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Tyson, Edward, 1650-1708

"A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients"

At cum universus Orbis nunc nobis cognitus sit, nullibi haec
Naturae Excrementa reperiri certissimum est._ And _Isaac Casaubon_[C]
ridicules such as pretend to justifie them: _Sic nostra aetate_ (saith he)
_non desunt, qui eandem de Pygmaeis lepidam fabellam renovent; ut qui etiam
e Sacris Literis, si Deo placet, fidem illis conentur astruere. Legi etiam
Bergei cujusdam Galli Scripta, qui se vidisse diceret. At non ego credulus
illi, illi inquam Omnium Bipedum mendacissimo._ I shall add one Authority
more, and that is of _Adrian Spigelius,_ who produces a Witness that had
examined the very place, where the _Pygmies_ were said to be; yet upon a
diligent enquiry, he could neither find them, nor hear any tidings of
them.[D] _Spigelius_ therefore tells us, _Hoc loco de Pygmaeis dicendum
erat, qui [Greek: para pygonos] dicti a statura, quae ulnam non excedunt.
Verum ego Poetarum fabulas esse crediderim, pro quibus tamen_ Aristoteles
_minime haberi vult, sed veram esse Historiam._ 8. Hist. Animal.


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