308 NATURAL HISTORY 



by female wild beasts that probably had lost their 

 young. For it is not one whit more marvellous that 

 Romulus and Remus, in their infant state, should be 

 nursed by a she- wolf, than that a poor little sucking 

 leveret should be fostered and cherished by a bloody 

 grimalkin. 



u viridi fcetam Mavortis in antro 



Procubuisse lupam : geminos huic ubera circum 

 Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem 

 Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam 

 Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua." 



LETTER XXXV. 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR, SELBORNE, May 20, 1777. 



LANDS that are subject to frequent inundations are 

 always poor ; and probably, the reason may be because 

 the worms are drowned. The most insignificant insects 

 and reptiles are of much more consequence, and have 

 much more influence in the economy of Nature, than 

 the incurious are aware of; and are mighty in their 

 effect, from their minuteness, which renders them less 

 an object of attention; and from their numbers and 

 fecundity. Earthworms, though in appearance a small 

 and despicable link in the chain of Nature, yet, if lost, 

 would make a lamentable chasm. For to say nothing 

 of half the birds, and some quadrupeds which are 

 almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be 

 great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed 

 but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and 

 loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains 

 and the fibres of plants; by drawing straws and stalks 

 of leaves and twigs into it; and, most of all, by throwing 

 up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm 



