting my black servant to bring in the steps and a mop, I proceeded to demolish124 the entire gallery just after breakfast. It was about 20 feet long, as well as I can remember, and perhaps an inch in diameter. At one o'clock I returned to lunch. My black servant pointed125, with a broad grin on his intelligent features, to the wooden ceiling. I looked up; in those three hours the carpenter-ants had reconstructed the entire gallery, and were doubtless mocking me at their ease, with their uplifted antenn?, under that safe shelter. I retired126 at once from the unequal contest. It was clearly impossible to go on knocking down a fresh gallery every three hours of the day or night throughout a whole lifetime.
Ants, says Mr. Wallace, without one touch of satire127, 'force themselves upon the attention of everyone who visits the tropics.' They do, indeed, and that most pungently128; if by no other method, at least by the simple and effectual one of stinging. The majority of ants in every nest are of course neuters, or workers, that is to say, strictly129 speaking, undeveloped females, incapable130 of laying eggs. But they still retain the ovipositor, which is converted into a sting, and supplied with a poisonous liquid to eject afterwards into the wound. So admirably adapted to its purpose is this beautiful provision of nature, that some tropical ants can sting with such violence as to make your leg swell59 and confine you for some days to your room; while cases have even been known in which the person attacked has fainted with pain, or had a serious attack of fever in consequence. It is not every kind of ant, however, that can sting; a great many can only bite with their little hard horny jaws131, and then eject a drop of formic poison afterwards into the hole caused by the bite. The distinction is a delicate physiological132 one, not much appreciated by the victims of either mode of attack. The perfect females can also sting, but not, of course, the males, who are poor, wretched, useless creatures, only good as husbands for the community, and dying off as soon as they have performed their part in the world—another beautiful provision, which saves the workers the trouble of killing133 them off, as bees do with drones after the marriage flight of the queen bee.
The blind driver-ants of West Africa are among the very few species that render any service to man, and that, of course, only incidentally. Unlike most other members of their class, the driver-ants have no settled place of residence; they are vagabonds and wanderers upon the face of the earth, formican tramps, blind beggars, who lead a gipsy existence, and keep perpetually upon the move, smelling their way cautiously from one camping-place to another. They march by night, or on cloudy days, like wise tropical strategists, and never expose themselves to the heat of the day in broad sunshine, as though they were no better than the mere numbered British Tommy Atkins at Coomassie or in the Soudan. They move in vast armies across country, driving everything before them as they go; for they belong to the stinging division, and are very voracious134 in their personal habits. Not only do they eat up the insects in their line of march, but they fall even upon larger creatures and upon big snakes, which they attack first in the eyes, the most vulnerable portion. When they reach a negro village the inhabitants turn out en masse, and run away, exactly as if the visitors were English explorers or brave Marines, bent135 upon retaliating136 for the theft of a knife by nobly burning down King Tom's town or King Jumbo's capital. Then the negroes wait in the jungle till the little black army has passed on, after clearing out the huts by the way of everything eatable. When they return they find their calabashes and saucepans licked clean, but they also find every rat, mouse, lizard137, cockroach138, gecko, and beetle116 completely cleared out from the whole village. Most of them have cut and run at the first approach of the drivers; of the remainder, a few blanched139 and neatly-picked skeletons alone remain to tell the tale.
As I wish to be considered a veracious140 historian, I will not retail141 the further strange stories that still find their way into books of natural history about the manners and habits of these blind marauders. They cross rivers, the West African gossips declare, by a number of devoted individuals flinging themselves first into the water as a living bridge, like so many six-legged Marcus Curtiuses, while over their drowning bodies the heedless remainder march in safety to the other side. If the story is not true, it is at least well invented; for the ant-commonwealth everywhere carries to the extremest pitch the old Roman doctrine142 of the absolute subjection of the individual to the State. So exactly is this the case that in some species there are a few large, overgrown, lazy ants in each nest, which do no work themselves, but accompany the workers on their expeditions; and the sole use of these idle mouths seems to be to attract the attention of birds and other enemies, and so distract it from the useful workers, the mainstay of the entire community. It is almost as though an army, marching against a tribe of cannibals, were to place itself in the centre of a hollow square formed of all the fattest people in the country, whose fine condition and fitness for killing might immediately engross143 the attention of the hungry enemy. Ants, in fact, have, for the most part, already reached the goal set before us as a delightful144 one by most current schools of socialist145 philosophers, in which the individual is absolutely sacrificed in every way to the needs of the community.
The most absurdly human, however, among all the tricks and habits of ants are their well known cattle-farming and slave-holding instincts. Everybody has heard, of course, how they keep the common rose-blight as milch cows, and suck from them the sweet honey-dew. But everybody, probably, does not yet know the large number of insects which they herd83 in one form or another as domesticated146 animals. Man has, at most, some twenty or thirty such, including cows, sheep, horses, donkeys, camels, llamas, alpacas, reindeer147, dogs, cats, canaries, pigs, fowl148, ducks, geese, turkeys, and silkworms. But ants have hundreds and hundreds, some of them kept obviously for purposes of food; others apparently149 as pets; and yet others again, as has been plausibly150 suggested, by reason of superstition151 or as objects of worship. There is a curious blind beetle which inhabits ants' nests, and is so absolutely dependent upon its hosts for support that it has even lost the power of feeding itself. It never quits the nest, but the ants bring it in food and supply it by putting the nourishment152 actually into its mouth. But the beetle, in return, seems to secrete153 a sweet liquid (or it may even be a stimulant154 like beer, or a narcotic155 like tobacco) in a tuft of hairs near the bottom of the hard wing-cases, and the ants often lick this tuft with every appearance of satisfaction and enjoyment156. In this case, and in many others, there can be no doubt that the insects are kept for the sake of food or some other advantage yielded by them.
But there are other instances of insects which haunt ants' nests, which it is far harder to account for on any hypothesis save that of superstitious157 veneration158. There is a little weevil that runs about by hundreds in the galleries of English ants, in and out among the free citizens, making itself quite at home in their streets and public places, but as little noticed by the ants themselves as dogs are in our own cities. Then, again, there is a white woodlouse, something like the common little armadillo, but blind from having lived so long underground, which walks up and down the lanes and alleys159 of antdom, without ever holding any communication of any sort with its hosts and neighbours. In neither case has Sir John Lubbock ever seen an ant take the slightest notice of the presence of these strange fellow-lodgers. 'One might almost imagine,' he says, 'that they had the cap of invisibility.' Yet it is quite clear that the ants deliberately160 sanction the residence of the weevils and woodlice in their nests, for any unauthorised intruder would immediately be set upon and massacred outright161.
Sir John Lubbock suggests that they may perhaps be tolerated as scavengers: or, again, it is possible that they may prey upon the eggs or larv? of some of the parasites162 to whose attacks the ants are subject. In the first case, their use would be similar to that of the wild dogs in Constantinople or the common black John-crow vultures in tropical America: in the second case, they would be about equivalent to our own cats or to the hedgehog often put in farmhouse163 kitchens to keep down cockroaches164.
The crowning glory of owning slaves, which many philosophic109 Americans (before the war) showed to be the highest and noblest function of the most advanced humanity, has been attained165 by more than one variety of anthood. Our great English horse-ant is a moderate slaveholder; but the big red ant of Southern Europe carries the domestic institution many steps further. It makes regular slave-raids upon the nests of the small brown ants, and carries off the young in their pupa condition. By-and-by the brown ants hatch out in the strange nest, and never having known any other life except that of slavery, accommodate themselves to it readily enough. The red ant, however, is still only an occasional slaveowner; if necessary, he can get along by himself, without the aid of his little brown servants. Indeed, there are free states and slave states of red ants side by side with one another, as of old in Maryland and Pennsylvania: in the first, the red ants do their work themselves, like mere vulgar Ohio farmers; in the second, they get their work done for them by their industrious little brown servants, like the aristocratic first families of Virginia before the earthquake of emancipation166.
But there are other degraded ants, whose life-history may be humbly167 presented to the consideration of the Anti-Slavery Society, as speaking more eloquently168 than any other known fact for the demoralising effect of slaveowning upon the slaveholders themselves. The Swiss rufescent ant is a species so long habituated to rely entirely upon the services of slaves that it is no longer able to manage its own affairs when deprived by man of its hereditary169 bondsmen. It has lost entirely the art of constructing a nest; it can no longer tend its own young, whom it leaves entirely to the care of negro nurses; and its bodily structure even has changed, for the jaws have lost their teeth, and have been converted into mere nippers, useful only as weapons of war. The rufescent ant, in fact, is a purely military caste, which has devoted itself entirely to the pursuit of arms, leaving every other form of activity to its slaves and dependents. Officers of the old school will be glad to learn that this military insect is dressed, if not in scarlet170, at any rate in very decent red, and that it refuses to be bothered in any way with questions of transport or commissariat. If the community changes its nest, the masters are carried on the backs of their slaves to the new position, and the black ants have to undertake the entire duty of foraging171 and bringing in stores of supply for their gentlemanly proprietors. Only when war is to be made upon neighbouring nests does the thin red line form itself into long file for active service. Nothing could be more perfectly172 aristocratic than the views of life entertained and acted upon by these distinguished slaveholders.
On the other hand, the picture has its reverse side, exhibiting clearly the weak points of the slaveholding system. The rufescent ant has lost even the very power of feeding itself. So completely dependent is each upon his little black valet for daily bread, that he cannot so much as help himself to the food that is set before him. Hüber put a few slaveholders into a box with some of their own larv? and pup?, and a supply of honey, in order to see what they would do with them. Appalled173 at the novelty of the situation, the slaveholders seemed to come to the conclusion that something must be done; so they began carrying the larv? about aimlessly in their mouths, and rushing up and down in search of the servants. After a while, however, they gave it up and came to the conclusion that life under such circumstances was clearly intolerable. They never touched the honey, but resigned themselves to their fate like officers and gentlemen. In less than two days, half of them had died of hunger, rather than taste a dinner which was not supplied to them by a properly constituted footman. Admiring their heroism174 or pitying their incapacity, Hüber at last gave them just one slave between them all. The plucky175 little negro, nothing daunted176 by the gravity of the situation, set to work at once, dug a small nest, gathered together the larv?, helped several pup? out of the cocoon34, and saved the lives of the surviving slaveowners. Other naturalists have tried similar experiments, and always with the same result. The slaveowners will starve in the midst of plenty rather than feed themselves without attendance. Either they cannot or will not put the food into their own mouths with their own mandibles.
There are yet other ants, such as the workerless Anergates, in which the degradation177 of slaveholding has gone yet further. These wretched creatures are the formican representatives of those Oriental despots who are no longer even warlike, but are sunk in sloth178 and luxury, and pass their lives in eating bang or smoking opium179. Once upon a time, Sir John Lubbock thinks, the ancestors of Anergates were marauding slaveowners, who attacked and made serfs of other ants. But gradually they lost not only their arts but even their military prowess, and were reduced to making war by stealth instead of openly carrying off their slaves in fair battle. It seems probable that they now creep into a nest of the far more powerful slave ants, poison or assassinate180 the queen, and establish themselves by sheer usurpation181 in the queenless nest. 'Gradually,' says Sir John Lubbock, 'even their bodily force dwindled182 away under the enervating183 influence to which they had subjected themselves, until they sank to their present degraded condition—weak in body and mind, few in numbers, and apparently nearly extinct, the miserable184 representatives of far superior ancestors maintaining a precarious185 existence as contemptible186 parasites of their former slaves.' One may observe in passing that these wretched do-nothings cannot have been the ants which Solomon commended to the favourable187 consideration of the sluggard65; though it is curious that the text was never pressed into the service of defence for the peculiar188 institution by the advocates of slavery in the South, who were always most anxious to prove the righteousness of their cause by most sure and certain warranty189 of Holy Scripture190.
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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ingenuous
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| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
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approbation
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primitive
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humane
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distended
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intoxicating
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credibly
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animated
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paradox
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vices
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devoted
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vault
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transparent
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abdomen
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abdomens
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mere
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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19
adipose
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| adj.脂肪质的，脂肪多的；n.（储于脂肪组织中的）动物脂肪；肥胖 | |
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20
dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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21
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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22
distension
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| n.扩张，膨胀(distention) | |
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23
nether
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| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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24
extremities
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| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
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25
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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26
exuded
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| v.缓慢流出，渗出，分泌出( exude的过去式和过去分词 )；流露出对（某物）的神态或感情 | |
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27
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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28
discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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29
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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30
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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31
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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32
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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33
cocoons
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| n.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的名词复数 )v.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的第三人称单数 ) | |
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34
cocoon
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| n.茧 | |
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35
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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36
desecrate
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| v.供俗用，亵渎，污辱 | |
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37
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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38
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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39
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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40
piecemeal
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| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
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41
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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42
moiety
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| n.一半；部分 | |
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43
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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44
recoils
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| n.（尤指枪炮的）反冲，后坐力( recoil的名词复数 )v.畏缩( recoil的第三人称单数 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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45
graveyard
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| n.坟场 | |
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46
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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47
insinuate
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| vt.含沙射影地说，暗示 | |
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48
insinuated
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| v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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49
lamented
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| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
utilitarian
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| adj.实用的，功利的 | |
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51
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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52
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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53
pottery
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| n.陶器，陶器场 | |
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54
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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55
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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56
technically
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| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
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57
naturalists
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| n.博物学家( naturalist的名词复数 )；（文学艺术的）自然主义者 | |
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58
naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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59
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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60
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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61
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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62
compensated
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| 补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款） | |
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63
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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64
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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65
sluggard
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| n.懒人；adj.懒惰的 | |
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66
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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67
abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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68
barley
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| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
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69
germinating
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| n.& adj.发芽（的）v.（使）发芽( germinate的现在分词 ) | |
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70
embryo
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| n.胚胎，萌芽的事物 | |
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71
monsoon
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| n.季雨，季风，大雨 | |
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72
proprietors
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| n.所有人，业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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73
lawfully
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| adv.守法地，合法地；合理地 | |
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74
proprietary
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| n.所有权，所有的；独占的；业主 | |
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75
obtuse
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| adj.钝的；愚钝的 | |
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76
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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77
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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78
vindicated
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| v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的过去式和过去分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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79
enumerated
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| v.列举，枚举，数( enumerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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80
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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81
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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82
exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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83
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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84
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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85
mouldering
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| v.腐朽( moulder的现在分词 )；腐烂，崩塌 | |
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86
fungus
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| n.真菌，真菌类植物 | |
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87
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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88
depredations
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| n.劫掠，毁坏( depredation的名词复数 ) | |
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89
plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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90
plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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91
stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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92
internecine
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| adj.两败俱伤的 | |
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93
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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94
nonentity
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| n.无足轻重的人 | |
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95
ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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96
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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97
waived
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| v.宣布放弃( waive的过去式和过去分词 )；搁置；推迟；放弃（权利、要求等） | |
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98
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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99
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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100
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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101
bandanna
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| n.大手帕 | |
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102
riddled
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| adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式) | |
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103
sieve
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| n.筛，滤器，漏勺 | |
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104
obtrusively
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| adv.冒失地，莽撞地 | |
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105
shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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106
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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107
edible
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| n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的 | |
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108
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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109
philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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110
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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111
orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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112
tepid
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| adj.微温的，温热的，不太热心的 | |
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113
languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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114
consigning
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的现在分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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115
moths
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| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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116
beetle
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| n.甲虫，近视眼的人 | |
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117
beetles
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| n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 ) | |
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118
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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119
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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120
amenable
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| adj.经得起检验的；顺从的；对负有义务的 | |
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121
intrusive
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| adj.打搅的；侵扰的 | |
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122
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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123
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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124
demolish
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| v.拆毁(建筑物等)，推翻(计划、制度等) | |
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125
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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126
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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127
satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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128
pungently
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| adv.苦痛地，尖锐地 | |
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129
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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130
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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131
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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132
physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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133
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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134
voracious
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| adj.狼吞虎咽的，贪婪的 | |
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135
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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136
retaliating
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| v.报复，反击( retaliate的现在分词 ) | |
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137
lizard
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| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
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138
cockroach
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| n.蟑螂 | |
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139
blanched
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| v.使变白( blanch的过去式 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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140
veracious
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| adj.诚实可靠的 | |
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141
retail
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| v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格 | |
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142
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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143
engross
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| v.使全神贯注 | |
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144
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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145
socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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146
domesticated
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|
| adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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147
reindeer
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| n.驯鹿 | |
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148
fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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149
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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150
plausibly
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| 似真地 | |
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151
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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152
nourishment
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| n.食物，营养品；营养情况 | |
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153
secrete
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| vt.分泌；隐匿，使隐秘 | |
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154
stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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155
narcotic
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| n.麻醉药，镇静剂；adj.麻醉的，催眠的 | |
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156
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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157
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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158
veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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159
alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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162
parasites
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| 寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫 | |
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163
farmhouse
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| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
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cockroaches
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| n.蟑螂( cockroach的名词复数 ) | |
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165
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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166
emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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168
eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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171
foraging
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| v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西） | |
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172
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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173
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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174
heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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175
plucky
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| adj.勇敢的 | |
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daunted
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| 使（某人）气馁，威吓( daunt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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178
sloth
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| n.[动]树懒；懒惰，懒散 | |
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179
opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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180
assassinate
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| vt.暗杀，行刺，中伤 | |
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181
usurpation
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| n.篡位；霸占 | |
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182
dwindled
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| v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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183
enervating
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| v.使衰弱，使失去活力( enervate的现在分词 ) | |
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184
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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185
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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186
contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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187
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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188
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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189
warranty
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| n.担保书，证书，保单 | |
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190
scripture
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| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
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