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prove, in a more indifputable manner, the exiftence of this fancied degeneracy. The teftimonies of thefe writers confift of three different forts of relations: viz. the traditionary records of the existence of men of gigantic ftature in the early, or what may be called the fabulous, æra of the hiftory of different nations: 2dly, the precife and indifputable account of particular individuals, diftinguifhed by their extraordinary ftature; and, Sdly, the mention of the skeletons and bodies of men of enormous fize which have been accidentally difcovered in digging in the earth. After having fhewn, what we apprehend will be a matter of no difficulty, that thefe teftimonies amount not to the fhadow of a proof, we fhall adduce feveral facts which go directly to prove that no material change has taken place in the ftature of men fince the earliest periods in the records of hiftory.

place, it had proceeded pari pafJu in the rude and the refined, amid the hardihood of favage life, and the enervations of luxurious bland-. ifhments. The fables of tradition do not deferve our confideration.

In the fecond place, we thall not attempt to difpute or to invalidate the evidence of the exiftence of individuals of gigantic ftature, which are fpecifically mentioned by hiftorians. But thefe examples prove nothing with respect to the point in queftion; for in all ages, from the time of the oldeft hiftorian (Mofes) to the prefent, they have been mentioned as giants; that is, as men of extraordinary ftature; men who exceeded in tize the ordinary people of their respective æras. They are exceptions to the general proportion which nature has obferved in the ftature of men. The Goliahs of early date are, therefore, no greater proofs of the general primitive ftrength of mankind than the Count Borulafkis of the prefent day are of the dwarfish degeneracy of modern Europeans. Gigantic individuals have, in fact, occur

With refpect to the traditionary accounts of giants in the rude æras of different nations, or to the records of fuch gigantic men, tranf-red in all ages, and in all of nearly mitted to us by the hiftorians of more polished nations, who had been engaged in war against them, we cannot long hesitate as to the weight of evidence which we attribute to them. National vanity, on the one hand, generally prompts men to paint their forefathers in all the dignity of undaunted heroifm and mighty prowefs; and, on the other, it excites the warriors of a civilized and difciplined community to afcribe the impediments to victory over a barbarous people to their fuperior bodily ftature and ftrength. But records of the latter defcription are, in fact, rare. The Romans pretend not to have met with gigantic opponents in the numerous countries which they conquered, however uncultivated and barbarous; and, therefore, if a degeneracy actually had taken

equal magnitude. Goliah is faid to have been in height "fix cubits and a fpan," which may be a little above nine feet. An Arabian was carried to Rome in the time of Claudius, according to Pliny, nearly ten feet in height; and two others had been feen in the reign of Auguftus who were half a foot taller. "Proceriffimum hominem ætas noftra, Divo Claudio principe, Gabbaram nomine, ex Arabia advectum, IX pedum et totidem unciarum vidit. Fuere fub Divo Augufto femipede addito, quorum corpora, ejus miraculi gratia, in conditorio Saluftianorum affervabantur hortorum: Pufioni et Secundillæ erant nomina." Plin. Nat. Hift., Lib. VII, cap. 16.—In more modern times we have records of feveral men of fimilar ftature. Dr. Derhamn mentions fome, who

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have been defcribed by different authors of ftill larger dimenfions. The Irish giant, who lately died, as well as the one now exhibiting himself in London, are instances of extraordinary ftature, not much exceeded by Gabbaram.

Thirdly, in regard to the fkeletons and bodies of men of enormous ftature which have been faid to have been dug up at different times, many of the former have been found, upon accurate examination, to be the bones of fome other animal, and not human; and the few inftances which are not fabulous, or have not been miftaken, are to be confidered in the fame light as the examples of living giants, who have from time to time appeared; that is, as extraordinary and cafual phenomena; exceptions to the general rule of nature. But fome of thefe examples are unquestionably fabulous. Such is the difcovery of a body in Crete, related by Pliny, which is ftated to have measured XLVI cubits, which amount to near feventy feet of our measure. "In Creta, terræ motu rupto monte, inventum eft corpus ftans XLVI cubitorum, quod alii Orionis, alii Oti fuiffe arbitrantur." Ibid. This Otus, or Oetus, and his brother Ephialtes, were the Aloide mentioned by Virgil (Eneid VI, ver. 582), who attempted to overthrow heaven, and pull down Jupiter from his throne.

"Hic et Aloïdas geminos, immania vidi "Corpora: qui manibus magnum refcindere cœlum

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Aggreffi, fuperifque Jovem detrudere regnis."

which leaves no doubt that the whole is fabulous. And we muft

confefs ourselves almost as fceptical in regard to the body faid to have been dug up at Valentia, in the reign of Louis X1, of France, which measured eighteen feet, according to Dalecampius. (Plin. Ibid. Note.) But our fcepticism on this fubject. is ftill farther increafed by the number of palpable miftakes which

have occurred in viewing detached parts of the skeletons of other animals as human, and computing from them the fize of giants, who it is fuppofed have at fome remote period occupied the earth. Sir Hans Sloane, in the Philofophical Tranfactions (No. 404), has detected a number of mistakes of this nature. The tooth preferved and fhewn at Antwerp is only the grinder of an elephant. St. Auftin alledges, in proof of the existence of giants before the flood, a grinder tooth, which he faw on the shores of Utica, which was in reality that of an elephant. The tooth in the Church of St. Chriftopher, at Hispulla, and the shoulder bone of St. Chriftopher, are of the fame kind. Not long ago, the fore-fin of a whale, not foffil, but recent, taken clean from the fkin, was fhewn about London for the hand of a giant, (Chambers.)

It is fufficiently obvious, then, that all the evidence in favour of the degeneracy of mankind in ftature confifts of poetical fictions, or fabulous traditions, or palpable miftakes; or, where it is actually true, tends only to prove the occafional exiftence of individuals of gigantic fize. Let us now examine the facts on the other fide of the queftion; and, I apprehend, we hall difcover very fatisfactory proofs that no material change has occurred in the human ftature fince the carlieft periods of hiftory.

The alledged cause of this degeneracy is the enervating power of luxury and indolence. We fhould, therefore, neceffarily expect, that its progrefs would be infinitely more rapid in the later periods of the

exiftence of different nations, when wealth was widely diffufed, and luxury almoft univerfal, in the long lapfe of ages, which had paffed in advancing flowly towards refine But facts are in direct opment. pofition to this idea. The Celtic nations, inhabiting Gaul and Bri

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tain, although luxury was totally unknown among them, as well as among their favage ancestors, were not remarked by the Romans as men of larger ftature than themfelves. Tacitus, indeed, describes the Germans, who were a Teutonic race, as large and ftrong men, magna corpora, et ad impetum valida;" but it appears that this ftatement was made not only in comparifon with the Romans, but with their neighbours the Gauls, and the fouthern inhabitants of Britain. In our own times, when luxury has been diffeminated to an infinite extent, in comparison with what was to be found in the days of Elizabeth, we find that no alteration has taken place in our ftature. This may be collected from the architecture of the earlier times. The fmaller doors of cathedrals and churches built four or five centuries ago, are rather lower, in many inftances, than the doors which we now construct for our houses; and the fame obfervation may be made, refpecting the entrances to private houses, or to the rooms within them, which were built one hundred and fifty or two hundred years ago with ftill greater force. We may collect the fame proof, too, from the rude fculptured figures, which are stretched at length upon the tombs in many old churches, and which are of the fame dimenfions as the men of our own times. The tombs themselves are of the fame length as are required for the prefent race of men: fuch is the tomb of Athelftan, in Malmbury Church, mentioned by Mr. Hakewill, and many others. And it may be added, that in all the different regions of the earth the fame ftature prevails; the fame among the barbarous and the refined; among the people who have lived for centuries in primitive favage fimplicity, and in the focieties of civilized men, pampered with all the delicacies of inventive luxury. Compare the nations of

Europe with each other, and with the individuals of Hindoo, Chinese, African, and American extraction who visit our ifland, as well as with the accounts which voyagers have given us of the inhabitants of wild and unfrequented countries; and the fame inference enfues, that man, in all the variety of moral and phyfical circumftances that exift on the earth, is of the fame general ftature. It is, therefore, an easy extenfion of the inference to conclude, that, in all the various circumstances which have existed, the general ftature of man has undergone no material change.

Öf the truth of this conclufion, there are facts, I apprehend, which leave no room for a doubt, and which place the queftion upon a much more fubftantial foundation than the vifions of poetry, or the fables of hiftorical tradition.

The bodies of many antient Egyptians have been actually found depofited in the catacombs at Cairo ; and fome of the oldeft of them being evidently negroes, we cannot doubt that they lived in a very early age, probably before the time of Herodotus: yet thefe mummies are of the ordinary ftature of the prefent age, as well as those which have not the negro features, and are no doubt of later date.

The Pyramids of Egypt afford alfo an irrefragable proof of the identity of the human ftature in the moft antient and in modern times. "Thefe are works," as Dr. Pococke obferves, "of the remotest antiquity, and even more early than the times of the moft antient historians, whofe works have been tranfmitted to us. of their beginning was loft at the The very epoch time when the first Greek philofophers travelled into Egypt." He adds, that the coffin in the largest is not capable of containing a body of a fize fuperior to men of modern times; and the passages shew, that the workmen were not of a

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larger ftature than the prince for whom it was built. Herodotus, however, attributes the conftruction of the most antient pyramid to Cheops, one of the kings of Egypt; and Diodorus Siculus, who calls him Chemmis, fays, that he reigned about a thousand years before his time, which was the 180th Olympiad. But Mr. Greaves (Pyramidographia, p. 51, &c.), after a very learned calculation from incidental evidence, concludes, that Cheops or Chemmis, the founder of the firft pyramid, began his reign four hundred and ninety years before the firft Olympiad," or about two hundred and twenty-five years after the time of Mofes. The pyramid was built, therefore, one thoufand two hundred years before the time of Diodorus, and about three hundred and fifty antecedent to the æra of Homer; confequently, nearly a century prior to the deftruction of Troy itfelf, which Homer has celebrated.

Now, the tomb or farcophagus in the centre of this pyramid is fomewhat lefs than fix feet and a half in length within, two feet feven inches in breadth, and about the fame in depth; a cavity but juft adapted for a body of the prefent ftature, although intended for a monarch who lived a century before the potent heroes of Ilomer, and who fhould, therefore, have excelled in ftrength and ftature thofe rock hurling warriors, Diomed and Turnus.

Mr. Greaves mentions, by the way, another proof of the identity of the human ftature in all ages. "In thofe cryptæ fepulchrales at Rome of the primitive Chriftians, refembling cities under ground, admired antiently by St. Hierome, and very faithfully of late defcribed by Botius in his Roma Subterranea,' I find the bodies entombed no way to exceed the proportions of our own times." (Ib., p. 132.) Mr. Ilakewill (quoted by Dr. Derham)

fays, that the tombs at Pifa, which are fome thousands of years old, are yet no longer than thofe of our days. And it may be added, that Dr. Shaw faw the coffins in feveral tombs of antiquity, during his travels in Barbary, which were of the usual dimenfions. He believes them to have been the tombs of fome of the Vandals, who after fubduing Italy extended their conquefts across the Mediterranean: and fome large bones, which were fhewn him as the bones of giants, were the bones of horfes, which that people occafionally buried in the fame grave with the warriors who rode them. (Shaw's Travels.)

Upon the whole, therefore, it appears, that, while the evidence in favour of a great degeneracy in the ftature and ftrength of mankind is fanciful, fabulous, and not to be depended upon, we have evidence of an incontrovertible nature, which proves that, from the moft antient periods of hiftory prior to the fiege of Troy, and during a series of upwards of three thousand years, no material alteration can be traced in the ftature of mankind. Moral degeneracy may have occurred, and luxury may have debilitated individuals; but the inference to the phyfical condition of the race is not warranted by the teftimony of fact, nor can it be fubftantially fupported by deductions of reafoning alone. The complaint of the poets and moralifts has, therefore, deservedly incurred the irony of Juvenal (Sat. XV), and ought to be ranked among the errors which have origi nated in the fancies of men, and which prejudice has contributed to fofter and extend.

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[Continued from page 352.] THE work the leaft known of Julius Malmignati, and that which most interests our curiofity, is his epic poem, in twenty-eight cantos, entitled, The Henriad, or France Conquered, dedicated to Louis XIII, and printed in italic characters at Venice, for Marc Guarifco, in 1628, or precifely one hundred years before the Henriad of Voltaire, the first edition of which appeared in London, in 1723, in octavo, under the name of the "League."-L'Enrico; o vero Francia Conquistata, poema heroico del Sig. Giulio Malmignati, dedicato alla alla Maefà Chriftianiffima di Luigi XIII, re di Francia e di Navarra, com licenza de fuperiori, e privilegio, in Venetia, preffo Marco Guarifco, 1623, in 12, de 482 pages. This is an uncommonly fearce book, and is not to be found in the moft celebrated public libraries of Paris, and not even in the National Library, according to Millin.

There is no mention made of this

poem, either in Haym, Crefcimbeni, Quadrio, Fontanini, Apoftolo Zeno, Tirabofchi, Chriftian Gottlieb Joecher, by whom we have an ample dictionary of great men, in German: Leipfig, 4 vols., 4to, 1751, Baillet, Bayle, Moreri, &c.; nor in the Bibiographie Inftructive, of Debure; nor in the catalogues of the libraries of Floncel, Trichet du Frefie, de Capponi, Pinelli, Crevenna, Buneau, &c. &c.

The epifle dedicatory to Louis XIII is wanting in my copy, which I bought at Venice, and which is the only one I have ever yet met with: it would perhaps have furnithed fome information relative to Julius

VOL. I.

Malmignati bimfelf; but this poet, inferior to Homer both in modefty and talents (two qualities, which, by the bye, are ufually united), has difcovered the means of praifing, in the most indecorous manner, himfelf and all his family; and of ingreatest eulogiums on the poem ittroducing into the Henriad the felf. One of his principal heroines, Armille, a bad copy of the Armida of Taffo, and the Enchanter Merlin, go into an enchanted palace, where they admire the pictures which reprefent the great men who have been in the city of Lendinara. Vannel palagio, ove ogn'un d'effi è vago, Vedere il bel che l'orna a parte a parte......

Fur cinque ftanze adorne, e fcura quante,

Ornarle può quà giù l'artè, o l'ingegno. Nè pone alcun nel ricco fuol le piante, Ch'anco non dia di maraviglia il fegno; Quì appar trà gli altri fregi, è fra le

tante

Bellezze, di pittor l'opra, e'l disegno;

Serbanfi illefi a fecoli vegnenti.

Gli heroi che fur d'Italia i rai lucenti,

(Cant. 16, p. 346.)

Merlin fees there, "that a poet will one day be born, who will fing the exploits and the conquests of the King of France; and who, with the harmonious founds of his warlike mufe, will draw the Italians and the French together; and that this poet will be called Julius Malmignati.

Vide Merlin, ch'effer dovea chi l'armi, Cantaffe, e'l Franco re con l'ampio acquifio;

Ch'al dolce fuon di bellicofi carmi Trarrià d'Italia e Francia il popol misto; E ch' effer quel dovea Giulio, &c.

(Cant. 16, p. 347.)

-After this (ut fupra) comes a allufion to the name of Malmignati, wretched jeu de mots, a ridiculous and an equally abfurd etymology of that of the city of Lendinara : Picciola terra fi, ma gloriofa, Che dal lino, e dal' oro, il nomo prefe

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