Now no one pretends that the history of man is free from doubt and
difficulty, but the doubt and difficulty are not confined to the
"orthodox." For the inferences to be drawn from the exhumed remains are
equally doubtful whatever views be adopted.
I shall not go into great length on this subject, partly because some
recent popular tracts of Canon Rawlinson, Mr. R.S. Pattison, and others,
have already made the ordinary reader familiar with the main outlines of
the subject; and still more because, be the views of archaeologists what
they may, it is impossible for any rational person to contend either
that they can be reduced to anything like unity among themselves, or
that they lead to any conclusion favourable to the belief in the
self-caused and undesigned evolution of man.
It may be regarded as known, that at the dawn of history, mankind was
passing through what may be called a Bronze age, in which weapons of
bronze were used before tools of iron were invented. But this age was
preceded by one in which even bronze was unknown. Stone implements, and
some of bone and horn, were alone used. It is also well ascertained that
there were two _widely divided_ stone ages. The latter, distinguished by
the polishing of the stones, is described as the _neolithic_; the
former, in which flint and other hard stone fragments were merely
chipped or flaked to an edge, is called the _palaeolithic_.
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