ANIMALS. 25S 



to this day, as strongly believed by the generality of mankind as 

 ever. It does not admit of a reason ; and, indeed, I can give none, 

 oven why the child should, in any respect, resemble the father or tht 

 mother. The fact we generally find to be so. But why it should 

 take the particular print of the father's features in the womb, is as 

 bard to conceive, as why it should be affected by the mother's imagi- 

 nation. We all know what a strong effect the imagination has on 

 those parts in particular, without being able to assign a cause how this 

 effect is produced ; and why the imagination may not produce the 

 same effect in marking the child that it does in forming it, I see no 

 reason. Those persons whose employment it is to rear up pigeons 

 of different colours, can breed them, as their expression is, to a feather. 

 In fact, by properly pairing them, they can give what colour they will 

 to any feather in any part of the body. Were we to reason upon this 

 fact, what could we say ? Might it not be asserted, that the egg, be- 

 ing distinct from the body of the female, cannot be influenced by it? 

 Might it not be plausibly said, that there is no similitude between any 

 part of the egg and any particular feather, which we expect to pro- 

 pagate ; and yet for all this, the fact is known to be true, and what 

 no speculation can invalidate. In the same manner, a thousand vari- 

 ous instances assure us, that the child in the womb is sometimes 

 marked by the strong affections of the mother ; how this is performed 

 we know not ; we only see the effect, without any connexion between 

 it and the cause. The best physicians have allowed it, and have been 

 satisfied to submit to the experience of a number of ages ; but many 

 disbelieve it because they expect a reason for every effect. This, 

 however, is very hard to be given, while it is very easy to appear wise 

 by pretending incredulity. 



Among the number of monsters, dwarfs and giants are usually 

 reckoned ; though not, perhaps, with the strictest propriety, since they 

 are no way different from the rest of mankind, except in stature. It 

 is a dispute, however, about words, and therefore scarcely worth con- 

 tending about. But there is a dispute, of a more curious nature, on 

 this subject, namely, whether there are races of people thus very di- 

 minutive, or vastly large ; or whether they be merely accidental va- 

 rieties, that now and then are seen in the country, in a few persons, 

 whose bodies some external cause has contributed to lessen or enlarge. 



With regard to men of diminutive stature, all antiquity has been 

 unanimous in asserting their national existence. Homer was the first 

 who has given us an account of the pigmy nation contending with the 

 cranes ; and what poetical licence might be supposed to exaggerate, 

 Athenaeus has attempted seriously to confirm by historical assertion.* 

 If we attend to these, we must believe, that In the internal parts of 

 Africa there are whole nations of pigmy beings, not more than a foot 

 in stature, who continually wage an unequal war with the birds and 

 beasts that inhabit the plains in which they reside. Some of the an? 

 cients, however, and Strabo in particular, have supposed all these ac- 

 counts to be fabulous, and have been more inclined to think this sap- 

 posed nation cf pigmies, nothing more than a species of apes, wri 



Athenseus, ix. 390. 



