Unlike the silver they; of brazen mould,
Strong with the ashen spear, and fierce and bold.”[279]
And again, of the iron race which followed them, he says—
“Jove on this race of many-languaged men
Speeds the swift ruin which but slow began;
For scarcely spring they to the light of day
E’er age untimely strews their temples grey.”
I must here, too, point out how curiously the testimonies of tradition and science coincide.[280] Both are agreed as to the transition from a brass (bronze) to an iron age; but in one it is referred to as evidence of degeneracy—in the other, the transition is adduced in proof of progress. But the fact is established by the evidence of tradition, as certainly as by the conclusions of science, and is referred to accordingly by Sir John Lubbock (“Pre-historic Times,” p. 6).
The lines of Lucretius are certainly remarkable—
“Arma antiqua, manus ungues dentesque fuerunt,