We must try and form a mental picture of what was probably the primitive state of man; and a little judicious reasoning from known facts will do much for us in this direction. Some writers have contended that the first condition of man was that of pleasing innocence, combined with a high degree of enlightenment, which, owing to the wickedness of mankind, he gradually lost. This ideal picture, however consonant with our wishes, must not only give way before the mass of information now at our command, but has really no foundation in reason; “or, at any rate, if this primitive condition of innocence and enlightenment ever existed, it must have disappeared at a period preceding the present archæological investigations.”29 Nothing is plainer than that our present civilization has been developed from barbarism, as that was from savagism.30 We need go back but a few centuries in the history of any nation, before we find them emerging from a state of barbarism. The energy and intelligence of the Anglo-Saxon has spread his language to the four corners of the globe; he has converted the wilderness into fruitful fields, and reared cities in desert lands: yet his history strikingly illustrates our point. A century back, and we are already in a strange land. The prominent points of present civilization were yet unthought of. No bands of iron united distant cities; no nerves of wire flashed electric speech. The wealth of that day could not buy many articles conducive of comfort, such as now grace the homes of the poor. The contrast is still more apparent when we recall another of the countless centuries of the past. England, with Europe, was but just awakening to modern life. Printing had but just been invented. Great discoveries had been made, and mankind was but just beginning those first feeble efforts which were to bring to us our modern comforts. But a millennium of years ago, and the foundation of English civilization had but just been laid by the union of the rude Germanic tribes of the Saxons and the Angles. Similar results attend the ultimate analysis of any civilization. It was but yesterday that wandering hordes, bound together by the loose cohesion of tribal organization, and possessing but the germ of modern enlightenment, held sway in what is now the fairest portion of the world: and we, the descendants of these rude people, must reflect that the end is not yet—that the onward march of progress is one of ever hastening steps—and that, in all human probability, the sun of a thousand years hence will shine on a people whose civilization will be as superior to ours as the light of day exceeds the mellow glow of a moon-lit night.
If such are the changes of but a few centuries, what must we not consider the changes to have been during the countless ages that have sped away since man first appeared on the scene! The early Greek and Roman writers were much nearer right when they considered primitive man to have been but a slight degree removed from the brute world. Horace thus expresses himself: “When animals first crept forth from the newly formed earth, a dumb and filthy herd, they fought for acorns and lurking places —with their nails, and with fists—then with clubs—and at last with arms, which, taught by experience, they had forged. They then invented names for things, and words to express their thoughts; after which they began to desist from war, to fortify cities, and enact laws.” The learning of modern times leads to much the same conclusion.
It is evident that primitive man must have been destitute of metals; for it requires a great deal of knowledge and experience to extract metals from their ores. In the eyes of savages, the various metallic ores are simply so many varieties of stone— much less valuable for his purposes than flint, or some other varieties. We know it to be historically true, that a great many nations have been discovered utterly destitute of any knowledge of metals.
When we reflect how much of our present enlightenment is due to the use of metals, we can readily see that their discovery marks a most important epoch in the history of man. There is, then, every reason to suppose that stone was a most important article for primitive man. It was the material with which he fought his battle for existence, and we need not be surprised that its use extended through an enormously long period of time. Not only was primitive man thus low down in the scale, but of necessity his progress must have been very slow.
The time during which men were utterly destitute of a knowledge of metals, far exceeds the interval that has elapsed since that important discovery.31 Scholars divide the stone age into two parts. In the first, the stone implements, are very few, of simple shapes, and in the main formed of but one variety of stone—generally flint~-and they were never polished. In the second division, we meet with a great many different implements, each adapted to a different purpose. Different varieties of stone were employed, and they also made use of bone, shell, and wood, which were often beautifully polished.
From what we have learned of the development of primitive society, it will not surprise us to learn that the first division of the age of stone comprises a vastly greater portion of time, and is far more ancient, than the second. We will give an outline showing the order of use of different materials; but it is here necessary to remark that Bronze was the first metal that man learned to use, and Iron the second.
| Age of Stone. | Rough, or Old Stone Age | Paleolithic |
| Polished, or New Stone Age | Neolithic | |
| Age of Metals. | Bronze Age. Iron Age. | |
In this outline the words Paleolithic and Neolithic are the scientific terms for the two divisions of the Stone Age, and will be so used in these pages.
The only races of men that we could expect to find in Europe during the Glacial Age would be Paleolithic tribes, and it is equally manifest that we must find traces of them in beds of this age, or in association with animals that are characteristic of this age, or else we can not assert the existence of man at this time. The valley of the river Somme, in Northern France, has become classical ground to the student of Archæology, since it was there that such investigations as we have just mentioned were first and most abundantly made. It is now well known that the surface features of a country—that is, its hills and dales, its uplands and lowlands—are mainly due to the erosive power of running water. Our rivers have dug for themselves broad valleys, undermined and carried away hills, and in general carved the surface of a country, until the present appearance is the result. It must be confessed that when we perceive the slow apparent change from year to year, and from that attempt to estimate the time required to produce the effects we see before us, we are apt to shrink from the lapse of time demanded for its accomplishment. Let us not forget that “Time is long,” and that causes, however trifling, work stupendous results in the course of ages.