What can an ANT teach me about life?

The celebrated conqueror, Timour the Tartar, was once forced to take shelter from his enemies in a ruined building. There he sat alone for several hours.

After some time, desirous of diverting his mind from his hopeless condition, he fixed his attention on an ANT which was attempting to carry a grain of corn, larger than itself, up a high wall. Its efforts, however, were unsuccessful.

Again and again it strove to accomplish its object—and failed. Still undaunted, it returned to its task, and sixty-nine times did Timour see the grain fall to the ground. But the seventieth time the ant reached the top of the wall with its prize; and “the sight,” said the conqueror, who had just before been despairing, “gave me courage at the moment, and I have never forgotten the lesson it conveyed.”

Nor should we forget it. We should first see if a thing is worth doing, and if it is, and we fail, we should try again and again, and persevere until it is accomplished. If an ant were not discouraged by sixty-nine failures, when should a little boy or girl be disheartened?

We must be careful not to judge others. People are to be appreciated for those things which they do best. We must remember that people have different abilities, experience and education. A weaver would make a poor blacksmith; a carpenter would make a poor tailor; and yet each of them, kept to his place, may do his work well; and no one is to be blamed for the lack of what he never had an opportunity of acquiring.