1806.] 
nution, from the firft men, in their fuccef 
fors ; allowing alfo the intelligibility and 
propriety of the term firft men, the men 
as well as the peaches of Adam’s days muft 
have been of an admirable.and ftately fizre 
We have caught this notion from the ans 
cients, and applied it generally to the ear- 
ly periods of our hiftory, and in part to 
centuries and times immediately preceding 
our own. ‘That affection for the marvel- 
lous, and that credulity, which feem fo 
effentially connate with the human mind, 
have not been fatiated with affigning to 
the early races of men fuperior ftature and 
bodily itrength, but alfo a far more 
lengthened duration of life, even to heap- 
ing centuries upon centuries, to the fa- 
voured generations of the primitive times. 
I fhould be pleafed to fee this curious 
fubje& difcufled ina far more extenfive 
way than I am prepared to treat it, and 
indeed with a more fatisfactory precifion 
than it has ever hitherto been treated. I 
have only a few general remarks to offer, 
and they muit hold relation rather with 
analogy than fact; but will be found 
tending towards a conyigtion which has 
long eftablifhed itfelf in my mind, that the 
human body, as well as the human foul, 
have been, and necefiarily muft be, of 
equal ftature, ftrength, and duration, from 
the earlieft to the lateft times. Variations 
natural or acquired, habituai or local, de- 
tract nothing from the paint and folidity 
of the above pofition. 
We fhould derive flender affiftance in 
our advance towards truth from ancient 
hiftory, which every reflecting man is con- 
vinced mutt, from the nature of things, be 
grounded in abfurd and illufory fables. 
It will be fufficient to take a retrofpect of 
feven or eight centuries into our own hif- 
tory, and to glance at thole coilateral and 
corroborating circumftances fuppofed to 
attend the feventeenth, and the early part 
of the eighteenth. ‘The curious antiqua- 
ries who have, inthe Tower of London 
and elfewhere, examined the ponderous ar- 
mour and maffive weapons of thofe early 
times, aflure us, that it would be fimply 
impoffible for the one to be borne, or the 
other wielded, by the puny arms of the 
warriors of thefe degenerate and effemi- 
nate days. The rougher habits, coarfer 
and more fub({tantial viands, which were 
in general ufe in former and lefs civilized 
times, are adduced as auxiliary arguments 
on the fame fide. An additional confir- 
mation of the fuperior animal powers of 
our anceftors has been difcovered in the 
old practice of phyfic 5; and we find fuch 
enormous doles of the moit potent articles 
On the Stature and Bodily Powers of the Ancients. 
407 
of the materia medica prefcribed, not only 
by Sydenham, but by certain phyficians 
who wrote fixty or feventy years fince his 
time, as would be now thought fufficient 
to difpatch the molt robuft of us puny 
moderns to the Elyfian fhades. Even our’ 
difeafes, it feems, have equitably and cha. 
ritably retrograded with usin power, and 
we no longer are goaded by the full-toned 
and raging podagra, which has in latter 
times given place to the languid and en- 
feebling atonic gout. 
Let us confront this fhort general view 
with a counter-view of equal brevity. Ie 
is the invariable effect of the arts and fci- 
ences attendant on civilization gradually 
to fubftitute lightnefs and fymmetry for 
cumbrous weignt, and activity for the lefs 
ufeful and effective motion of flow and 
heavy mafies. Thus the apparent fuperi- 
ority of bodily powers in the ancients, 
with a referve for their fuperior athletic 
habits, amounts perhaps to nothing more 
than their labouring under ufelefs weight, 
of which the men of mcdern times would 
be equally capable, did not their {cience 
render it unneceflary, and the required ex- 
pedition alone impoffible. Weare fnewn 
a lance or {pear of immenfe fize, the ftaff 
of whichis like a weaver’s beam, and 
affured that it was commonly ufed by an 
ancient Britifh Goliah, a picked man 
doubtlefs : and have we not our modern 
Irith and Britifh Goliahs ? All the tales 
of antiquity are by no means fo corre& as 
thofe which afiert the exiftence of giants, 
an enlarged variety of the human {pecies, 
which has undoubtedly exifted and been 
recognized in many parts of the world. 
from the earlieit antiquity to the prefent 
times. As to the pretended longevity of 
the ancients, the notion has been doubt. 
lels grounded on the miftake of reckoning 
by the prefent computation of time, in- 
ftead of the more ancient year, which con. 
fitted of but two months. According to 
this latter computation the age of Methu- 
felah will not exceed that of Old Parr, nor 
equal that of many long-lived moderns, 
Could any doubt lie as to this mode of 
fettling the point, and there feems very 
little room for any, it may be fairly aver- 
red, that hiftory is far more likely to 
deviate or commit a grofs blunder than 
na'ure ; an averment that will prove fatis- 
factory to all men of fenfe, in a great va- 
riety of cafes, and fuch as may be readily 
fuppofed. 
In ancient and uncivilized times, when - 
luxury was confined to few, or was even 
unknown to all, the athletic form and 
powers were 20 doubt more generally dif. 
fuged = 
