OF ANIMALS. 



151 



spurt, the Englishmen were more nimble and 

 speedy." 



Nevertheless, in general, civilized man is 

 ignorant of his own powers : he is ignorant 

 how much he loses by effeminacy ; and what 

 might be acquired by habit and exercise. Here 

 and there, indeed, men are found among us 

 of extraordinary strength; but that strength, 

 for want of opportunity, is seldom called into 

 exertion. " Among the ancients it was a qua- 

 lity of nuch greater use than at present ; as in 

 wur, the same man that had strength sufficient 

 to carry the heaviest armour, had strength 

 sufficient also to strike the most fatal blow. 

 In this case, his strength was at once his pro- 

 tection and his power. We ought not to be 

 surprised, therefore, when we hear of one man 

 terrible to an army, and irresistible in his ca- 

 reer, as we find some generals represented in 

 ancient history. But we may be very certain 

 that this prowess was exaggerated by flattery, 

 and exalted by terror. An age of ignorance 

 is ever an age of wonder. At such times, 

 mankind, having no just ideas of the human 

 powers, are willing rather to represent what 

 they wish, than what they know ; and exalt 

 human strength, to fill up the whole sphere of 

 their limited conceptions. Great strength is 

 an accidental thing ; two or three in a coun- 

 try may possess it ; and these may have a 

 claim to heroism. But what may lead us to 

 doubt of the veracity of these accounts is, that 

 the heroes of antiquity are represented as the 

 sons of heroes ; their amazing strength is de- 

 livered down from father to son ; and this we 

 know to be contrary to the course of nature. 

 Strength is not hereditary, although titles are : 

 and I am very much induced to believe, that 

 this great tribe of heroes, who are all repre- 

 sented as the descendants of heroes, are more 

 obliged to their titles than to their strength, 

 for their characters. With regard to the 

 shining characters in Homer, they are all re- 

 presented as princes, and as the sons of princes ; 

 while we are told of scarce any share of 

 prowess in the meaner men of the army ; who 

 are only brought into the field for these to pro- 

 tect, or to slaughter. But nothing can be 

 more unlikely than that those men, who were 

 bred in the luxury of courts, should be strong ; 

 while the whole body of the people, who re- 

 ceived a plainer and simpler education, should 

 be comparatively weak. Nothing can be 



more contrary to the general laws of nature, 

 than that all the sons of heroes should thus in- 

 herit not only the kingdoms, but the strength 

 of their forefathers; and we may conclude, 

 that they owe the greatest share of their im- 

 puted strength rather to the dignity of their sta- 

 tions than the force of their arms ; and, like 

 all fortunate princes, their flatterers happened 

 to be believed. In later ages, indeed, we have 

 some accounts of amazing strength, which we 

 can have no reason to doubt of. But in these, 

 nature is found to pursue her ordinary course ; 

 and we find their strength accidental. We 

 find these strong men among the lowest of the 

 people, and gradually rising into notice, as 

 this superiority had more opportunity of being 

 seen. Of this number was the Roman tribune, 

 who went by the name of the second Achilles : 

 who, with his own hand, is said to have killed, 

 at different times, three hundred of the enemy; 

 and when treacherously set upon, by twenty- 

 five of his own countrymen, although then 

 past his sixtieth year, killed fourteen of them 

 before he was slain. Of this number was 

 Milo, who, when he stood upright, could not 

 be forced out of his place. Pliny tells us of 

 one Athanatus, who walked across the stage 

 at Rome, loaded with a breastplate weighing 

 five hundred pounds, and buskins of the same 

 weight. But of all the prodigies of strength, 

 of whom we have any accounts in Roman 

 history, Maximin, the emperor, is to be reckon- 

 ed the foremost. Whatever we are told rela- 

 tive to him is well attested ; his character was 

 too exalted not to be thoroughly known ; and 

 that very strength, for which he was celebrated, 

 at last procured him no less a reward than the 

 empire of the world. Maximin was above 

 nine feet in height, and the best proportioned 

 man in the whole empire. He was by birth 

 a Thracian; and, from being a simple herds- 

 man, rose through the gradations of office, 

 until he came to be emperor of Rome. The 

 first opportunity he had of exerting hisstrength, 

 was in the presence of all the citizens, in the 

 theatre, where he overthrew twelve of the 

 strongest men in wrestling, and outstrip! two 

 of the fleetest horses in running, all in one day. 

 He could draw a chariot loaden, that two 

 strong hordes could not move : he could break 

 a horse's jaw with a blow of his fist, and its 

 thigh with a kick. In war he was always 

 foremost and invincible : happy had it been 



