Against Celsus 4.84

And since he says that the living ants set apart a special place for those that die, and that this is their ancestral burial ground, it must be said that the more praises he utters of the irrational animals, the more, even against his will, he magnifies the work of the Word who ordered all things, and shows the skill in human beings that is able by reason to set in order even the advantages of the nature of irrational beings. (But why do I say irrational, since Celsus thinks that the beings called irrational according to the common notions of all people are not irrational at all?) At any rate, the man who promised to speak about the whole of nature, and boasted of the truth in the title of his book, does not think even ants are irrational. For he says of ants, as though they converse with one another, something like this: "Indeed, when they meet one another they converse, and so they do not lose their way; so there is among them a fulness of reason, and common notions of certain universals, and speech, and objects and meanings." For conversing with another takes place in speech that shows some meaning, and often reports about what are called objects; and to say that these exist in ants too, how would it not be the most ridiculous thing of all?