That the first races of man were of larger dimensions than those of our contemporaries, has ever been a general opinion. Thus Virgil in his Georgics:
Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.
Lucretius ascribes the same superiority to animals.
Jamque adeò fracta est ætas, effœtaque tellus
Vix animalia parva creat, quæ cuncta creavit
Sæcla, deditque ferarum ingentia corpora partu.
And again the Mantuan poet,
Sic Omnia fatis
In pejus ruere, ac retrò sublapsa referri.
Not only have our forefathers been considered more gigantic in stature, but of more vigorous power. Hence Juvenal says,
Nam genus hoc, vivo jam decrescebat Homero.
Terra malos homines nunc educat, atque pusillos.
It is however obvious, that former races, although they might have excelled the present generation in vigour from the nature of their education and pursuits, could not claim any pre-eminence in stature. The remains of human bones, found in tombs and Egyptian mummies, demonstrate this fact most clearly; and the armour, helmets, and breastplates of the ancients confirm it. Their swords were as light, nay, much lighter in many instances, than those of the present day; and those enormous ones of the times of chivalry were only wielded to inflict one overwhelming blow with both hands, and could scarcely be recovered for protection.
Ancient writers corroborate this opinion. Homer, when speaking of a fine man, gives him four cubits in height and one in breadth. Vitruvius fixes the usual standard of man at six Roman feet: the giant Gabbarus mentioned by Pliny did not exceed nine feet. Aristotle’s admeasurement of beds was six feet; and certainly the doorways of ancient edifices by no means indicated taller inmates than our present generation. It is therefore pretty clear that the supposed fossil remains of gigantic human bones belonged to the Megatherium, the Palæotherium, and other individuals, which certainly prove that in remote ages there existed animals of much larger dimensions than any now in being, though we have no reason to suppose that this variety extended to our species.[2]