This incident is no bad solution of that strange circumstance which
grave historians as well as the poets assert, of exposed children
being sometimes nurtured by female wild beasts that probably had
lost their young. For it is not one whit more marvellous that
Romulus and Remus, in their infant state, should be nursed by a
she-wolf, than that a poor little sucking leveret should be fostered
and cherished by a bloody grimalkin.
... viridi foetam Mavortis in antro
Procubuisse lupam: geminos huic ubera circum
Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem
Impavidos: illam tereti cervice reflexam
Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua.
Letter XXXV
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, May 20, 1777.
Dear Sir,
Lands that are subject to frequent inundations are always poor; and
probably the reason may be because the worms are drowned. The
most insignificant insects and reptiles are of much more
consequence, and have much more influence in the Economy
nature, than the incurious are aware of; and are mighty in their
effect, from their minuteness, which renders them less an object of
attention; and from their numbers and fecundity.
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