of tiny beings, and as we observe them among ourselves, may help
us to understand ourselves--and perhaps to achieve self-command.

I shall be content, here, to cull from the vast experimental repertory
of Auguste Forel, those of his observations which bear upon certain
psychopathological collective states, and those which bear upon the
formidable problem which faces us to-day, the problem of war.

* * * * *

Ants, says Forel, are to other insects what man is to other mammals.
Their brain surpasses that of all other insects in its relative size and
in the complexity of its structure. Even if they fail to attain the
level of individual intelligence characteristic of the higher mammals,
nevertheless they excel all animals without exception in the development
of their social instincts. It is not surprising therefore, that in many
respects their social life should resemble that of the human species.
Like the most advanced human communities, the ant societies are
democracies, fighting democracies. Let us contemplate them at work.

The Ant State is not restricted to the single ant-hill; it has its
territory, its domain, its colonies. Like our colonising powers, it has
its ports of call, its revictualling stations. The territory is a single
meadow, a few trees, or a hedge. The domain of exploitation consists of
the ground and the subsoil, together with the aphis-bearing trees whence
the ants take the aphides they keep under domestication. Their colonies
are detached nests more or less distant from the metropolis and more or
less numerous (there may be as many as two hundred), communicating with
the primary nest by open roads or by underground passages. The depots
are small nests or dug-outs for the use of ants on long expeditions,
ants that require a rest or those that are overtaken by bad weather.

Naturally these communities tend to grow, and they thus come into
conflict one with another. "Territorial disputes, along the frontier
between two great ant communities, are the usual cause of embittered
struggles. The aphis-bearing shrubs are the most fiercely contested.
But, in the case of certain species, subterranean domains (the roots of
plants) are likewise the region of savage warfare." Some species live
solely by war and plunder. Polyergus rufescens (Huber's "amazon")
disdains work, and has indeed lost the power. The members of this
species live as slave-owners, served, tended, fed, by troop