ecause of the variation of civilization implied by
the implements in use. The British Museum has a very large classified
collection of {79} the implements procured from lake dwellings of
Switzerland. Other museums also have large collections. A part of
them run back into the prehistoric period of man and part extend even
down to the historic.

_Knowledge of Man's Antiquity Influences Reflective Thinking_.--The
importance of studying the antiquity of man is the light which it
throws upon the causes of later civilization. In considering any phase
of man's development it is necessary to realize he has been a long time
on earth and that, while the law of the individual life is development,
that of the human race is slowly evolutionary; hence, while we may look
for immediate and rapid change, we can only be assured of a very slow
progressive movement at all periods of man's existence. The knowledge
of his antiquity will give us a historical view which is of tremendous
importance in considering the purpose and probable result of man's life
on earth. When we realize that we have evidence of the struggle of man
for five hundred thousand years to get started as far as we have in
civilization, and that more changes affecting man's progress may occur
in a single year now than in a former thousand years, we realize
something of the background of struggle before our present civilization
could appear. We realize, also, that his progress in the arts has been
very slow and that, while there are many changes in art formation of
to-day, we still have the evidences of the primitive in every completed
picture, or plastic form, or structural work. But the slow progress of
all this shows, too, that the landmarks of civilization of the past are
few and far between--distant mile-posts appearing at intervals of
thousands of years. Such a contemplation gives us food for thought and
should invite patience when we wish in modern times for social
transformations to become instantaneous, like the flash of the scimitar
or the burst of an electric light.

The evidence that man has been a long time on earth explodes the
long-accepted theory of six thousand years as the age of man. It also
explodes the theory of instantaneous {80} creation which was expressed
by some of the mediaeval philosophers. Indeed, it explodes the theory
of a special creation of man without connection with the creation of
other living beings. No doubt, there was a sp