152 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



tinued in the days of Jallus Caefar : And the Germans were 

 ftill bigger than the Gauls *. Now, what is become of all thefe 



tall 



the arms of the Gaul, that is, his fliield anJ fvvord, and dabbing him with his (hort 

 Spanifli fvvord, that he overcame hirn ; for it appears to me, that, if the Gaul had 

 got but the one blow, he aimed at him, with his great cutting fword, he would have 

 brought him down to the ground ; but the Roman, getting under his fvvord and 



clofs in with him, the Gaul, vaniim caefim cum ingenti fonitii en/em dejecit. 



* As to the fuperiority of feature of the Gauls, See Julius Caefar, {Lib. ii. de 

 Bello Callico, cap. 30.) where he does not tell us direclly that the Gauls were much 

 larger men than the Romans, (for that was a thing that every man in Rome 

 knew), but occafionally, in the fame manner as Herodotus has let us know that the 

 Egyptians were black men with woolly hair, (See p. 144.). For, when he was be- 

 fieging a town in Gaul, and had built a tower at fome difbance, by which he was to 

 fcalethe walls, the Gauls laughed at the Romans, and afked, in fcorn, with what force 

 of men they could move fuch a machine ? nam plerifque hominibus GalliSy prae magni- 

 tudine corporiimfuorum, nojlra brevitas contemptui eji. As to the Germans, fpeak- 

 jng of the great mtion among them, the Siievi, he fays that they were immani corpc- 

 rum magnitiidiney (Ibid. lib. 4. in initio) ; which, from an author fo correal and 

 cbafle in his ftyle, is a very ftrong exprelTion. He could fmd no ftronger in defcri- 

 bing a great image or idol of the Gauls, in which they inclofed feveral men, and 

 facrificed them to their Gods, by burning them alive ; for that image, he fays, was 

 2\{o immani magnitudine, (Ibid. Lib vi. Cap 15). Hirtius, [De Bello JJricanOt 

 cap. 40.). in defcribing a field of battle covered with dead bodies, mentions, mirificd 

 corpora CaUorwn et Gcrmanorum, and, aga"n, mirijica fpecie et magnitudine. It will 

 be afked, What I fuppofe the fize of thofe Gauls and Germans to have been ? My 

 anCwer is, that the ordinary ftature, or jujlajlatnray as they called it, among the 

 Romans, in the days of Julius Caefar, being fix feet ; (fur Auguflus, who was five 

 ■feet nine inches, is faid to have been brevis /laturae. See Suetonius, in Vita An- 

 guJli^ cap. 9. et Tiberii, cap. 68. et ibi Notae Varionmj), I cannot fuppofe that 

 the (lature of the Germans, who were imrnani magnitudine, was lefs than that of the 

 Pataconians, viz. about nine feet. M. Buffon, who, I fuppofe, is not much con- 

 verfant with the antient authors, will anfwer very fhortly to thefe authorities, that 

 he does not believe what they f.iy, or they have magnified, or are prejudiced. And, 

 indeed,! obferve that thofe, who are not fcholars, give no faith to the antient authors, 

 but judge from the opinions which they have formed from whai they themfelves 

 have feen. 



