110 HISTORY OF 



thirty ; and, in fact, by the time he was twenty- 

 two, he could scarcely walk a hundred paces, be- 

 ing worn with the multiplicity 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 momentary intervals ; but he could scarcely 

 be brought to speak. However, it is asserted, 

 that in the five last days of his life he showed 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 magni- 

 tude. Concerning the reality of a nation 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 specu- 

 lative reasonings upon a subject of this kind that 

 information is to be obtained : it is not from the 

 disputes of the scholar, but the labours of the en- 

 terprising, that we are to be instructed in this in- 

 quiry. Indeed, nothing can be more absurd than 

 what some learned men have advanced upon this 

 subject. It is very unlikely, says Grew, that there 

 should either be dwarfs or giants j or if such, 

 they cannot be fitted for the usual enjoyments of 

 life and reason. 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 



