184 The Natural History 



procuring her teats to be drawn, which were too much 

 distended with milk, till, from habit, she became as 

 much delighted with this foundling as if it had been her 

 real offspring. 



This incident is no bad solution of that strange cir- 

 cumstance which grave historians as well as the poets 

 assert, of exposed children being sometimes nurtured 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 Httle sucking leveret should 

 be fostered and cherished by a bloody grimalkin. 



" 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 HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, May 20, 1777. 



Dear Sir, 

 Lands that are subject to frequent inundations are 

 always poor ; and probably the reason may be because 

 the worms are drow^ned. The most insignificant insects 

 and reptiles are of much more consequence, and have 

 much more influence in the oeconomy of nature, than 

 the incurious are aware of; and are mighty in their 

 eftect, from their minuteness, which renders them less an 

 object of attention ; and from their numbers and fecun- 

 dity. Earth-worms, though in appearance a small and 

 despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would 

 make a lamentable chasm. P^or, to say nothing of half 

 the birds, and some quadrupeds which are almost entirely 

 supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters 

 of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without 



