,92 NATURAL HISTORY. 



The strength of a man may be still farther estimate J 

 by the continuance of his labour, and by the agility of 

 his motions. Men, who are exercised in running, out- 

 strip horses, or at least continue their speed for a greater 

 length of time. In a journey, after a man and a horse 

 have proceeded together for several days, the former 

 will be fresh when the latter will be quite tired. The 

 royal messengers of Ispahan run thirty-six leagues in 

 fourteen or fifteen hours. Travellers assure us, that the 

 Hottentots outrun lions in the chace ; and that the 

 savages who hunt the elk, pursue this animal, which 

 is as fleet as a stag, with such speed that they take it. 

 The civilized man is ignorant of his own strength, nor is 

 he sensible how much he loses of it by effeminacy, and how 

 he might add to it by the habit of vigorous exercise. 



To complete our description of man, it will be proper 

 to investigate the human countenance, as it appears 

 among ourselves, when agitated by the passions. In 

 affliction, in joy, in love, in shame, in compassion, the 

 eyes are apt to be swelled, and as it were obscured by an 

 overflow of tears. The effusion of these is always ac- 

 companied with a tension of the muscles of the visage, 

 by which there is occasioned an opening of the mouth. 

 At the same time, the natural moisture in the nose be- 

 comes more copious, and, by internal passages, mixes 

 itself with the lachrymal moisture ; which, however, 

 flows only at intervals, not always. 



The two corners of the mouth are lowered by grief, 

 the under lip is erected, the eye-lid is half closed, the 

 pupil of the eye is raised, and almost covered with the 

 eye-lid. And the other muscles of the face are so much 

 relaxed, that the space betwixt the mouth and the eyes 

 is larger than ordinary, and consequently the counte- 

 nance assumes a lengthened appearance. 



