OF HUMAN STATURE. :^39 



The vast tumuli which were discovered, upon the banks of the Seine, 

 in the 16th century, were supposed to have been the tombs of the 300,- 

 000 who fell in the wars between Clovis, the first Merovingian kinc, and 

 the Eastern Barbarians, and of those skeletons, none were less than 6 

 feet 4 or 5, and many an inch or two longer. So it is, the diminution 

 goes on little by little, gradual indeed but very perceptible. According 

 to Eginharu, the dwarf of Charlemagne's court was about five feet high, 

 if so the common average must have been at least over 6 feet 6 inches, 

 since we would scarcely consider a dwarf to be remarkable unless he 

 was in the neighborhood of four feet. The fierce and bearded Huns of 

 Attila, who came down from their dark forests like a whirlwind upon 

 the luxury and ma_gnificence of old Rome, were said to have been over 

 seven feet high — however this may be accounted for from their origin 

 and modes of life. Gibbon says they were the offspring of the infer- 

 nal spirits and outlavved witches, and that they never tasted bread but 

 lived upon uncooked flesh. William, the Conqueror, though tire largest 

 man of his age, was between 7 feet 3 and 4 inches. 



When the dark ages set in, men's sizes diminished in a fearful ratio, 

 almost one-eighth of an inch every generation, and when the revival of 

 letters brought light and knowledge to a benighted world, man emerged 

 from the midnight gloom at least three inches shorter than he entered it. 

 Let any man go into Westminster Abbey and see the armor of the dif- 

 ferent ages, from the Saxon Heptarchy to the Revolution of 16S8, and 

 he will see the regular gradations of descent as plainly as old Isaac 

 Rushton could behold the step and stair-like proportions of his twenty- 

 one sons. Let him measure his own size by them — his own strength 

 by wielding their battle-axes, and he will come out convinced not only 

 that man has decreased in stature but that he is decreasing and will soon 

 be diminished. 



It seems to me that I have quoted facts enough to prove my propo- 

 sition ; the examples chosen have been "ex-abundante." The matter is 

 as clear as the astronomical truth that the sun rises in the East and sets 

 in the West. Have you never wondered why in the old houses of the 

 last two centuries, every thing was on the largest scale, the chimneys, 

 hearths, doors, windows, closets, kc .' This is but another evidence. 



One word as to the philosophy of the subject, and the consequences : 



Why is it so.' Some infidels affirm that the proboscis of the elephant 

 has been produced by a continual effort — a constant stretching out of 

 the neck of the animal through a series of ages; this is of course false, 

 but as we cull medicinal remedies from poisonous plants, so even from 

 infidel doctrines we may gather useful hints. For six thousand years man 



