assifying the objects, care has been taken not
only to divide the three great periods named, but also in each of
these divisions those belonging to the beginning and the end of the
period are chronologically placed, as fast as such nice distinctions
can be wrought out by careful, scientific study and comparison. Here
the visitor gazes with absorbing interest upon the tangible evidences
of a race that inhabited this earth probably thousands of years
before it was broken into islands and continents. Their one token,
these rude, but expressive stone implements, are found equally
distributed from the Arctic Circle to the Equator, from Canada to
Brazil, from England to Japan. Scientists whose culture and
intelligence entitle their opinion to respect, place the Stone Age as
here illustrated at least twenty thousand years before the birth of
Christ. How absorbing is the interest attaching to these relics which
ages have consecrated! No matter what our preconceived notions may
be, science only deals with irrefutable facts. The periods delineated
may be thus expressed: first the Flint period, which comes down to
fifteen hundred years before Christ; followed by the Bronze, which
includes the next twelve or thirteen hundred years; then the Iron,
which comes down far into the Christian era. What is termed the
Mediaeval brings us to 1536, since which time there is no occasion for
classification. No wonder the antiquarian becomes so absorbed in the
study of the past. "The earliest and the longest has still the
mastery over us," says George Eliot. Progress is daily making in the
correct reading of these comprehensive data, and those who may come
after us will be born to a great wealth of antiquity. Other countries
may learn much from the admirable management of this Museum in the
matter of improving the educational advantages which it affords.
Professors of eminence daily accompany the groups of visitors,
clearly explaining the purport and the historical relations of the
many interesting objects. These persons are not merely intelligent
employees, but they are also trained scientists; and, above all, they
are enthusiastic in freely imparting the knowledge which inspires
them. Such impromptu lectures are both original and impressive.
Indeed, to go through the Ethnological Museum of Copenhagen
understandingly is a liberal education. It should be added that the
zeal and affability of these able officials is as freely and
cheerfully exten