Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/309

254 moving through water, or tunneling the sand, advancing or retreating in its tube, the Annelid performs muscular feats, distinguished at once for their complexity and harmony. In grace of coil the little Worm excels the Serpent. In regularity of march the thousand-footed Nereid out-rivals the Centipede. The leaf-armed Phyllodoce swims with greater beauty of mechanism than the Fish, and the vulgar Earthworm shames the Mole in the exactitude and skill of its subterranean operations. Why then should "the humble worm" have remained so long without an historian? Is the care, the wisdom, the love, the paternal solicitude of the Almighty not legible in the surpassing organism, the ingenious architectures, the individual and social habits, the adaptation of structure to the physical conditions of existence, of these degraded beings? Do not their habitations display His care, their instincts His wisdom, their merriment His love, their vast specific diversities His solicitous and inscrutable Providence?"