The free citizen. (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-10-16
MAN NOT DISCRIMINATING.
The Modern Egyptian az Hi. az the
EEyDtiur Of Thousands of Years Ago.
The Modern singlisilil imam Bigger
Tlsnn his Ancestors.

Ehs "eS% q" rHSSS." "s Of is YSa.s ~ AZ. s
The Modern s:nglisllir man Bigger
Tlinn his Ancestors.
There never was Il delusiOn with less evi-
dcncc for it, except Il permanent impress
sion among mankind, which Is often the
result, not OF accumulated experience.
but of an ever renewing discontcnt with
the actual state of things. There is not
| the slightest evidence anywhere that man
|was ever bigger, stronger. swiftcr, o
more enduring under tho same condir
tlons of food and climate than he is now .
AS to the bigness, the evidence is pos
tive. Modern Egyptians are us big as
the mummics who were conqucrors in
their day, and modern Englishmcn are
bigger. There are not in existence Il
thousand coats of armor which an Eng
lisllman regiment could put ON. Very
few modcrns can Use ancient swords. he
cause the hits are too small for their
hands. Endless wealth and skill were
Fexpendcd in picking gladiators, and
| there is no evidence that Il man among
| them WAS as big or as strong as Shaw.
| No Skclcton no statue, no pictures, in
| dlcatcS that men III general were
| bigger. The Jews of to-day are as large
as they were in Egypt, or larger. The
people of the Romagna have all the
| bearing and more than the size of the
Roman soldiery. No feat is recorded as
usual with Greek athletes which English
iacrobats could not perform now.
There is no naked savage tribe which
IInakcd Cornisfmen or Iorkshircmrn
crm!d not stranglc. No race exists of
which Il thousand men similarly armed
iwould defeat IN English, or German, or
Russian regiment of equal numbers.
Nothing is recorded of our forefathcrs
here in England which Englishmcn
could not do, unless il be some tcats of
Archery, which were the results of n long
training of the eye continued for genera
Iitions. The most civilized and luxurious
lfnnily that ever existed, the European
royal casts, is physically as big, healthy,
and as powerful as any people Of
Ilwhom we have any account that science
Iican accept. Theirs Frenchnan in
| caesars Gaul i'll all bodily conditions,
and with an increased power Of keeping
|Rlive, which may he partly owing to
Improved conditions of living, but is
ypIo69a.bly owing still more to developed
kvit!lity. There is no evidence that
ttcven the feeble races are feeblcr than
! t,:ee,-h hccnrnc after their first acc1matiZa-
non3
The Bengalee was what we know him
twelve hundred years ago, and the Chi
namen was represented on porcelain
just as he is now before the birth of
Christ. No race ever multiplied like
the AnglO-S:X0n, which has had no ad-
vantage of climate, and till lately no
particular advantage Of food. Physical
condition depends on physical condi-
tions, and why should Il race better fed,
| better clothed, and better housed than it
! exc: was before degenerate? Rnr,us, il
eats corn instead Of berries? Compare
the California and the Digger Indian.
Because it wears clothes! The wearing
of clothes, if burdensome-whicht the cx-
pcricnce Of army doctors II India as 10
the best costume for marching makes cx-
ccssivcly doubtful, they declaring unan-
imously that brccchless men suffer from
varlcuse veins, as men wearing trousers
do not--must operate as n permanent
physical training. You carry weight
habitually. Because they keep indoors
Compare English professionals with Tas-
manian aivages, living in idcnticaIlv the
same climate. but living out of doors.
The conditions OF civilization not only
do not prohibit Capt. Webb, who would
have 0ut-walkcd, out-swllm, or stranrcd
any German that Tacitus ever romanccd
about, but they enabled him to live to
seventy instead of dying at forty-fivc, as
two thousand years ago he. then probably
u slave bred for the arena, would have
done
That the human race, even under The
best conditions, advances very little in
physical capacities is true, but then il is
true also that those conditions are not
fatal to the most powerful of the old i'm
proving forces, the survival OF the fittcst.
Still an advance is pcrccptible in vital
power, and we question whether Il Greek
| swimmer would ever have crossed from
Dover to Calais, just as strongly rs we
question whether the ancient world ever
| possessed Il horse which would have
achiered a place ut EPSON. Why should
men crow feeble in civilization any more
than lorses.-Lon{om Spectator.