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each side, each foot has two branches, and each 

 branch has at least one spine, and one brush of 

 bristles, some of them simple, some of them compound. 

 This individual then has 2,000 spines at least ; and if 

 we reckon ten bristles to each brush, it has also 

 20,000 of them ! This, as Sir Thomas Brown would 

 say, is one of the ' magnalities ' of nature ; yet, let us 

 look a little further, not merely to the exquisite finish 

 of each bristle, but to the means by which the host is 

 put in motion. There is a set of muscles to push 

 them forth from their port-holes ; there is another to 

 replace each and all of them within their proper 

 cases ; and the uncounted crowd of these muscles 

 neither twist nor knot together, but play in their 

 courses, regulated by a will that controls them more 

 effectually than any brace, that now spurs them to 

 convulsive energy, now stills them to rest, and anon 

 puts them into action, where the ease and grace 

 charm us to admiration, and fix the belief that even 

 these creeping things participate largely in the 

 happiness diffused throughout creation ! " Hush I 

 reader, it is only a worm ! 



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