Show GIANTS AND SOMETHING ELSE No1 BY GASKELL We have often heard the assertion made that aa the world grows older it becomes more wicked and depraved that mankind have physically as well ae morally and religiou ly degenerate degenera-te that the human race has been lets OgrtNaiVO rather than progressive in itti irudencles and that society boa become mere corrupt and are physically physic-ally less pjwerlul tbnn they ever were beioro tVntther this dogma is believed be-lieved or net depends rather upon the amount at hauls reposed in tbe person uttering iI or the book in which it ia written than upuu reaton experience experi-ence or historical trutbmmes learned by tbe believer hmielt Few persons have tbe firmness necessary to briug the calm ligbis uf reason to bear upon points tutUinfd by faith or auperstitiou it being with the greattbt indeed almost infinite difficulty diffi-culty that ti wan nature can divert itself by prepossession or of prejudice preju-dice nod BO judge ot pnuciplea or lacts ol nature or of history upon their abstract worth irre pectne ot tneir bearing upon their own already formed opinions To etreugtben a belief or maintAin a certtin position scoured truth IS in a manlier warped to fit the cage awl as with a petcon WOO engages in debate those point that are favorable are made the most of whilst those aginet are either passed over in silence or so put in the shade that tbeir client ia i materially materi-ally lessened or entirely altered This diQerence onnnot at all time rightly be attributed to any dishonesty in the believer nor to any desire to pervert the truth but rather to tbe zeal individuals have to defend their own views or to propagate tbeir own conceptions of truth Such being the case bow illiberal and unjust ii i nil sectarian bias or bitterness Yet how long has the world been coming to this philosophical equilibrium ol sentiment tbat principle not men facts not traditions that love for right and truth and justice outweigh selfish considerations or earthly bon ore Certainly a loug long time nor can any finite mind foretell the hour the day or tho year that an universal univer-sal brotherhood shall exist nmcng men and the love of God cover the earth as tbe waters cover the great deep It is our purpose to endsaror to present tome thoughts and facts upon the physical status of men anciently and men now upon tbe earth and to show comeubat that notwithstanding tho doletul Jere midas of individuals human bein5e are ca large and cs powerful non Ill they ever were On this point we venture the assertion asser-tion that aa a race men have not deteriorated teriorated In making this statement we come in direct collision with the opinions of tome who base their belief upon Biblical and traditional testimony yet we feel confident tbat the facts presented by history will sustain our position Our thoughts wore directed in tbia channel by hearing n man of moro than average ability and culture make ICe assertion asser-tion that giants once lived upon the earth as a distinct tact of human being We will endeavor to demonstrate I demon-strate the truth ot what wn lay to every candid mind and as truth is i alone what we seek such an investigation investi-gation can do no harm for though sophistry may for a time prevail truth will eventually win its way and overcc me What tbe stature of man was in tbe morning of creation we have no means of determining or proving e that anything for or agtinst can on be an assertion unauppaitsd by proc and as such is not worthy of credence oat that it was no larger than th average standard of tha present da we have every reason to believe an logically or religiously Accordir to Christian ideas Jesus was all tba was noble and and worthy meek am lovable in mat joined to the mercy charity and majesty of a God am from all accounts we have of him Biblical apocryphal and profane b was a man in ttture und bearin like unto other men As ha wa graced with nIl the perfections amoral moral and mental character cannt we reasonably suppose he was likewise like-WiSe the perfection of many ai c physical beauty The passions u < are told by phrenologists and physiologists physi-ologists imprint themselves upon thE countenance and the entire physics organization in sympathy therewith partake in time cf them to It is no necessary to arouse feelings of fear or terror to beget feelings ol venera ion and Jove l nor to gauge tbe power of God by attributing to him the creation of a raaa of giant upon tbe earth differing entirely from other men If suoh were the case why was not mind or the intellectual 1 tacul ties bestowed in proportion to the physical bulk or eUturo of ths two aces yet it would seem were it a fact that there were two distinct orders of creation in man to have received intellectual it i power in inverse ratio to their eize and the physically weaker race warring upon the stronger ultimately exterminated them And on the other hand if as is sometimes said giante were the progeny of fallen spirits or angel who fell with Lucifer i and afterwards bad intercourse nitb tbo daughters of men it would ouij transfer the scene of their first habitation habi-tation from earth to heaven 03 lite begets like and the lathers at least must have been of this monstrous formation But all this ia i finciful and farfetched without a shadow of proof by any records we have bad banded down to us It is easy enough to make assertions their nature and probability only being restricted by tbo extent of our powers 01 imagma tion and once givaj importance to is difficult to refute them unleM II distinct and irrcfragible proof ii oc I record Mankind in the earliest aces lived I I in a nomadic state and from the I mildness of tbo climaie net feeling f the necessity thoy did not builJ fixed habitations As everything was of a temporary and fragile catar no I I monument of thsir handiwork in these rernota cget remain As the suppy of fool Iir thiir flock and herds demanded they migrated from pace to place their way being generally gener-ally along iba meandering course of streams where vegetation was most rank and luxuriant and fod 17 I > r their flocks was most plrniful As plateaus and higher lands were traversed tra-versed the necessity for wells was discovered and as want leads to discovery dis-covery they were conk at the meet t convenient places Ilia first city we have any accoutt of was that of Enoch built by the fratricide Cain after he had slain his brother and find I to the land of Nod Gen iii 17 It may reaiocably bs suppose that that city was not the only one built I yet the flood and trio ravages of tims I left no ve = tg9 of them their ruins being either buried beneath the deposits de-posits of the flood or washed and abraded by time and change of seasons sea-sons eo aa to entirely loso their form It was not until the Tower of Babel or Being was built that the handi workof man escaped tbe ravages of time In theta the oldest described building in the world there Will noth leg represented by Jewish or Grecian writers that mankind of tho present day can not far excel Egypt in the days of Abraham possessed many cities was densely populous and baa ttainod a remarkably advanced state of civilization for that early period of human his oy And although the peoples ideas of relgion like these of all nations jUt emerging from barbarism bar-barism were in a crude state and I were based more upon the evidences i of the outward senses than upon the inner conviction of the immortality of the eoul yt t they had faint glimmerings glim-merings of that grand and ennobling principls ai is evidenced in their custom of embalming the body ando and-o subjecting thair kmga to trial after death It may bn true that as come claim there were two religions ono for the priestly class more intellectual and advanced and another for the common people who worshiped vit ible objects animals and reptile or stocks and stones at tbe head of whom was their sacred bull A pip Ihe trial of tbeir kings was wisely postponed till lifter death or even the sanctity of their prieity robe would nardly have saved them from tbe vengeance of tbe military class at whose head be stood Greece owed to Egypt many ot her institutions both governmental and intellectual AH most of her wise men had traveled in Egypt Fnocecia and other centres of civilization of their day before making laws or changing customs in their own land With the cUeoro dwelling in fixed habitations had come the lust for ag grandizemptit conquest and poi session Yet was this desire for gain not confined to heathen nations alone as the separating of Abraham and Lot abundantly tl testifies for it is improbable f im-probable to suppose that tbe contentions con-tentions of theireerun ien xiii7 were unnoticed by the upright men however much the ties of kindred may have curbed expression If the stature of man has degiuoi ated and become less than anciently it must have taken place in a 1 pro I historic period for in the lAst four thousand years hero has been no change or only such slight ones ui modes of life or climatic influence fully accounts for Nor have the eflects been so serious am to aensitilj I deteriorate the race the recuperative I tendencies of human nature with the geniality of one section ui country more than counterbalancing the decline de-cline in other parts There is now in the British Museum a mummy that was once the body of Pharaoh Myker inu9 a king who reigned more than a century before tbe time of Abrahams sojourn in Egypt Upon the fragments I frag-ments of the coffin taken with the body from the lesser of the Pyramid ofGbizeb can be rend by Egyptolc1 l gists his name and on the tablet f disinterred from tho waif ol tbe buried I temple of Osiris at Abydos it ia i recorded t re-corded that he was third in succession to the builder oi the Great Pyramid As the list of kings extends from the founder of the Egyptian monarchy Misraim or Mencs them grandson of Noah who reigned B 0 2300 down to Pharaoh Leti father of Rimesea the Great who lived B C 1400 his succession is clearly defined The building of tbe Grest Pyramid of Ghizah has been astronomically fixed by Sir John Herschel to the middle of the twenty second century I BC so that evidence sufficient to satisfy Ecientific men is adduced ti prova tnat this ia tbo oldest known j relic of humanity now existing in the i world This as well as other mummies disinterred from the pyramids and catacombs of Egypt estabhrh beyond c a doubt Hut the diligence in stature J between tho ancient and modern Egyptians H but imaginary There are those however who believe that a race of gunts called Emim Anakim Rephraimand Zam zummim once really existed Gen xiv 5 Deut ii 10 Joshua ri i 22 becoming rapidly exterminated by the repeated assaults of a smaller j race To support this theory the e gigantic fossil remains ol he I r mammoth mastadon and other extinct species of animals are mentioned men-tioned and from analogy men reason I that if such monstrous animals have become extinct why is i it not prep able that a larger species of human beings once likewise lived Giants I according to these theorists inhabited J tbe mountain chains of Canaan and ruled over the lees powerful nation Iof Amorites When the Israelites I came into conflict with them we are told We were in our own sight a grasshoppers and eo we were in their sight Num xiii 33 Joshua in his I campaign took their principal cities and overturned their power In spite I of their huge stature physical strength and talent for war they were speedily exterminated and not long afterwards one of their descendants des-cendants Og was their last ruler over their original stronghold Btrhan Deut iii 11 Upon his overthrow the survivors took refuge among tbe Philistines and in the days of Saul nod David were represented by Goliath 1 Samuel xvii 49 IsbbioaLOb and foph 2 Samuel xxi 1618 According Accord-ing to this interesting theory the wife of one of the sons of Noah i said to have been a descendant of those giants whose wickedness and impiety provoked the deluge and lither to have been a giantess herself or that her progeny according to a veilknown law of nature reverted back to that condition Tbe stupendous stu-pendous remains of ancient cities tbe subteranean aqueducts of ancient Romethe Cyclopean walls found in I tbe different parts of Italy and Greece the ruins of Asia Minor Phconecia Persia Egypt Great Britian North and South America which tradition represents as the work of gianta are to support this toeory iUted to be really eo whilst the fact is lost sight of that no human remains have yet been liacovered to prove it Remains of gigantic and monstrous animals in the different geologic formations have been found and it such s nation of giants ever existed why not some of their bones likewise have escaped the ravages of time Sensational Sen-sational newspaper accounts are sometimes given as reliable or those 11 of credulous end bigoted writers who seek to astonish by the boldness and novelty of their ideas and sisertio sometimes claim credence for such things but support it by no proof I more positive than rumor Hundreds of tons ot ivory tie relics of extinct species of animate annually finds its J way into the channels of commerce but who hears ot similar discoveries of gigantic human remains Exception ception there have been in all ages and still are of departure from the average standard of human stature but why not as reasonably suppose there wad an iently existing s race of Lilliputians because tbere are now Tom Thumbs Minnie Warrens and Commodore Nulls7 t |