from some accidental causes-either from the country lying higher, and consequently being colder, or from the natives bathing oftener, and leading a more civilised life. In general, it may be asserted that as we approach the line we find the inhabitants of each country grow browner, until the colour deepens into perfect blackness. Thus, taking our standard from the whitest race of people, and beginning with our own country-which, I believe, bids fairest for pre-eminence-we shall find the French, who are more southern, a slight shade deeper than we; going farther down, the Spaniards are browner than the French; the inhabitants of Fez darker than they; and the natives of Negroland the darkest of all. In what manner the sun produces this effect, and how the same luminary which whitens wax and linen should darken the human complexion, is not easy to conceive. Sir Thomas Brown first supposed that a mucous substance, which had something of a vitriolic quality, sett ed under the reticular membrane, and grew darker with heat. Others have supposed that the blackness lay in the epidermis, or scarf-skin, which was burned up like leather. But nothing has been satisfactorily discovered upon the subject; it is sufficient that we are assured of the fact, and that we have no doubt of the sun's tinging the complexion in proportion to its vicinity. But we are not to suppose that the sun is the only cause of darkening the skin; the wind, extreme cold, hard labour, or coarse and sparing nourishment, are found to contribute to this effect. We find the pea sants of every country, who are most exposed to the weather, a shade darker than the higher ranks of people. The savage inhabitants of all places are exposed still more, and therefore contract a still deeper hue; and this will account for the tawny colour of the North American Indians. Although they live in a climate the same, or even more northerly than ours, yet they are found to be of complexions very different from those of Europe. But it must be considered that they live continually exposed to the sun; that they use many methods to darken their skins by art, painting them with red ochre, and anointing them with the fat of bears. Had they taken, for a succession of several generations, the same precautions to brighten their colour that an European does, it is very probable that they would in time come to have similar complexions, and, perhaps, dispute the prize of beauty.

The extremity of cold is not less productive of a tawny complexion than that of heat. The natives of the acrtic circle, as was observed, are all I rown; and those that lie most to the north are almost entirely black. In this manner both extremes are unfavourable to the human form and colour, and the same effects are produced under the poles that are found at the line.

With regard to the stature of the different countries, that seems chiefly to result from the nature of the food and the quantity of the supply. Not but that the severity of heat or cold may in some measure diminish the growth and produce a dwarfishness of make; but in general the food is the great agent in producing this effect; where that is supplied in large quantities, and where its quality is wholesome and nutrimental, the inhabitants are generally seen above the ordinary stature. On the contrary, where it is afforded in a sparing quantity, or very coarse and void of nourishment in its kind, the inhabitants degenerate, and sink below the ordinary size of mankind. In this respect they resemble other animals whose bodies, by proper feeding, may be greatly augmented. An ox on the fertile plains of India grows to a size four times as large as the diminutive animal of the same kind bred in the Alps. The horses bred in the plains are larger than those of the mountain. So it is with man; the inhabitants of the valley are usually found taller than those of the hill: the natives of the Highlands of Scotland, for instance, are short, broad, and hardy; those of the Lowlands are tall and shapely.

The inhabitants of Greenland, who live upon dried fish and seals, are less than those of Gambia or Senegal, where Nature supplies them with vegetable and animal abundance.

The form of the face seems rather to be the result of custom. Nations who have long considered some artificial deformity as beautiful, who have industriously lessened the feet or flattened the nose, by degrees begin to receive the impression they are taught to assume; and Nature, in a course of ages, shapes itself to the constraint and assumes hereditary deformity. We find nothing more common in births than for children to inherit sometimes even the accidental deformities of their parents. We have many instances of squinting in the father, which he received from fright or habit, communicated to the offspring; and I myself have seen a child distinctly marked with a scar similar to one the father had received in battle In this manner accidental deformities may become natural ones, and by assiduity may be continued, and even increased, through successive generations. From this, therefore, have arisen the small eyes and long ears of the Tartars and Chinese nations. From hence originally may have come the flat noses of the blacks, and the flat heads of the American Indians.

In this slight survey, therefore, I think we may see that all the variations in the human figure, as far as they differ from our own, are produced either by the rigour of the climate, the bad quality or the scantiness of the provisions, or by the savage customs of the country. They are actual marks of the degeneracy in the human form; and we may consider the European figure and colour as standards to which to refer all other varieties, and with which to compare them. In proportion as the Tartar or American approaches nearer to European beauty, we consider the race as less degenerated; in proportion as he differs more widely, he has made greater deviations from his original form.

That we have all sprung from one common parent we are taught, both by reason and religion, to believe; and we have good reason also to think that the Europeans resemble him more than any of the rest of his children. However, it must not be concealed that the olivecoloured Asiatic, and even the jet-black Negro, claim this honour of hereditary resemblance; and assert that white men are mere deviations from original perfection. Odd as this opinion may seem, they have Linnæus, the celebrated naturalist, on their side, who supposes man to be a native of the tropical climates, and only a sojourner more to the north. But, not to enter into a controversy upon a matter of a very remote speculation, I think one argument alone will suffice to prove the contrary, and show that the white man is the original source from whence the other varieties have sprung. We have fre quently seen white children produced from black parents. but have never seen a black offspring the production of two whites. From hence we may conclude, that whiteness is the colour to which mankind naturally tends; for, as in the tulip, the parent stock is known by all the artifical varieties breaking into it, so in man that colour must be original which never alters, and to which all the rest are accidentally seen to change. I have seen in London at different times two white Negroes, the issue of black parents, that served to convince me of the truth of this theory. I had before been taught to believe that the whiteness of the Negro skin was a disease -a kind of milky whiteness, that might be called rather a leperous crust than a natural complexion. I was taught to suppose that the numberless white Negroes found in various parts of Africa, the white men that go by the name of Chacrelas in the East Indies, and the white Americans near the Isthmus of Darien, in the West Indies, were all so many diseased persons, and even more deformed than the blackest of the natives. But examining the Negro who was last shown in London, I found the colour to be exactly like that of an

European-the visage white and ruddy, and the lips of the proper redness. However there were suffici nt narks to convince :ne of its descent. The hair was white and woolly, and very unlike anything I had seen before. The iris of the eye was yellow, inclining to red; the nose was flat, exactly resembling that of a Negro; and the lips thick and prominent. No doubt, therefore, remained of the child's having been born of Negro parents and the person who showed it had attestations to convince the most incredulous. From this, then, we see that the variations of the Negro colour is into whiteness, whereas the white are never found to have a race of Negro children. Upon the whole, therefore, all those changes which the African, the Asiatic, or the American undergo are but accidental deformities, which a kinder climate, better nourishment, or more civilized manners, would in a course of centuries very probably remove.

CHAP. XII.

OF MONSTERS.

Hitherto I have only spoken of those varieties in the human species that are common to whole nations; but there are varieties of another kind which are only found in the individual, and being more rarely seen, are therefore called "monstrous." If we examine into the varieties of distorted Nature, there is scarce a limb of the body or a feature in the face that has not suffered some reprobation, either from Art or Nature-being enlarged or diminished, lengthened or wrested, from its due proportion. Linnæus, after having giving a catalogue of monsters, particularly adds the flat heads of Canada, the long heads of the Chinese, and the slender waists of the women of Europe, who, by tight lacing, take such pains to destroy the health through a mistaken desire to improve their beauty. It belongs more to the physician than the naturalist to attend to these minute deformities; and, indeed, it is a melancholy contemplation to speculate upon a catalogue of calamities inflicted by unpitying Nature, or brought upon us by our own caprice. Some, however, are fond of such accounts; and there have been books filled with nothing else. these, therefore, I refer the reader; who may be better pleased with accounts of men with two heads, or without any head, of children joined in the middle, of bones turned into flesh, or flesh converted into bones, than I am. It is sufficient here to observe, that every day's experience must have shown us miserable instances of this kind produced by Nature or Affection-calamities that no pity can soften or assiduity relieve.

To

Passing over, therefore, every other account, I shall only mention the extraordinary instance quoted by Malbranche, upon which he founds his beautiful theory of monstrous productions. A woman of Paris, the wife of a tradesman, went to see a criminal broke alive upon the wheel at the place of public execution. She was at that time two months advanced in pregnancy, and no way subject to any disorders to affect the child in her womb. She was, however, of a tender habit of body; and, though led by curiosity to this horrid spectacle, very easily moved to pity and compassion. She felt, therefore, all those strong emotions which so terrible a sight must naturally inspire; shuddered at every blow the criminal received, and almost swooned at his cries. Upon returning from this scene of blood she continued for some days pensive, and her imagination still wrought upon the spectacle she had lately seen. After some time, however, she seemed perfectly recovered from her fright, and had almost forgotten her former uneasiness. When the time of her delivery approached she seemed no ways mindful of her former terrors, nor were her Dains in labour more than usual in such circumstances.

But what was the amazement of her friends and assist ants when the child came into the world! It was found that every limb in its body was broken like those of the malefactor, and just in the same place. This poor infant, that had suffered the pains of life even before its coming into the world, did not die, but lived in an hospital in Paris for twenty one years after-a wretched instance of the supposed powers of imagination in the mother of altering and distorting the infant in the womb. The manner in which Malbranche reasons upon this fact is as follows:-The Creator has established such sympathy between the several parts of Nature, that we are led not only to imitate each other, but also to partake in the same affections and desires. The animal spirits are thus carried to the respective parts of the body to perform the same actions which we see others perform, to receive in some measure their wounds, and take part in their sufferings. Experience tells us that if we look attentively on any person severely beaten or severely wounded, the spirits immediately flow into those parts of the body which correspond to those we see in pain. The more delicate the constitution the more it is thus affected-the spirits making a stronger impression on the fibres of a weakly habit than of a robust one. Strong vigorous men see an execution without much concern, while women of nicer texture are struck with horror and consternation. This sensibility in them must of consequence be communicated to all parts of the body; and, as the fibres of the child in the womb are incomparably finer than those of the mother, the course of the animal spirits must in consequence produce greater alterations. Hence, every stroke given to the criminal forcibly affected the imagination of the woman, and, by a kind of counter-stroke, the delicate, tender frame of the child.

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Such is the reasoning of an ingenious man upon a fact, the veracity of which many since have called in question. They have allowed, indeed, that such a child might have been produced, but have denied the cause of its defor mity. How could the imagination of the mother," say they, "produce such dreadful effects upon her child? She has no communication with the infant; she scarce touches it in any part; quite unaffected with her concerns, it sleeps in security, in a manner secluded by a fluid in which it swims, from her that bears it. With what a variety of deformities," say they, "would all mankind be marked, if all the vain and capricious desires of the mother were thus readily written upon the body of the child?" Yet, notwithstanding this plausible way of reasoning, I cannot avoid giving some credit to the va riety of instances I have either read or seen upon this subject. If it be a prejudice, it is as old as the days of Aristotle, and to this day as strongly believed by the generality of mankind as ever. It does not admit of a reason-and indeed I can give none-even why the child should in any respect resemble the father or the mother. The fact we generally find to be so; but why it should take the particular print of the father's features in the womb, it is as hard to conceive as why it should be af fected by the mother's imagination. We all know what a strong effect the imagination has on those parts in particular, without being able to assign a cause how this effect is produced; and why the imagination may not produce the same effect in marking the child that it does in forming it I see no reason. Those persons whose employment it is to rear up pigeons of different colours can breed them, as their expression is, to a feather. In fact, by properly pairing them they can give what colour they will to any feather in any part of the body. Were we to reason upon this fact, what could we say? Might it not be asserted that the egg, being distinct from the body of the female, cannot be influenced by it? Might it not be plausibly said, that there is no similitude he tween any part of the egg and any particular feather which we expect to propagate? And yet for all this the

fact is known to be true, and what no speculation can invalidate. In the same manner, a thousand various instances assure us that the child in the womb is sometimes marked by the strong affections of the mother. How this is performed we know not; we only see the effect, without any connexion between it and the cause. The best physicians have allowed it, and have been satisfied to submit to the experience of a number of ages; but many disbelieve it, because they expect a reason for every effect. This, however, is difficult to be given, while it is easy to appear wise by pretending credulity. Among the number of monsters, dwarfs and giants are usually reckoned; though not, perhaps, with the strictest propriety, since they are no way different from the rest of mankind except in stature. It is a dispute, however, about words; and therefore scarce worth contending about. But there is a dispute of a more curious nature upon this subject-namely, whether there are races of people thus very diminutive or vastly large, or whether they be merely accidental varieties that now and then are seen in the country, in a few persons whose bodies some external cause has contributed to lessen or enlarge. With regard to men of diminutive stature, Antiquity has been unanimous in asserting their national existence. Homer was the first to give us an account of the pigmy nation contending with the cranes; and what poetical licence might be supposed to exaggerate, Athenæus has attempted seriously to confirm by historical assertion. If we attend to these, we must believe that in the internal parts of Africa there are whole nations of pigmy beings not more than a foot in stature, who continually wage an unequal war with the birds and beasts that inhabit the plains in which they reside. Some of the ancients, however, and Strabo in particular, have supposed all these accounts to be fabulous; and have been more inclined to think this supposed nation of pigmies nothing more than a species of apes, well known to be numerous in that part of the world. With this opinion the moderns have all concurred; and that diminutive race which was described as human has long been degraded into a class of animals that resemble us but very imperfectly.

The existence, therefore, of a pigmy race of mankind being founded in error or in fable, we can expect to find men of diminutive stature only by accident among men of the ordinary size. Of these accidental dwarfs, every country and almost every village can produce numerous instances. There was a time when these unfavoured children of Nature were the peculiar favourites of the great; and no prince or nobleman thought himself completely attended unless he had a dwarf among the number of his domestics. These poor little men were kept to be laughed at, or to raise the barbarous pleasure of their masters by their contrasted inferiority. Even in England, as late as the times of King James I., the court was at one time furnished with a dwarf, a giant, and a jester. These the king often took a pleasure in opposing to each other, and often fomented quarrels among them, in order to be a concealed spectator of their animosity. It was a particular entertainment of the courtiers at that time to see little Geoffrey (for so the dwarf was called) ride round the lists, expecting his antagonist, and discovering in his actions all the marks of contemptible resolution.

It was in the same spirit that Peter of Russia, in the year 1710, celebrated a marriage of dwarfs. This monarch, though raised by his native genius far above a barbarian, was nevertheless still many degrees removed from actual refinement. His pleasures, therefore, were of the vulgar kind; and this was among the number. Upon a certain day, which he had ordered to be proclaimed several months before, he invited the whole body of his courtiers and all the foreign ambassadors to be present at the marriage of a pigmy man and woman. The preparations for the wedding were not only very

grand, but were executed in a style of barbarous ridicule. He ordered that all the dwarf men and women within two hundred miles should repair to the capital, and also insisted that they should be present at the ceremony. For this purpose he supplied them with proper vehicles; but he so contrived it, that one horse was seen carrying a dozen of them into the city at once, while the mob followed shouting and laughing from behind. Some of them were at first unwilling to obey an order which they knew was calculated to turn them into ridicule, and they did not come; but he soon obliged them to obey, and as a punishment enjoined that they should wait upon the rest at dinner. The whole company of dwarfs amounted to seventy, beside the bride and bridegroom, who were richly adorned, and in the extreme of fashion. For this little company in miniature everything was suitably provided; a low table, small plates, little glasses in fact, everything was so fitted as if all things had been dwindled to their own standard. It was his great pleasure to see their gravity and their pride-the contention of the women for places and the men for superiority. This point he attempted to adjust, by ordering that the most diminutive should take the lead; but this bred disputes, for none would then consent to sit foremost. All this, however, being at last settled, dancing followed the dinner, and the ball was opened with a minuet by the bridegroom, who measured exactly three feet two inches high. In the end matters were so contrived, that this little company, who met together in gloomy pride and unwilling to be pleased, being at last familiarised to laughter, joined in the diversion, and became, as the journalist has it, exceedingly sprightly and entertaining.

But whatever may be the entertainment such guests might afford when united, I never found a dwarf capable of affording any when alone. I have at different times conversed with some of these that were exhibited at our fairs about town, and have ever found their intellect as contracted as their persons. They in general seemed to me to have faculties very much resembling those of children, and desires also of the same kind-being diverted with the same sports, and best pleased with such companions. Of all those I have seen, which may amount to five or six, the little man named Coan, who recently died at Chelsea, was the most intelligent and sprightly. I have heard him and the giant who sung at the theatres sustain a very ridiculous duet, to which they were taught to give great spirit. But this mirth and seeming saga. city were but assumed. Coan had by long habit been taught to look cheerful upon the approach of company; and his conversation was but the mere etiquette of a person that had been used to receive visitors. When driven out of his walk nothing could be more stupid or ignorant-nothing more dejected and forlorn. But we have a complete history of a dwarf very accurately related by Mr. Daubenton, which I will here take the liberty to translate.

This dwarf, whose name was Baby, was well known, having spent the greatest part of his life at Lunenville, in the palace of Stanislaus, the titular King of Poland. He was born in the village of Plaisne, in France, in the year 1741. His father and mother were peasants, both of good constitutions, and inured to a life of husbandry and toilsome labour. Baby, when born, weighed but a pound and a quarter. We are not informed of the dimensions of his body at that time; but we may conjecture they were very small, as he was presented on a plate to be baptized, and for a long time lay in a slipper. His mouth, although proportioned to the rest of his body, was not at that time large enough to take in the nipple, and he was therefore obliged to be suckled by a she-goat that was in the house; and that served as a nurse, attending to his cries with a kind of maternal fondness. He began to articulate some words when eighteen months old; and at two years he was able

to walk alone. He was then fitted with shoes that were about an inch and a half long. He was attacked with several acute disorders; but the small-pox was the only one which left any marks behind it. Until he was six years old he eat no other food but pulse, potatoes, and bacon. His father and mother were, from their poverty, incapable of affording him any better nourishment; and his education was little better than his food, being bred up among the rustics of the place. At six years old he was about fifteen inches high, and his whole body weighed but thirteen pounds. Notwithstanding this, he was well-proportioned and handsome; his health was good, but his understanding scarce passed the bounds of instinct. It was at that time that the King of Poland, having heard of such a curiosity, had him conveyed to Lunenville, gave him the name of "Baby," and kept him in his palace.

Baby, having thus quitted the hard condition of a peasant to enjoy all the comforts and the conveniences of life, seemed to receive no alteration from his new way of living, either in mind or in person. He preserved the goodness of his constitution till abont the age of sixteen, but his body seemed to increase very slowly during the whole time; and his stupidity was such, that all instructions were lost in improving his under standing. He could never be brought to have any sense of religion, nor even to show the least signs of a reasoning faculty. They attempted to teach him dancing and music, but in vain; he never could make anything of music; and as for dancing, although he beat time tolerably exact, yet he could never remember the figure, unless his dancing-master stood by to direct his motions. Notwithstanding a mind thus destitute of understanding, it was not without its passions; anger and jealousy harassd it at times; nor was he without desires of another nature.

At the age of sixteen Baby was twenty-nine inches tall; at this he rested; but having thus arrived at his acme, the alterations of puberty-or rather, perhaps, of old age-came fast upon him. From being very beautiful the poor little creature now became quite deformed; his strength quite forsook him-his back-bone began to bend-his head hung forward-his legs grew weak-one of his shoulders turned awry-and his nose grew disProportionably large. With his strength his natural spirits also forsook him; and, by the time he was twenty, he was grown feeble, decrepid, and marked with the strongest impressions of old age. It had been before remarked by some that he would die of old age before he arrived at thirty; and, in fact, by the time he was twentytwo he could scarcely walk a hundred paces, being worn by the multiplicity of his years, and bent under the burthen of protracted life. In this year he died; a cold. attended with a slight fever, threw him into a kind of lethargy, which had a few momentary intervals, but he could scarce be brought to speak. However, it is asserted that in the five last days of his life he showed a clearer understanding than in his times of best health: but at length he died, after enduring great agonies, in the twenty-second year of his age.

Opposite to this accidental diminution of the human race is that of its extraordinary magnitude. Concerning the reality of a nation of giants there have been many disputes among the learned. Some have affirmed the probability of such a race; and others as warmly have denied the possibility of their existence. But it is not from any speculative reasonings upon a subject of this kind that information is to be obtained; it is not from the disputes of the scholar, but the labours of the enterprising, that we are to be instructed in this inquiry. Indeed, nothing can be more absurd than what some learned men have advanced upon this subject. It is very unlikely, says Grew, that there should either be dwarfs or giants; or if such, they cannot be fitted for the usual enjoyment of life and reason. Had man been born a

dwarf, he could not have been a reasonable creature; for to that end he must have a jolt head, and then he would not have body and blood enough to supply his brain with spirits; or if he had a small head propor tionable to his body, there would not be brain enough for conducting life. But it is still worse with giants; and there could never have been a nation of such, for there would not be food enough found in any country to sustain them; or if there were beasts sufficient for this purpose, there would not be grass enough for their maintenance. But what is still more, add others, giants could never be able to support the weight of their own bodies; since a man of ten feet high must be eight times as heavy as one of the ordinary stature; whereas be has but twice the size of muscles to support such a burden, and consequently would be overloaded with the weight of his own body. Such are the theories upon this subject, and they require no other answer than that experience proves them both to be false. Dwarfs are found capable of life and reason; and giants are seen to carry their own bodies. We have several accounts from mariners that a nation of giants actually exists; and mere speculation should never induce us to doubt their veracity.

Ferdinand Magellen was the first who discovered this race of people along the coast towards the extremity of South America. Magellan was a Portuguese of noble extraction, who, having long behaved with great bravery under Albuquerque, the conqueror of India, was treated with neglect by the court upon his return. Applying, therefore, to the King of Spain, he was entrusted with the command of five ships to subdue the Molucca Islands, upon one of which he was slain. It was in his voyage thither that he happened to winter in St. Julian's Bay, an American harbour forty-nine degrees south of the line. In this desolate region, where nothing was seen but objects of terror, where neither trees nor verdure dress the face of the country, they remained for some months without seeing any human creature. They had judged the country to be utterly uninhabitable; when one day they saw approaching, as if it had been dropped from the clouds, a man of enormous stature, dancing and singing, and putting dust upon his head, as they supposed in token of peace. This overture for friendship was, by Magellan's command, quickly answered by the rest of his men; and the giant, approaching, testi fied every mark of astonishment and surprise. He was so tall that the Spaniards only reached his waist; his face was broad, his colour brown, and painted over with a variety of tints; each cheek had the resemblance of a heart drawn upon it; his hair was approaching to whiteness; he was clothed in skins, and armed with a bow. Being treated with kindness, and dismissed with some trifling presents, he soon returned with manymore of the same stature-two of whom the mariners decoyed on ship-board. Nothing could be more gentle than they were in the beginning; they considered the fet ters that were preparing for them as ornaments, and played with them like children with their toys; but when they found for what purpose they were intended they instantly exerted their amazing strength, and broke them in pieces with little effort. This account, with a variety of other circumstances, has been confirmed by succeeding travellers: Herrera, Sebald Wert, Oliver Van Noort, and James le Maire, all correspond in confirming the fact, although they differ in many particulars as to their respective descriptions. The last voyager we have had who has seen this enormous race is Commodore Byron. I have talked with the person who first gave the relation of that voyage, and who was the carpenter of the com modore's ship: he was a sensible, well-informed man, and I believe extremely faithful By him I was assured of the truth of his relation; and this account has since been confirmed by one or two publications, in all which the particulars are pretty nearly the same. One of the

circumstances which most puzzled me to reconcile to probability was that of the horses on which they are described as riding down to the shore. We know the American horse to be of European breed, and in some measure to be degenerated from the original. I was at a loss, therefore, to account how a horse of not more than fourteen hands high was capable of carrying a man of nine feet; or, in other words, an animal almost as large as itself But the wonder will cease when we consider that so small a beast as an ass will carry a man of ordinary size tolerably well; and the proportion between this and the former instances is nearly exact. We can no longer, therefore, refuse our assent to the existence of this gigantic race of mankind; in what manner they are propagated, or under what regulations they live, is a subject that remains for future investigation. It should appear, however, that they are a wan dering nation, changing their abode with the course of the sun, and shifting their situation for the convenience of food, climate, or pasture.

This race of giants are described as possessed of great strength; and, no doubt, they are very different from those accidental giants that are to be seen in different parts of Europe. Stature with these seems rather their infirmity than their pride, and adds to their burthen without increasing their strength. Of those I have seen, the generality were ill-formed and unhealthful-weak in their persons, or incapable of exerting what strength they were possessed of. The same defects of understanding that attended those of suppressed stature were found in those who were thus overgrown; they were heavy, phlegmatic, stupid, and inclined to sadness. Their numbers, however, are but few; and it is thus kindly ordered by Providence, that as the middle state is the best fitted for happiness, so the middle ranks of mankind are produced in the greatest variety.

However, mankind seems naturally to have a respect for men of extraordinary stature; and it has been a supposition of long standing that our ancestors were much taller, as well as much more beautiful, than we. This has been, indeed, a theme of poetical declamation from the beginning; and man was scarce formed when he began to deplore an imaginary decay. Nothing is more natural than this progress of the mind, in looking up to antiquity with reverential wonder. Having been accustomed to compare the wisdom of our fathers with our own in early imbecility, 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 uncivilised countries represent them as taller and stronger; and the people of a more polished nation as more healthy and more wise. Nevertheless, these at tributes seem to be only the prejudices of ingenuous minds a kind of gratitude, which we hope in turn to receive 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 time of Homer, who is the first that deplores the decay. This monument, however, scarce 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 suffered the least diminution. We have many corroborating proofs of this in the ancient pieces of armour which are dug up in different 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 statues, which we learn from Pliny and others to be exactly as large as 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 pretty much of the same size they are at present; and that the only difference must have been accidental, or perhaps national.

As to the superior beauty of our ancestors, it is not easy to make the comparison; beauty seems a very uncertan 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, she would scarce be considered beautiful except by the lovers of antiquity-whom of all her admirers, perhaps, she would be least desirous of pleasing. It is true that we have some disorders among us which disfigure the features, and from which the ancients were exempt; but it is equally true that we are without some that were common amongst 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 rising of all the striking images of Nature.

CHAP. XIII.

OF MUMMIES, WAX-WORKS, ETC.

Man is not content with the usual term of life, but he is willing to lengthen out his existence by art; and although he cannot prevent death, he tries to obviate his dissolution. It is natural to attempt to preserve the most trifling relics of what has long given us pleasure; nor does the mind separate from the body without a wish that even the wretched heap of dust it leaves behind may yet be remembered. The embalming practised in various nations propably had its rise in this fond desire; an urn filled with ashes among the Romans served as a pledge of continuing affection; and even the grassy graves in our own church-yards are raised above the surface, with the desire that the body below should not be wholly forgotten. The soul, ardent after eternity itself, is willing to procure even for the body a prolonged duration,

But of all nations the Egyptians carried this art to the highest perfection; as it was a principle of their religion to suppose that the soul continued only coeval to the duration of the body, they tried every art to extend the one by preventing the dissolution of the other. In this practice they were exercised from the earliest ages; and the mummies they have embalmed in this manner continue in great numbers to the present day. We are told in Genesis, that Joseph, seeing his father expire, gave orders to his physicians to embalm the body, which they executed in the compass of forty days, the usual time of embalming. Herodotus, also, the most ancient of the profane historians, gives us a copious detail of this art, as it was practised in his time among the Egyptians. There are certain men among them, says he, who practise embalming as a trade, which they perform with all possible expedition. In the first place they draw out the brain through the nostrils, with irons adapted to this purpose; and in proportion as they evacnate it in this manner they fill up the cavity with aromatics: they next cut open the belly, near the sides, with a sharpened stone, and take out the entrails, which they cleanse, and wash in palm oil: having performed this operation, they roll them in aromatic powder, fill them with myrrh, cassia, and other perfumes, except incense, and replace