11G HISTORY OF 



ancient pieces of armour which are dug up in dif- 

 ferent parts of Europe. The brass helmet dug up 

 at Medauro fits one of our men, and yet is allow- 

 ed to have been left there at the overthrow of 

 Asdrubal. Some of our finest antique statues, 

 which we learn from Pliny and others to be ex- 

 actly as big as the life, still continue to this day, 

 remaining monuments of the superior excellence 

 of their workmen indeed, but not of the superio- 

 rity of their stature. We may conclude, there- 

 fore, that men have been in all ages pretty much 

 of the same size they are at present ; and that the 

 only difference must have been accidental, or per- 

 haps national; 



As to the superior beauty of our ancestors, it 

 is not easy to make the comparison : beauty seems 

 a very uncertain charm, and frequently is less in 

 the object than in the eye of the beholder. Were 

 a modern lady's face formed exactly like the 

 Venus of Medicis, or the sleeping vestal y she 

 would scarcely be considered beautiful, except 

 by the lovers of antiquity, whom, of all her ad- 

 mirers > perhaps, she would be least desirous of 

 pleasing. It is true, that we have some disorders 

 among us that disfigure the features, and from 

 which the ancients were exempt ; but it is equal- 

 ly true, that we want some which were common 

 among them; and which were equally deforming. 

 As for their intellectual powers, these also were 

 probably the same as ours : we excel them in the 

 sciences, which may be considered as a history of 

 accumulated experience ; and they excel us in 

 the poetic arts, as they had the first rifling of all 

 the striking images of nature. 



