Chap. V. ANT I ENT METAPHYSICS. ' i^j, 



There is one proof more, I will mention, of the degeneracy of the 

 Bodies of men in modern times, which is not fo obvious as the things 

 I have juft now mentioned, but to me is very convincing, though I 

 do not know that it has been taken notice of by any author. 1 be- 

 lieve it is a general law of Nature, that the longer an animal is in the 

 womb, the ftronger, bigger, and longer lived that animal is. And I 

 think it is certain, that, if the time of geftation of our females was, 

 in antlent timss, longer than it is at prefent, the ofFfpring muft have 

 been ftronger. Now, there is a proof, which convinces me, that, in the 

 heroic ages, the ordinary time of geftation was nearly twelvemonths, 

 that is, lunar months of t\venty-nine days and a half. This I collect 

 from a pafllige in Homer, which can bear no other interpretation *. 



In 



* The pafTige is in the nth Bookof the OdyfTey, which contains the genealogies of 

 the mofl: antieat heroes and heroines of Greece, and is, in my opinion, as authentic 

 hiftory as any in Homer. UlyfTes, there, in giving an account of the generation 

 of Peleas and Neleus, who were begot by Neptune, makes Neptune fay to the 

 woman, 



X««g5, yvvxi, ^iXoTviTt' TTi^tTrXofiivev & tvtetvrev, 

 Ti^Hi ctyXxx T£xv«, £7r« ovic ctTto'^'uXioi fwcei 



A^oc^ocruK . ■ Odyff. A. Verf. 247. 



The paflage is underffcood in the fenfe I give it by Euftathius ; nor does he give any 

 different meaning to it, as he always does, where there is any ambiguity, and fomc- 

 times where I think there is none. Neither, indeed, do I think that the word yn^ivM- 

 fiitov, that is, 7ri^t7riXofj.ivov, as Euftathius interpretes it, can bear any other meaning 

 than that oi Jinijhed 0: accomplijljed ; or, to exprefs it with a propriety, for which 

 there is not one word in Engliih, the hcwg infinijhing or accomplijhing ; c-v^ttm^u- 

 «£vov, \v |ttJiv KXi zn^x-Af^uuivo-j n'^yi^ a?) Euflathius has well diftinguifhed thefe two fen- 

 fes. And in this fenfe the paff^ge is urtderftood by Favorinus, and Aulus Gellius, 

 (Lib. iii. cap. 16.) ; for he makes zyie^t^xc^iinv to fignify nearly ended' In this fenfe 

 the word is ufed in another pafTage of the fame author, (OdylT. Av^ Verf. 16.) 



where. 



