humanity, but only epochs in the civilization of each country.

=Uncertainties.=--Prehistoric archaeology is yet a very young science.
We have learned something of primitive men through certain remains
preserved and discovered by chance. A recent accident, a trench, a
landslip, a drought may effect a new discovery any day. Who knows what
is still under ground? The finds are already innumerable. But these
rarely tell us what we wish to know. How long was each of the four
ages? When did each begin and end in the various parts of the world?
Who planned the caverns, the lake villages, the mounds, the dolmens?
When a country passes from polished stone to bronze, is it the same
people changing implements, or is it a new people come on the scene?
When one thinks one has found the solution, a new discovery often
confounds the archaeologists. It was thought that the Celts originated
the dolmens, but these have been found in sections which could never
have been traversed by Celts.

=What has been determined.=--Three conclusions, however, seem certain:

1.--Man has lived long on the earth, familiar as he was with the
mammoth and the cave-bear; he lived at least as early as the
geological period known as the Quaternary.

2.--Man has emerged from the savage state to civilized life; he
has gradually perfected his tools and his ornaments from the
awkward axe of flint and the necklace of bears' teeth to iron
swords and jewels of gold. The roughest instruments are the
oldest.

3.--Man has made more and more rapid progress. Each age has been
shorter than its predecessor.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It originated especially with French, Swiss, and scholars.

[2] According to Lubbock (Prehistoric Times, N.Y., 1890, p. 212) the
reindeer was not known to the Second Stone Age.--ED.

CHAPTER II

HISTORY AND THE RECORDS

HISTORY

=Legends.=--The most ancient records of people and their doings are
transmitted by oral tradition. They are recited long before they are
written down and are much mixed with fable. The Greeks told how their
heroes of the oldest times had exterminated monsters, fought with
giants, and battled against the gods. The Romans had Romulus nourished
by a wolf and raised to heaven. Almost all peoples relate such stories
of their infancy. But no confidence is to be placed in these legends.

=History.=--History has its true beginning only with authentic
accounts, that is to say, accounts writte