•which is ufed for the carnage of milk-buckets. 
The load thus placed on a fcafFold on each fide, 
and the Man {landing ere£l in the middle, all 
parts of the fcaffold, except that whereon he 
{lands, are made to finkj and thus the Man main- 
taining his pofition, the load becomes fufpended, 
and the column of his bones m>ay be fairly faid to 
bear it up: if, however, he fhould incline the leaft 
to either fide, he muft inevitably drop, and no 
exertions of his own can again raife the weight. 
But the cafe is very different with regard to a bur- 
den laid on the back of ^ horfe: the column of the 
bones there lies in a different direftion; and a 
weight of five hundred pounds would probably 
break the back of the ftrongeft horfe. The great- 
eft force of a horfe, and of other quadrupeds, is 
exerted when the load is placed in fuch a pofition, 
that the column of the bones can be properly ap- 
plied, which is lengthwife. When, therefore, we 
eftimate the comparative ftrength of a horfe, we 
muft not regard what he can carry, but what he 
can draw: and, in this eafe, his amazing fupe- 
riority over Man is eafily difcoveredj for one 
horfe can draw a load which ten Men would be 
unable to move. 
The ftrength of animals may likewife be efti- 
jTiated by their agility and perfeverance in labour. 
Men exercifed in running outftrip horfes, or at 
leaft continue their fpeed much longer. In a 
lourney alfo, a Man will walk down a horfe; for, 
after they have both continued to proceed feveral 
days, the horle will be quite tired, and the Man 
will be lefs fatigued than at fi.rft fetting out. The 
royal mefTengers of Ifpahan, who are runners by 
profeffion, will travel thirty-fix leagues in fourteen 
hours. Travellers afiTure us, that the Hotten- 
tots outftrip lions in the chace; and that the fa- 
vao-es who hunt the elk, purfue with fiich cele- 
rity, that at laft they tire it down, and take it. 
Many other relations are handed down of the 
amazing fpeed of favages ; and of the long jour- 
nies they accomplifti on foot over the moft craggy 
and defolate mountains, where there is no path 
to diredt, and every obftacle to obftru£l their pro- 
-n-refs: thefe people are faid to travel a thoufand 
leao-ues in fix weeks, or two months at moft. If 
we except birds, whofe mufcles are proportionally 
ftronger than thofe of any other animals, no other 
creature could fupport fuch long-continued fa- 
tio-ues. But the civilized Man is ignorant of his 
ftrength ; nor is he fenfible how much he is weak- 
ened by effeminacy, nor to what extent he might 
recover his native force by an habitual and vigo- 
rous exercifc of his powers. 
Men of extraordinary ftrength fometimes ap- 
pear: but, among the ancients, it was a quality 
of much greater ufe than at prefent ; as, in time 
of war, the fame Man who had ftrength enougli 
to carry the heavieft armour, had aifo ability fuf- 
ficient to ftrike the moft fatal blow. In this cafe, 
his ftrength was at once his protedbion and his 
power. We fliould not, therefore, be furprized, 
when we hear of one Man terrible to an army, 
and irrefiftible in his career, as we find fome ge- 
nerals reprefented in ancient hiftcry. But we need 
not hefitate to aflert, that this prowefs v/as exag- 
■ gerated by fiattery, and exalted by terror. An 
age of ignorance is ever an age of wonder : at 
fuch tunes mankind, having no juft ideas of the 
human powers, were pleafed rather to reprefent what 
they wiftied than what they knewj and exalted hu- 
man ftrength,, to fill up the whole fcbere of their 
MAN 
limited conceptions. Great ftrength is an acci- 
dental endowment; two or three perfons in a 
country may pofiefs it, and thefe may inftitute a 
claim to heroifm. But, what may induce us to 
queftion the veracity of thefe accounts, is, that 
the heroes of antiquity are reprefented as the ofF- 
fpring of heroes ; their prodigious ftrength is de- 
livered down from father to fon; and this we well 
know is not fuitable to the courfe of nature- 
Strength is not hereditary, like titles; which in- 
clines us to believe, that this great tribe of he- 
roes, v/ho are all reprefented as the defcendants of 
heroes, are more indebted to their titles than their 
ftrength for their attributes. 
With regard to the fplendid charaders of Ho- 
mer, they are all delineated as princes, and the 
fons of princes; and the meaner ranks of warriors 
feem only brought into the field for thefe to pro- 
teft or deftroy. But nothing can be more im- 
probable, than that thofe men, who were bred in 
the luxury of courts, fhould be ftrong; while the 
whole body of the people, who received a plainer 
and fimpler education, fhould be comparatively 
weak. This feems to infringe the general laws 
of nature : and it is abfurd to believe that all the 
fons of heroes ftiould thus inherit, not only the 
dominions, but the ftrength of their progenitors. 
We may therefore conclude, that they owe the 
greateft fhare of their imputed ftrength to the dig- 
nity of their ftations ; and that, like all fortu- 
nate princes, their flatterers happen to have gain- 
ed credit. In later ages, indeed, we have fome 
inftances of amazing ftrength which cannot be 
queftioned ; but in thefe Nature is found to pur- 
fue her ordinary courfe, and we find their ftreno-th 
merely accidental. Thefe ftrong men have ori- 
ginated from the loweft ranks, and gradually rifen 
into notice as their adventitious fuperiority had 
more opportunities of being difplayed. Among 
this number may be ranked the Roman tribune^, 
who obtained the name of the fecond Achilles; 
and who, with his own hand, is faid to have kil- 
led, at different times, three hundred of the ene- 
my; and, when infidioufly attacked by twenty- 
five of his own countrymen, though paft his fix- 
tieth year, to have killed fourteen of them before 
he himfelf was flain. Of this number was Miloj 
who, when he ftood upright, could not be moved 
from his place. Pliny alfo mentions one named 
Athenatus, who walked acrofs the ftage at Rome 
loaded with a breaft-plate v/hich weighed five 
hundred pounds, and bufkins of the fame v/eight. 
But, of all the prodigies of ftrength recorded in 
airthentic hiftory, Maximinius, the Roman em- 
peror, may be reckoned the chief. Whatever we 
are told refpefling him is well attefted : his cha- 
rafter was too exalted not to be perfedlly known 5 
and that very ftrength, for which he was cele- 
brated, at laft procured him no lefs a reward than 
the empire of the world. Maximinius was up- 
wards of nine feet high, and one of the beft-pro- 
portioned men in the whole empire. He was a 
Thracian by birth; and, from being a fimple 
herdfman, rofe, through the feveral gradations of 
office, till he became Emperor of Rome. The 
firft opportunity which offered of exerting his 
ftrength, was in the prefence of a numerous af- 
fembly of citizens in the theatre, where he over- 
threw twelve of the ftrongeft men in wreftlin^ 
and outftripped two of the fleeteft horfes in run- 
ning ; all in one day. He could draw a loaded cha- 
riot, which two ftrong horfes were unable to move ; 
and 
