150 On Dwarf a and Giants. 



more evident, as the race is more ancient, which applies to man 

 as well as the lower animals. But the unchangeableness and 

 stability of the principal human races, lead one to draw infe- 

 rences as to the high antiquity of their original formation. The 

 learned and ingenious physiologist Mr Edwards, has shown 

 what valuable assistance history may draw from such considera- 

 tions, in establishing the genealogy of nations. 



We have already spoken of the idea, so widely spread, of 

 the decrease of the stature of the human races. This opi- 

 nion, which is unanimously received, might easily have been 

 propagated by one and the same people, and in that case una- 

 nimity proves nothing. Antiquity, besides, believes also in pyg- 

 mies, and according to the principle of authority, it might be 

 as reasonably maintained, that the stature of man has increased. 

 Neither the remains of the human fossil bones recently disco- 

 vered in many places, and which appear to be of very high 

 antiquity, have belonged to men of other than an ordinary height, 

 nor the ancient monuments, tombs, utensils, arms, paintings, 

 nor the mummies of Egyptians, exhibit any sensible varia- 

 tion in the human stature for four thousand years. Beyond 

 this remote epoch, monuments disappear, and we have only ana- 

 logy to guide us. But if, as is quite certain, the changes pro- 

 duced on man by civilization, are completely analogous to those 

 which domestication produces on animals, and if we recollect 

 that the average of the height of the former is equal to that of 

 their savage types, it will be admitted, which is confirmed in 

 other respects by what we know of tribes which are not savage, 

 that the average height of civilized men of the present times, 

 differs very slightly, not only from those of the civilized men of 

 ancient times, but also from those of men living in a savage 

 state before any civilization. 



M. Geoffroy afterwards proposes to show, as to races of giants 

 and dwarfs, that there is a real analogy between their formation 

 and that of the individual anomalies which they present. 



Many travellers, Peron in particular, have mentioned a fact 

 which is worthy of notice, viz. that savages, far from being 

 stronger than civilized people, are weaker ; an additional proof 

 that civilization is beneficial to the destiny of human nature, 

 and that the state of nature, of which Rousseau, in his disgust 



