The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-12-18
For the National Era.
0EGENERACY OF STATURE.
BY THRACE TALMON.

With due Difference to Young America, it
must be confessed that our people are deterio-
rating in stature. The traditionary fact that
"there were giants in those days." becomes
more and more marvellous. Gods, conquerors,
monarchs, conscript fathers, in the ancient
time, are represented to have been of physical
proportions, which, as compared with our race,
we pronounce not only colossal, but chimerical.
The human skeleton discovered by Pliny, which
was forty-six cubits in length, and that by
Strabo, of sixty cubts, we hold to be absolute
myths.
We remember our grandfathers as men of
commanding height, of full figure, and stern
port. Our fathers slightly trimmed down the
pattern. The young men Of to-day have dwin-
died not a little. A few days since, we saw
the students of - College, in a collective
body, and, with but few exceptions, they looked
dwarfed in stature. Not quarter of a century
averaged O number OF feet in height, exceeding
that of the present exceptions. 1t would seem,
that since the day when man was made
| erect and tall,
Godlike erect with native honor clad"
he has been degenerating in that majesty of
physical manlness, which has been the admi-
ration of sculptors, painters, bards, and COM
mon eyes, in all the ages. We shrink from
picturing the physique of the generations to
come. Will they be dwarfs actual, pigmies, or
fays? Doubtless, they will compare with mod
els of the past, like the Israelitish spies before
the sons of Anak as grasshoppers Not
Titans, but sons and daughters of Titania, they
will war with weapons of mushrooms, instead
of mountains!
1t behooves US to inquire into some of the
causes of this degeneracy. We have paid dear
ly for many of the modern improvements called
civilization. Household luxuries, schoolroom
steam,press systems, and, above all, the mad
spirit of the times, have not come to US without
q loss more than proportionate. Little chill
dren, whose brains are still plastic from the
mould of nature, are forced to 60 through a
drill, which, considered in its absolute light
with the relative effects upon the constitution,
is appalling to the most dispassionate thinker.
A boy, at ten or twelve years, is required TO
accomplish more processes in the text books of
the sciences, than were ripe scholars of the
past. A colegian must master matters which
, were once grasped only by hard-working pro-
fessors. Professors are expected to make dis
coveries-unearth the wonders of creation, or
create wondrous theories, shortly to be earthed
without an obituary.
In the world of mechanics a young man,
upon starting in life for himself directly arrives
E at the conclusion that in order to be some
thing-which too often is only equivalent to be
possessor of a fortune-he must act upon the
maxim, Go ahead, if you burst your boiler. .
d Accordingly, he rushes headlong, with an i'm
). petucsity which strikes fire from the sharp
fints under his tread. His brain works like
= an epitome of all the illustrations in Byrne's
dictionary of mechanics, really resting never
e The result may be foreseen. Occasionally, one
i of this class reaches the end of his first aim
y he amasses an estate, but at the expense of his
peace, and often of his health. The lunatic
asylum or the premature grave too frequently
winds up his career. 1t is to be concluded thai
: this system often generates moral as we'll as
e physical decay. They who will be rich are not
:. always scrupulous. The wise man asserts, even
that " He that maketh haste to be rich, shall
y not be innocent"
!, The evil effects of this system in affairs we
: the whole people, test every day of our lives
r from the grand railway or steamboat accident
!. which kills off some Scores to the cheat in oul
articles of table consumption and common fab
. RIGS of clothing.
hulnOrs are HOJ less upon the rush. bOOk
It are now written to order, and by the week. Ths
/. majority of them are Jonah's guards The re
! action upon the material life of these book
:, makers is proportional to their unnatural in
u tellectual efforts.
e If any class of men may be likened to Ixion
It it is that of modern politicians. Their motion
surpasses all others in torment, for it is perpet
ual. Once tied to the wheel, and they mus
d abide the shock of being turned upside dowl
e with every revolution.
is 1t is not surprising, but clearly deducibe
y that the offspring of such people should b,
! found wanting in the elements which make rea
men and women.
al The people of newly-setted country, wher
d arts, luxuries, and consequently competition
l. are introduced sparsely and leisurely, are O
!. large and handsome physical symmetry. The,
expand physically and intellectually, in tn
strengthening atmosphere of a free life. "Ou
't ancestors" says Seneca, "when they were free
4 lived either in caves or arbors but SLAYER
d came in with gildings and with marble" The
~ take time to think, to grow, and TO live The
> work slowly, but more often surely. Magnii
&c cent results follow-rare, indeed, but only tn
g more grandly conspicuous. They turn out bu
d few master minds in century, but these Ar
genuine. They are as mountains to hillocks
Every eye can see them. Their heads ar
..
ct foundations are indestructible, immortal; an
o. when they sleep, it is the sleep of giants, upo
A. bedsteads of iron.
Had any one of the great statesmen who's
70 bodily presence is no more with US, been real
lie ed in one of our modern Cities according to tn
n most model mode, he would no more have al
tanned to the stature of full man, in any sense
than the plant of the conservatory can rival tn
noble tree of the forest, or than a common mil
a. dam can compete with Niagara. Aristotle t
It, whom Philip intrusted the education of Alex
ia ander, was careful that the physical training
ID the young prince should be properly regulate
er in his early years. Gymnastics and the hab
e. of endurance of cold were prominent in tn
Is regime. The result correspondent with the ain
Alexander became Alexander the Great,
reason of his ability to lead his bands of wal
:, riors onward, over all barriers, to victory.
y Sallust, abiding to the degeneracy of tn
q Romans from the state when they were mag
4. niGcent in their offerings to the gods, frugal j
y their families, and faithful to their friends"
g that when "avarice rooted ont faith, PROFIT,
% and every worthy principle" declares that th
o. vice, (avarice,) as if impregnated with deadI
poison, enervates both soul and body"
Before me is picture of Red Jacket, tn
Go great Indian chief His mien is truly awe.il
osI spring There is mark in every line, strengt
a. in every relief His bone and thews and nerv
~ must have been wrought of the iron Of lif
- Who can behold this son of the forest, this re
IT Apollo Belvidere, and not admire? Imagin,
n, ton pictures that this being was made to hu
"a ferocious bears to destruction, to wrench OF
the eye-teeth of rattleskakes with the agility
- Hercules, and to take long moonlight excu