156 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



not remarkable at prefent for their fize, which, it will not be pre- 

 tended, is greater than that of the Romans was ; confeguently they 

 mufl be lefs than their anceftors, who were fo much bigger than the 

 Romans. 



That the Romans w^ere very much degenerated in body, as well 

 as Mind, when they were conquered by thofe Barbarians, cannot, 

 I think, be doubted. This degeneracy, at leaft with refpecl to the 

 body, I believe, was going on, from the time of the building of their 

 city, but imperceptibly, like the decline of the Greeks from their 

 heroic (lature. But, in later times, it was fo vifible, that they were 

 forced to bring dawn their military ftandard very near as low as ours 

 is at prefent * Long before that, it was obferved by one of their 

 learned men, Solinus Polyhiftor, who fpeaks of it as a thing quite 

 certain ? ' Quis, enim jam aevo ifto, non minor parentibus fuis 

 * nafcitur t-' This perfuades me that the decline of the ftature was 

 going on very faft among them at that time, as faft as, I think, it is 

 among us at prefent ; whereas, before, as it went on gradually and 

 imperceptibly, it is not taken notice of by any of their authors. 



But, though we fhould give no credit to thofe antient authors^ 

 there are monuments ftill extant, one, particularly, to be feen in 

 our own ifland, which, I think, ought to convince every man, that 

 the men of antient times were much fuperior to us, at lead in the 

 powers of the body. The monument I mean is weJl known by the 

 name of Stonehenge ; and there are feveral of the fame kind to be 



feen 



• See Codex Theodofianus, Lib. 7. Tit. 13. DeTyronibus^ Law iii. of that title, 

 by which Valens and Valentinian reduced the military ftandard to 5 feet 7 inches, 

 from 6 feet, or, at the loweft, 5 feet ten inches, which it had formerly been. See 

 what I have faid of the Jujia Statura- zmong the Romans, p. 152. 



t Chap. 5. 



