70 HALF AN HOUR WITH SEA-WORMS. 



V. 



HALF AN HOUR WITH SEA-WORMS. 



WITH the exception of one or two notable instances, 

 we can hardly say we are in this case inviting our 

 readers to the study of a class of the most attractive 

 objects. But the naturalist, more than anybody 

 else, soon learns that " beauty is only in the eye of 

 the beholder !" Objects which are interesting soon 

 have an attraction of their own which is quite 

 equivalent to mere beauty. Indeed, the study of 

 natural history would be beneficial if it did no more 

 than check that gross egotism of the human mind 

 which unhesitatingly asks of any object it does not 

 understand " What is it good for ?" without stop- 

 ping to put the same question to itself. It teaches 

 man rightly to understand his own place in the 

 universe as a man apart from his relation to higher 

 laws as an intellectual and moral being. Geology 

 shows that there is hardly a class of creatures now 

 in existence that in its turn has not occupied the 

 chief place in creation; so that, in this^respect, man 

 is only passing through the same grade. 



The very name of "worms " has something tradi- 

 tionally repulsive about it. We have unfortunately, in 

 our ignorance, learned to regard the creatures compos- 

 ing it as types of something degraded. This false idea 



