Note c — BOOK V.

Altho’ we read of Giants before Noah’s Flood, Gen. vi. 4. and more plainly afterwards in Numb. xiii. 33. Yet there is great Reason to think the Size of Man was always the same from the Creation. For as to the Nephilim or Giants, in Gen. vi. the Ancients vary about them; some taking them for great Atheists, and Monsters of Impiety, Rapine, Tyranny, and all Wickedness, as well as of monstrous Stature, according as indeed the Hebrew Signification allows.

And as for the Nephilim in Numb. xiii. which were evidently Men of a Gigantick Size, it must be considered, that it is very probable, the Fears and Discontentments of the Spies might add somewhat thereunto.

But be the Matter as it will, it is very manifest, that in both these Places, Giants are spoken of as Rarities, and Wonders of the Age, not of the common Stature. And such Instances we have had in all Ages; excepting some fabulous Relations; such as I take to be that of Theutobotchus, who is said to have been dug up, Anno 1613, and to have been higher than the Trophies, and 26 Feet long; and no better I suppose the Giants to have been, that Ol. Magnus gives an Account of in his 5ᵗʰ Book, such as Harthen, and Starchater, among the Men; and among the Women, reperta est (saith he) puella——in capite vulnerata, ac mortua, induta chlamyde purpureâ, longitudinis cubitorum 50, latitudinis inter humeros quatuor. Ol. Mag. Hist. L. 5. c. 2.

But as for the more credible Relations of Goliath (whose height was 6 Cubits and a Span, 1 Sam. xvii. 4. which according to the late curious and learned Lord Bishop of Peterborough is somewhat above 11 Feet English, vid. Bishop Cumberland of Jewish Weights and Measures) of Maximinus the Emperor, who was 9 Feet high, and others in Augustus, and other Reigns, of about the same Height: To which we may add the Dimensions of a Skeleton, dug up lately in the Place of a Roman Camp near St. Albans, by an Urn inscribed, Marcus Antoninus; of which an Account is given by Mr. Cheselden, who judgeth by the Dimensions of the Bones, that the Person was 8 Foot high, vid. Philos. Trans. Nᵒ. 333. These antique Examples and Relations, I say, we can match, yea, out-do, with modern Examples; of which we have divers in J. Ludolph. Comment. in Hist. Æthiop. L. 1. c. 2. §. 22. Magus, Conringius, Dr. Hakewill, and others. Which later relates from Nannez, of Porters and Archers belonging to the Emperor of China, of 15 Feet high; and others from Purchas, of 10 and 12 Feet high, and more. See the learned Author’s Apolog. p. 208.

These indeed exceed what I have seen in England; but in 1684, I my self measur’d an Irish Youth, said to be not 19 Years old, who was 7 Feet near 8 Inches, and in 1697, a Woman who was 7 Feet 3 inches in Height.

But for the ordinary size of Mankind, in all Probability, it was always (as I said) the same, as may appear from the Monuments, Mummies, and other ancient Evidences to be seen at this Day. The most ancient Monument at this Day, I presume is that of Cheops, in the first and fairest Pyramid of Ægypt; which was, no doubt, made of Capacity every Way sufficient to hold the Body of so great a Person as was intended to be laid up in it. But this we find by the nice Measures of our curious Mr. Greaves, hardly to exceed our common Coffins. The hollow Part within (saith he) is in Length only 6,488 Feet, and in Breadth but 2,218 Feet: The Depth 2,860 Feet. A narrow space, yet large enough to contain a most potent and dreadful Monarch, being dead; to whom living, all Ægypt was too streight and narrow a Circuit. By these Dimensions, and by such other Observations, as have been taken by me from several embalmed Bodies in Ægypt, we may conclude there is no decay in Nature (though the Question is as old as Homer) but that the Men of this Age are of the same Stature they were near 3000 Years ago, vid. Greaves of the Pyr. in 1638, in Ray’s Collect. of Trav. Tom. 1. pag. 118.

To this more ancient, we may add others of a later Date. Of which take these, among others, from the curious and learned Hakewill. The Tombs at Pisa, that are some thousand Years old, are not longer than ours; so is Athelstane’s in Malmesbury-Church; so Sehba’s in St. Paul’s, of the Year 693; so Etheldred’s, &c. Apol. 216, &c.

The same Evidence we have also from the Armour, Shields, Vessels, and other Utensils dug up at this Day. The Brass Helmet dug up at Metaurum, which was not doubted to have been left there at the Overthrow of Asdrubal, will fit one of our Men at this Day.

Nay, besides all this, probably we have some more certain Evidence. Augustus was 5 Foot 9 Inches high, which was the just Measure of our famous Queen Elizabeth, who exceeded his Height 2 Inches, if proper Allowance be made for the Difference between the Roman and our Foot. Vid. Hakew. ib. p. 215.