Impeccably ethical within the community, ants carry on war outside their own borders; were it not for this, we might call them morally perfect creatures.
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.