4'2() HISTORY OF 



formed, wlien he began to deplon; ;iii imaginaiy decay. Nothing 

 is more natural than this progress of the mind, in looljing up to 

 unciquity with reverential wonder. Having been accustomed to 

 compare the wisdom of our fathers with our own, in early imbe- 

 cility, the impression of their superiority remains when they 

 no longer exist, and when we cease to be inferior. Thus the 

 men of every age consider the past as wiser than the present ; 

 and the reverence seems to accumulate as our imaginations ascend. 

 For this reason, we allow remote antiquity many advantages, 

 without disputing their title ; the inhabitants of unci\ilized 

 countries represent them as taller and stronger ; and the people of 

 a more polished nation, as more healthy and more wise. Never- 

 theless, these attributes seem to be only the prejudices of ingen- 

 uous minds ; a kind of gi'atitude, which we hope in turn to re- 

 ceive from posterity. The ordinary stature of men, Mr Derham 

 observes, is, in all probability, the same now as at the beginning. 

 The oldest measure we have of the human figure, is in the 

 monument of Cheops, in the first pyramid of Egypt. This 

 must have subsisted many hundred years before the times of 

 Homer, who is the first that deplores the decay. This monument, 

 however, scarcely exceeds the measure of our ordinary coffins : the 

 cavity is no more than six feet long, two feet wide, and deep in 

 about the same proportion. Several mummies also, of a very 

 early age, are found to be only of the ordinary stature ; and show 

 that, for these three thousand years at least, men have not suffer- 

 ed the least diminution. We have many corroborating proof:^ 

 of this, in the 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 allowed to have been left there 

 at the overthrow of Asdrubal. Some of our finest antique sta- 

 tues, which we learn from Pliny and others to be exactly as big 

 Ls the life, still continue to this day, remaining monuments of 

 the superior excellence of their workmen indeed, but not of the 

 superiority of their stature. We may conclude, therefore, that 

 men have been in all ages j)retty much of the same size they are 

 at present ; and that the only difference must have been acci- 

 dental, or perhaps national. 



As to the superior beauty of our ancestors, it is not easy to 

 make the com|)arison : beauty seems a very uncertain charm ; 

 and frequently is less in the object, than in the eye of the be- 



