190 



A HISTORY OF 



alone. He was then fitted with shoes that 

 were about an inch and a half long. He was 

 attacked with several acute disorders; but 

 the small-pox was the only one which left any 

 marks behind it. Until he was six years old, 

 he eat no other food but pulse, potatoes, and 

 bacon. His father and mother were, from 

 their poverty, incapable of affording him any 

 better nourishment ; and his education was 

 little better than his food, being bred up 

 among the rustics of the place. At six years 

 old he was about fifteen inches high ; and his 

 whole body weighed but thirteen pounds. 

 Notwithstanding this, he was well proportion- 

 ed, and handsome ; his health Avas good, but 

 his understanding scarcely passed tlie bounds 

 of instinct. It was at that time that the king 

 of Poland, having heard of such a curiosity, 

 had him conveyed to Lunenville, gave him 

 the name of Baby, and kept him in his palace. 



Baby, having thus quitted the hard conditi- 

 on of a peasant, to enjoy all the comforts and 

 conveniences of life, seemed to receive no al- 

 teration from his new way of living, either in 

 mind or person. He preserved the goodness 

 of his constitution till about the age of sixteen, 

 but his body seemed to increase very slowly 

 during the whole time ; and his stupidity was 

 such, that all instructions were lost in improv- 

 ing his understanding. He could never be 

 brought to have any sense of religion, nor even 

 to show the least signs of a reasoning faculty. 

 They attempted to teach him dancing and 

 music, but in vain : he never could make any 

 thing of music; and as for dancing, although 

 he beat time tolerably exact, yet he could 

 never remember the figure, but while his dan- 

 cing master stood by to direct his motions. 

 Notwithstanding, a mind thus destitute of un- 

 derstanding was not without its passions ; an- 

 ger and jealousy harassed it at times; nor 

 was he without desires of another nature. 



At the age of sixteen, Baby wns twenty-nine 

 inches tall ; at this he rested ; but having thus 

 arrived at his acme, the alterations of puber- 

 ty, or rather, perhaps, of old age, came fast 

 upon him. From being very beautiful, the 

 poor little creature now became quite deform- 

 ed; his strength quite forsook him; his back- 

 bone began to bend ; his head hung forward ; 

 his legs grew weak; one of his shoulders turn- 

 ed awry; and his nose grew disproportionably 



large. With his strength, his natural spirits 

 also forsook him ; and, by the time he was 

 twenty, he was grown feeble, decrepit, and 

 marked with the strongest impressions of old 

 age. It had been before remarked by some, 

 that he would die of old age before he arriv- 

 ed at thirty; and, in fact, by the time he was 

 twenty-two, he could scarcely walk a hun- 

 dred paces, being worn out with the multipli- 

 r city of his years, and bent under the burden 

 of protracted life. In this year he died : a 

 cold, attended with a slight fever, threw him 

 into a kind of lethargy, which had a few mo- 

 mentary intervals ; but he could scarcely 'be 

 brought to speak. However, it is asserted, 

 that in the five last years in his life he show- 

 ed a clearer understanding than in his times 

 of best health : but at length he died, after 

 enduring great agonies, in the twenty-second 

 year of his age. 



Opposite to this accidental diminution of 

 the human race, is that of its extraordinary 

 magnitude. Concerning the reality of a na- 

 tion of giants, there have been many disputes 

 among the learned. Some have affirmed the 

 probability of such a race ; and others, as 

 warmly have denied the possibility of their 

 existence. But it is not from any speculative 

 reasonings, upon a subject of this kind, that 

 information is to be obtained ; it is not from 

 the disputes of I he scholar, but the labours of 

 the enterprising, that we are to be instructed 

 in this inquiry. Indeed, nothing can be more 

 absurd, than what some learned men have ad- 

 vanced upon this subject. It is very unlike- 

 ly, says Grew, that there should either be 

 dwarfs or giants; or if such, they cannot be 

 fitted for the usual enjoyment of life and rea- 

 son. Had man been born a dwarf, he could 

 not have been a reasonable creature : for to 

 that end, he must have a jolt head, and then 

 he would not have body and blood enough 

 to supply his brain with spirits ; or if he had 

 a small head, proportionable to his body, 

 there would not be brain enough for conduct- 

 ing life. But it is still worse with giants; and 

 there could never have been a nation of such, 

 for there would not be food enough found in 

 any country to sustain them ; or, if there were 

 beasts sufficient for this purpose, there would 

 not be grass enough for their maintenance. 

 But what is stiU more, add others, giants could 



