“… I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.”
There is something in the continuity of these successive ages that may be considered analogous to the connecting links of a chain. The Palaeolithic, or rude stone period; the Neolithic, or polished stone age, as well as the Bronze age, in all probability overlapped more, and had a longer continuance, than elsewhere in Europe. But the mere fact of the discovery of stone implements, particularly as in Ireland, in a stone-producing country, is not necessarily proof of a barbarous state of society, for, as remarked by the Duke of Argyll, the remains of the first Chaldean monarchy plainly demonstrate that a high state of civilization co-existed with the use of stone implements of a very rude character.
END OF PART I.
LAKE DWELLINGS.
PART II.
DESCRIPTION
AND
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
OF
ALL KNOWN LACUSTRINE SITES IN IRELAND,
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF
THE ANTIQUITIES DISCOVERED IN OR AROUND THEM.