8 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



tended influences of Clim:ite, which are become 

 the principles of our Phyfics, and, what is ftiU 

 worfe, of our MoraUty. 



There were formerly, we are told, real giants. 

 The thing is pofTible ; but this truth is become to 

 us inconceivable, like all others of which Nature 

 no longer furniflies any teftimony.' If Polyphe- 

 mufes, lofty as a tower, ever cxifted, every ftep 

 they took in walking muft, in mod foils, have 

 funk into the ground. How could their long and 

 clumfy fingers have milked the little fhe-goats, 

 reaped the corn, mowed down the grafs, picked 

 the fruits of the orchard ? The greateft part of 

 our aliments would efcape their eyes as well as 

 their hands. 



On the other hand, had there been generations 

 of pigmies, how could they have levelled the fo- 

 refts CO make way for the cultivation of the earth ? 

 They would have loft themfelves among the 

 rufiies. Every brook would have been to them a 

 river, and every pebble a rock. The birds of 

 prey would have carried them off in their talons, 

 unlefs they made war upon their eggs, as Homer. 

 reprefenis his pigm^^race engaged in war with the 



eggs of cranes. 



On 



