I30 A N T I E N T M E T A P M Y S I C S. Book II. 



ordinary ftature, that v/ere in Greece*; and there is a modern writer, 

 Calmct, Liciionnaire Hijorique dc la BihJc^ v. ho, under the article of 

 Giants^ relates, upon the credit of a French ccnfiil at TheiTalonica 

 and feveral other eye-wit nefTes, that the body of a man was difco- 

 vcred there, of greater fize flill than Homer's giants f. In Iliort, hi- 

 ilory, both facred and profane, and the traditions of almoft every 

 country, are full oi ftorics of giants. But the queftion at prcfcnt is 

 not concerning men of fuch monftrous fize, that they may be ac- 

 counted prodigies of nature; thougli that fuch men did exift, I can- 

 not doubt ; and, indeed, the Man that is to be feen at prefent at 

 London, commonly called the Iriih Giant, who is eight feet two 

 inches, and faid to be Hill growing, ihouid convince us, that if", 

 in the prefent decline of the human race among us, fuch men do 



arife, 



* OdyfT. A. Vcvf. 305. et feq. Tlieir names were Otus and Ephialtes ; and their 

 llature, when they were no more than nine years of age, was nine fathoms, and their 

 breadth nine cubits. He fpcaks aUb of the Cyclops as men of prodigious ftature ; 

 though he does not mention particularly their licight. One thing is certnin, that, in Si- 

 cilv, where it is fuppofed thofe Cyclops dwelt, a great number of bones have been fouad, 

 of prodigious fize ; Cluverius's Geography, Book 3. Chap. 42. ; Riccii JDiJJertationcs 

 Homericae, Differt. 18. Vol. i. p. 186. 



+ This Giant was difcovered in January 1701, by an accident which CanTiet relates. 

 He was ninety-fix French feet of height ; and the author mentions many other par- 

 ticulars concerning the capacity of his nuill, the weight of his teelh, and the dimenfions 

 of his finders, contained in a prorefs verbal, attefted by the French conful, and another 

 perfon named by Calmet. The fad is alfo attcfted by feveral other Frenchmen whorh 

 he mentions, and who fcnt a particular account of It "to their friends at Paris. The 

 flory Is alfo mentioned by Mr Maiilet, In his TclUamede, (page 256. of the Englilli 

 tranflatlon), where lie fays that fome of the bones of this Giant were fent to Paris, 

 where they are yet to be feen in the French King's Library. And he adds, that one 

 cf the men, who was employed by the French conful to raife the bones of this Giant, 

 was flUl alive when he paiTed at Salonica, (the modern name for Theflalonica), and re- 

 counted to him the particuliu-s here related. There are feveral other (lories told by Cal- 

 mct, under this article of Giants, but none of them fo well attefted as this ftory, 

 which Is fo attefted, that I think It is impoflible to doubt of it, unlefs we are pofTeffed of 

 a philofophy, that can fet bounds to the Works of God with refptd to the human fize, 

 and can demonftrate that it Is impoflible, by the nature of things, that fuch a man ever 

 ftiould have exifted. 



