CHAPTER VII 



A FEW OF DARWIN'S FACTS 



Night after night Charles Darwin, already an aged man 

 and famous, watched the actions of his angleworms. He 

 kept them in his study in flowerpots, for he wished to find 

 out for himself how 

 much mental power 

 they had. He knew 

 they could not see, 

 for they had no eyes ; 

 that they could not 

 hear, for they had no 

 ears ; that they could 

 feel, for he had seen 

 them shrink from the 

 touch of any sharp 

 thing. But the ques- 

 tion was, Did they 

 think as well as feel ? 

 Did they guide their 

 actions consciously ? 

 This Charles Darwin 

 wished to know. 



It happens that 

 angleworms can only be studied at night, because by daylight 

 they hide themselves underground, out of sight, but at night 

 they stretch themselves out of their burrows and face the 



43 



Charles Darwin 



