They are a reproach to the lazy, an encouragement tew the industrious, a rebuke tew the viscious, and a studdy to the Christian.
If yu want tew take a lesson in arkitekture, go and set down bi the side ov their hole in the ground, and wonder how so menny kan liv so thick.
If yure pashunce needs consolashun, watch the ants, and be strengthened.
If man had (added tew hiz capacity) the pashunce and grit ov theze little atoms ov animated natur, every mountin on the buzzum ov the arth would, before this, hav bin levelled, and every inch ov surface would scream with fruitfulness, and countless lots ov human critters would hav bin added to the inhabitants ov the universe, and bin fed on corn and other sass.
I hav sot by the hour and a haff down near an aunt-hill, and marvelled; hav wondered at their instinkts, and hav thought how big must be the jackass who waz satisfied to beleave that even an ant, the least ov the bugs, could hav been created, made bizzy, and sot to work by _chance_.
Oh, how i do pity the individual who beleaves that all things here are the work ov an acksident! He robs himself ov all plezzure on earth, and all right in Heaven.
I had rather be an ant (even a humbly, bandy-legged, profane swearing ant), than to look upon the things ov this world az i would on the throw ov the dice.
Man (_for very wize reasons_) want bilt untill all other things were finished, and pronounced good.
If man had bin made fust he would hav insisted upon bossing the rest ov the job.
He probably would hav objekted to having enny little bizzy aunts at all, and various other objekshuns would hav bin offered, equally green.
I am glad that man waz the last thing made.
If man hadn't hav bin made at all, you would never hav heard me find enny fault about it.
I haven't much faith in man, not bekauze he kant do well but bekauze he wont.
Ants hav bye laws, and a constitushun, and they mean sumthing.
Their laws aint like our laws, made with a hole in them, so that a man kan steal a hoss and ride thru them on a walk.
They don't hav enny whisky ring, that iz virtewous, simply, bekauze it hooks bi the millyun, and then legalizes its own ackts.
They don't hav enny legislators that yu kan buy, nor enny judges, laying around on the haff shell, reddy tew be swallered.