RECORD: Anon. 1881. [Humorous comment on Earthworms]. The People (16 October): 10.

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe. 7.2021. RN1


[page] 10

Mr. Darwin's last work, on the Formation of Vegetable Mould, is in fact a sort of Apotheosis of the Lob-worm. The worm on which we all of us been treading all these thousands of years past has turned at last, and instead of biting or making believe to bite us, poses grandly as one of the mightiest friends of humanity.

"We are worms," observed that acute naturalist, the late Artemus Ward, "but we cannot all glow." If Mr. Darwin is a worm, he has seldom glowed more brilliantly than in his record of the benefactions of his and our poor relations.

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Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

File last updated 25 September, 2022