136 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book 11. 



muft be an animal betwixt eight and nine feet of lieight when he is 

 come to maturity *, and ftrong in proportion ; fo ftrong, and, at the 

 fame time, we may fuppofe, fo nimble, that it would be ftill more diffi- 

 cult' to catch him, than the favage in the Pyrennees above mentioned f. 

 And this, no doubt, is the reafon why none of them of full growth 

 have been brought to Europe, but only fuch as are very young, not 

 above one or two years old. But thefe were fuch Animals as {liowe'd 

 what the Animal muft be when come to its full growth ; for what 

 BufTon relates of the adions of the one he faw, which he fays was 

 only about two years old, would be quite incredible of one of our 

 children at that age. 



The difference of fize among the Oran Outans proves the truth 

 of what I have advanced above, that, in the fame climate and coun- 

 try, there are Animals of the fame fpecies of very different fizes. In 

 this fame country of Africa, there were certainly Pigmies of old. 

 The Pigmies, which Homer mentions, I am perfuaded, were of that 

 country : And my reafon for thinking fo is the authority of Arif- 

 totle, who, in his hiftory of Animals J, relates, upon information 

 which he thought might be tlepended upon, that there were Pigmies 

 in Africa in his time. And I do not believe that there ever was a 

 man better informed as to fads of Natural Pliftory than he was j for 

 he had all the information that his pupil, Alexander, the conqueror 

 of the world, could procure for him. But further, there is one 

 Nonnofus^ who w^as fent ambaffador to Ethiopia, by the Emperor 

 Juftinian, and who fays that he faw, himfelf, in his travels to that 

 country, very little men, w^hom he defcribes particularly §. I have 



been 



• Ibid, page 285. where I mention the body of cne that was meafured, and waf 

 about eight feet. 

 \ Page 46. 

 % Lib. viii. Cap. 12. 

 § See Phocii Bibliothecay Edit- 3. p- m. 7^ 



