[page] 380

The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits, is by Charles Darwin, and the authorship will secure for it a wide reading. Though scientific in a sense, it is not technically so, and the general reader will find in it much to surprise him. There are many wonderful things going on under our very eyes, but which we are never able to see but with the eyes of others. Nothing escapes Darwin, and he is constantly telling us of things on the earth, in the sea, and in the very air about us, which we have lived with all our lives, without a knowledge of their existence. We all knew that there were worms, but how they lived and what were their functions in the economy of nature, where nothing exists in vain, we have never stopped to inquire.

Not so with the great naturalist. Finding then burrowing in the earth, he must follow them and watch them and study them, to find out what they are doing and what is the purpose of their life. The reader this volume will come to the same conclusion as its author, who says, "It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.

(D. Appleton & Co.)