[Footnote A:  Cardan de subtilitate, lib. 11. p. 458.]

[Footnote B:  Nicephor.  Histor.  Ecclesiiast. lib. 12. cap. 37.]

[Footnote C:  Happelius in Relat. curiosis, No. 85. p. 677.]

[Footnote D:  Thevenot.  Voyage de Levant. lib. 2. c. 68.]

[Footnote E:  Jo.  Harduini Notae in Plinij Nat.  Hist. lib. 6. cap. 22. p. 688.]

Neither likewise must it be granted, that tho’ in some Climates there might be Men generally of less stature, than what are to be met with in other Countries, that they are presently Pygmies. Nature has not fixed the same standard to the growth of Mankind in all Places alike, no more than to Brutes or Plants.  The Dimensions of them all, according to the Climate, may differ.  If we consult the Original, viz.  Homer that first mentioned the Pygmies, there are only these two Characteristics he gives of them.  That they are [Greek:  Pygmaioi] seu Cubitales; and that the Cranes did use to fight them.  ’Tis true, as a Poet, he calls them [Greek:  andres], which I have accounted for before.  Now if there cannot be found such Men as are Cubitales, that the Cranes might probably fight with, notwithstanding all the Romances of the Indian Historians, I cannot think these Pygmies to be Men, but they must be some other Animals, or the whole must be a Fiction.

Having premised this, we will now enquire into their Assertion that maintain the Pygmies to be a Race of Men.  Now because there have been Giants formerly, that have so much exceeded the usual Stature of Man, that there must be likewise Pygmies as defective in the other extream from this Standard, I think is no conclusive Argument, tho’ made use of by some.  Old Caspar Bartholine[A] tells us, that because J.  Cassanius and others had wrote de Gygantibus, since no Body else had undertaken it, he would give us a Book de Pygmaeis; and since he makes it his design to prove the Existence of Pygmies, and that the Pygmies were Men, I must confess I expected great Matters from him.

[Footnote A:  Caspar.  Bartholin.  Opusculum de Pygmaeis.]

But I do not find he has informed us of any thing more of them, than what Jo.  Talentonius, a Professor formerly at Parma, had told us before in his Variarum & Reconditarum Rerum Thesaurus,[A] from whom he has borrowed most of this Tract.  He has made it a little more formal indeed, by dividing it into Chapters; of which I will give you the Titles; and as I see occasion, some Remarks thereon:  They will not be many, because I have prevented my self already.  The first Chapter is, De Homuncionibus & Pumilionilus seu Nanis a Pygmaeis distinctis.  The second Chapter,