WHEN the history of the intellectual development of the nineteenth century comes to be written, one of its more prominent features will be, the extraordinary attention which is being given to the exploring of the great void that extends from the historical border far away into the remote geological past. On the one hand, the spirit of criticism, taking nothing for granted, and emancipated from the trammels of authority, has sifted the true from the false in the documentary evidence which affords the basis for history; and, on the other, the scientific method of investigation from the

* (1.) Prehistoric Times, as illustrated by the Ancient Remains and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages. By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P. Third Edition. 1872. 8vo. Williams and Norgate.

(2.) Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries; their Age and their Uses. By James Fergusson, D.C.L., F.R.S. 1872. 8vo. Murray.

(3.) The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain. By John Evans, F.R.S., F.S.A. 1872. 8vo. Longmans.

NEW SERIES.-VOL. XVI., No. 6

known to the unknown-from what is to what has been-has been applied with the most remarkable results to the examination of what happened before history began. The one principle, which is typified in Sir George Cornewall Lewis, has swept aside the myths that are the expression of the yearning for knowledge of their predecessors, which is felt by most thoughtful men, and boldly confesses ignorance; while the other, typified in Sir John Lubbock, takes up the story where it is dropped by history, and treats the ancient dwellings, and tombs, the implements and weapons, the dolmens and stone circles, which show that men lived in long forgotten times, by a strict comparison with the like things now in use by various tribes. To the combined action of these two principles is due the success which has attended the new science of Prehistoric Archæology. The interest with which it is regarded is shown by the fact, that Sir John Lubbock's 'Prehistoric Times' has reached a third edition within less than

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ten years,

and that new works on the subject are being rapidly produced in every country in Europe-even in Spain; and its scope may be gathered from the fact that the archæologist stands with one foot planted in the province of geology, and the other well within the bounds of history. It is indeed the one missing link which was wanting to prove the continuity between the wonderful story of the changes which Nature has undergone in past times, and of the changes and vicissitudes of our race, which live in ancient records. We propose in this article to examine the present phase of the science, and to see how far it merits the sarcasms which have been levelled at it by Mr. Fergusson, in his ingenious work on 'Rude Stone Monuments.' We shall test the value of the objections which he offers to the conclusions of the archæologists from the standpoint of history, and which he considers to be unanswerable because they have been passed over in silence. The materials for restoring, so to speak, the history of the sojourn of man in North-western Europe, are increasing every day: the researches in the caves of Belgium, låtely published by M. Dupont, illustrate those carried on in Auvergne by the late M. Lartet, and our countryman, Mr. Christy, and the explorations carried on in Spain and Gibraltar complete and round off our knowledge of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, revealed by the contents of the Neolithic caves and the tombs. The conclusions drawn by Dr. Nilsson, as to the Stone Age in Scandinavia, can now be checked by those just published by Mr. Evans, as to the same age in Britain.

*

Before we can discuss the evidence as to the condition of man in Europe, north of the Alps, in prehistoric times, it will be necessary to examine the archæological classification attacked and misrepresented by Mr. Fergusson, both in the Quarterly Review,§ and in the work before us. It is thus defined by Mr. Evans.

* L'Homme pendant les Ages de la Pierre dans les Environs de Dinant-sur-Meuse,' par M. E. Dupont. Bruxelles, 1871. 8vo.

Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ.' 4to, 1865, et seq. The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia,' by Sven Nilsson, edited by Sir John Lubbock, 1868. Svo. Longmans.

Quarterly Review, April, 1869. This article is claimed by Mr. Fergusson.

'Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain.'

'Not the least misunderstood of these subjects is the classification of the antiquities of Western Europe, first practically adopted by the Danish antiquaries, under periods known as the Iron, Bronze, and Stone Ages; the Iron Age, so far as Denmark is concerned, being supposed to go back to about the Christian era, the Bronze age to embrace a period of about one or two thousand years previous to that date, and the Stone age, all previous time of man's occupation of that part of the world. The idea of the succession is this:

1. That there was a period in each given part of Western Europe, say, for example, Denmark, when the use of metals for cutting instruments of any kind was unknown, and man had to depend on stone, bone, wood, and other readily accessible natural products for his implements and weapons of the chase or war.

2. That this period was succeeded by one in which the use of copper, or of copper alloyed with tin-bronze--became known, and gradually superseded the use of stone for certain purposes, though it remained in use for others, and

3. That a time arrived when bronze in its turn gave way to iron, or steel, as being a superior metal for all cutting purposes, and which, as such, has remained in use. up to the present day.'

The first of these is again subdivided by Sir John Lubbock into that in which man was unacquainted with the art of putting an edge on his tools by grinding, or the Palæolithic, and that in which he was acquainted with the use of polished stone, or the Neolithic age. Thus we get past time out of the reach of history, divided into four ages; first, the Paleolithic or the rude stone age, then the Neolithic or Newer Stone Age, then that of Bronze, and of Iron. And these four divisions have been found applicable, not merely to Denmark or Britain, but to the whole of Europe, even to Greece and Italy. This classification by no means implies an exact chronology, or that any one of these ages, with the exception perhaps of the first, covered the whole of Europe at the same point of time, but that the order in which they followed each other is the same in each country which has been explored. There is every reason for the belief that at the time the

Egyptian and Assyrian Empires were in the height of their glory, Northern Europe was inhabited by rude polished-stone using