334i HISTOllY OK 



the phrase is, had better bottoms, yet, for a spurt, the English- 

 men were more nimble and speedy." 



Nevertheless, in general, civilized man is ignorant of his own 

 powers : he is ignorant how much he loses by effeminacy ; and 

 what might be acquired by habit and exercise. Here and there, 

 indeed, men are found among us of extraordinary strength ; but 

 that strength, for want of opportunity, is seldom called into ex- 

 ertion. " Among the ancients it was a quality of much greater 

 use than at present ; as in war the same man that had strength 

 sufficient to carry the heaviest armour, had strength sufficient 

 also to strike the most fatal blow. In this case, his strength 

 was at once his protection and his power. We ought not to be 

 surprised, therefore, when we hear of one man terrible to an 

 army, and irresistible in his career, as we find some generals 

 represented in ancient history. But we may be very certain 

 that this prowess was exaggerated by flattery, and exalted by 

 terror. An age of ignorance is ever an age of wonder. At 

 such times, mankind, having no just ideas of the human powers, 

 ai-e willing rather to represent what they wish, than what they 

 know ; and exalt human strength, to fill up the whole sphere of 

 their limited conceptions. Great strength is an accidental thing ; 

 two or three in a country may possess it; and these may have a 

 claim to heroism. But what may lead us to doubt of the vera- 

 cityof these accounts is, that the heroes of antiquity are repre 

 sented as the sons of heroes ; their amazing strength is deliver- 

 ed down from father to son ; and this we know to be contiary 

 to the course of nature. Strength is not hereditary, although 

 titles are : and I am very much induced to believe, that this 

 great tribe of heroes, who are all represented as the descendants 

 of heroes, are more obliged to their titles than to theii 

 strength, for their characters. With regard to the shining 

 characters in Homer, they are all rcin-eseiited as princes, 

 and as the sons of princes ; while we are told of scarce any 

 share of prowess in the meaner men of the army ; who are only 

 brought into the field for these to protect, or to slaughter. But 

 nothing can be more unlikely than that those men, who were bred 

 in the hixuiy of courts, should be strong ; while the whole body of 

 the people, who received a plainer and simpler education, should 

 be comparatively weak. Nothing can be more contrary to tin; 

 general lav.s of nature, than that all the sous of heroes should thw* 



