Five feet under

...Rosemary Deen, co-editor of Common-weal's poetry section, is the author of Naming the Light (University of Illinois Press...

...On a certain daily walk over years he thought he noticed the sinking of a layer of marl...

...Then, when bright blue days are cold but the soil is still warm, I see them everywhere under the decaying, thinning summer mulch...

...Exactly...

...But it hadn't sunk...

...In experiments with smell, Darwin used onion and cabbage, "both of which are devoured with relish by worms...

...In this criticism of one short-sighted man, Darwin announced a principle: "Here we have an instance of the inability to sum up the effects of a continually recurrent cause, which has oftenretarded the progress of science, as formerly in the case of geology, and more recently in that of the principle of evolution...

...We've been taught by Darwin to value worms...

...Little escaped Darwin's massive powers of observation and thought, however...

...But are they musical...

...Of course they are not truly small because they are the foundation of a huge system which Darwin's observations helped the world to realize...

...the softer ones, he discovered, passing through their gizzards...

...They aid in the decomposition of rocks...

...What a distinguished worm, so mortal in nature and so immortal in science...

...And genius stops at nothing: "I be-came interested in them, and wished to learn how far they acted consciously, and how much mental power they displayed...

...The same results with G above the line in the treble clef and C in the treble clef...

...Worms are as fastidious as people...

...Here is an opportunity over-looked by seed companies to promote their vegetables not only for their prime but for their decay, in their consumption (with relish) at table and in the soil...

...In fact, concerning cabbages, Darwin discovered that worms "can distinguish between different varieties...

...Particularly interesting is their role in "the preservation of ancient remains...

...For "they often coat the mouths of their burrows with leaves,apparently to prevent their bodies from coming into contact with the cold damp earth...

...In fact, worms had produced several inches of soil over it...

...It is said that they completely close their burrows during the winter...

...Other sensitivities...

...Such research would be exotic here in North America, but is domestic and ordinary in England, where your neighbor might have a Roman ruin in his meadow, and you could calculate how much soil was brought up by worms to cover a mosaic floor fifteen hundred years old...

...So our meetings are mostly, as they should be, in sympathy and good will of mind and soul...

...But in 1840, when agriculture "was still a branch of chemistry," everyone thought worms were insignificant as they looked...

...Can they hear...

...and this was in August...

...In fact, his book on worms is the foundation of the organic farming movement still growing today...

...When a scientist objected that worms were too small to do so much work, Dar-win answered: he "generally undervalues small agencies and their accumulated effects...

...For warmth, he discovered...

...This was the beginning of his forty-year study, formidable and charming, published in 1881: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms with Observations on Their Habits...

...Placed on the piano "and the note C in the bass clef [being] struck, both instantly retreated into their burrows...

...He conducted experiments in perception with worms in two pots in his house...

...In fact, "in earth near an old Roman villa, which had not been disturbed for many centuries, a worm was met with at a depth of sixty-six inches...

...The book charms me because the creatures are so small and Darwin's genius is so big...

...Commonweal 39 September 24, 2004...

...About worms I am curious but not scientific, content to honor them as the dear "small agencies," the "continually re-current cause" of my soil's health...

...The worms in my garden are safer from unwonted meetings than worms in Roman villas because I disturb the structure of the soil so little as I garden...

...They proved "quite indifferent to the sound of the piano...

...What could be more reasonable...

...Darwin saw the big implication: "I was thus led to conclude that all the vegetable mould over the whole country has passed many times through, and will again pass many times through, the intestinal canals of worms...

...Very understandable...

...What did the worm feel when it was "met with" at such a depth and in such a season, in a place of antiquity where it might reasonably expect privacy and seclusion...

...Why, Darwin wanted to know, do worms often lie so near the surface that they are the numerous prey of birds...

...I have always liked worms, and Dar-win showed me how deep our sympathies go, not only in matters of music and taste, but more intimately...

...All this leads to "what part worms have played in the history of the world...