Chapter LXXXIV.

And since he asserts that, “when ants die, the survivors set apart a special place (for their interment), and that their ancestral sepulchres such a place is,” we have to answer, that the greater the laudations which he heaps upon irrational animals, so much the more does he magnify (although against his will) the work of that reason which arranged all things in order, and points out the skill948    ἐντρέχειαν. which exists among men, and which is capable of adorning by its reason even the gifts which are bestowed by nature on the irrational creation.  But why do I say “irrational,” since Celsus is of opinion that these animals, which, agreeably to the common ideas of all men, are termed irrational, are not really so?  Nor does he regard the ants as devoid of reason, who professed to speak of “universal nature,” and who boasted of his truthfulness in the inscription of his book.  For, speaking of the ants conversing with one another, he uses the following language:  “And when they meet one another they enter into conversation, for which reason they never mistake their way; consequently they possess a full endowment of reason, and some common ideas on certain general subjects, and a voice by which they express themselves regarding accidental things.”949    οὐκοῦν καὶ λόγου συμπλήρωσίς ἐστι παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς, καὶ κοιναὶ ἔννοιαι καθολικῶν τινων, καὶ φωνὴ, καὶ τυγχάνοντα σημαινόμενα.  Now conversation between one man and another is carried on by means of a voice, which gives expression to the meaning intended, and which also gives utterances concerning what are called “accidental things;” but to say that this was the case with ants would be a most ridiculous assertion.

Ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ τοῖς ἀποθνῄσκουσιν μύρμηξί φησι τοὺς ζῶντας ἴδιόν τι ἀποκρίνειν χωρίον, κἀκεῖνο αὐτοῖς εἶναι πάτρια μνήματα, λεκτέον ὅτι ὅσῳ πλείονα λέγει τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων ἐγκώμια, τοσούτῳ πλεῖον, κἂν μὴ θέλῃ, αὔξει τὸ τοῦ πάντα κοσμήσαντος λόγου ἔργον καὶ δείκνυσι τὴν ἐν ἀνθρώ ποις ἐντρέχειαν, δυναμένην κοσμεῖν τῷ λόγῳ καὶ τὰ πλεο νεκτήματα τῆς φύσεως τῶν ἀλόγων. Τί δὲ λέγω τῶν ἀλόγων ἐπεὶ Κέλσῳ δοκεῖ μηδ' ἄλογα εἶναι τὰ κατὰ τὰς κοινὰς πάντων ἐννοίας ἄλογα καλούμενα; Οὐδὲ τοὺς μύρμηκας γοῦν οἴεται εἶναι ἀλόγους ὁ περὶ τῆς ὅλης φύσεως ἐπαγγει λάμενος λέγειν καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐν τῇ ἐπιγραφῇ τοῦ βιβλίου αὐχήσας. Φησὶ γὰρ περὶ τῶν μυρμήκων ὡς διαλεγομένων ἀλλήλοις τοιαῦτα. Καὶ μὲν δὴ καὶ ἀπαντῶντες ἀλλήλοις διαλέγονται, ὅθεν οὐδὲ τῶν ὁδῶν ἁμαρτάνουσιν· οὐκοῦν καὶ λόγου συμπλήρωσίς ἐστι παρ' αὐτοῖς καὶ κοιναὶ ἔννοιαι καθολικῶν τινων καὶ φωνὴ καὶ τυγχάνοντα καὶ σημαινόμενα. Τὸ γὰρ διαλέγεσθαί τινα πρὸς ἕτερον ἐν φωνῇ γίνεται δηλούσῃ τι σημαινόμενον, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν καλου μένων τυγχανόντων ἀπαγγελλούσῃ· ἅπερ καὶ ἐν μύρμηξι λέγειν εἶναι πῶς οὐ πάντων ἂν εἴη καταγελαστότατον;