HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE - GO S S IP. 



found in a gravel-pit. Over these there has accumu- 

 lated a layer of stalagmite many feet in thickness 5 

 thus carrying you oack in lime as far as does the 

 deposition and origin of the valley-gravels them- 

 bclves ! 



You see, therefore, that the two most accessible 

 groups of facts both point to the same great fact of 

 the antiquity of iVJan. Succeeding the Palfcolithic 

 age is that provisionally known as the " Rein-deer 

 period," on account of the large number of the 

 remains of that northern auimal which have been 

 found in the bone-caves of the south of Erauce. 

 England and the Conlineut were then subjected to 

 the periodical migrations of Arctic animals, among 

 which were the Keiu-deer, Lenmiing, Glutton, Elk, 

 &c. The Hint implements found associated with, 

 the remains of ihese animals in the south of Erance 

 exhibit a superior i^kill, indicating that man's nature 

 was to progress, even at that early stage. 



llude attempts at carcuig and drawing were also 

 indulged iu, as examples in your principal museums 

 wiil attest. Thau succeeded the next stage, known 

 as Neolithic, or " JS'ewcr Stone age," whicli is dis- 

 tinguished by the greater variety iu shape of the 

 flint implements, and, more particularly, by the fact 

 that they are, for the most part, ground smooth and 

 to a sharp, knife-like cutting edge. These weapons, 

 however, are usually found strewn on the surface, 

 or imbedded only in peat - bogs and the most 

 recent of river-deposits. AYhcreas the Vuhcolithic 

 types are iimittd to valley-gravels and the most 

 ancient of bone-caves, the Neolithic show, by their 

 universal distribution and superior workman- 

 ship, that they belong to an advanced period. All 

 the savage races still using stone weapons are 

 generally islanders, cut off from the great centres, 

 so that they are "outliers" of a system once 

 universal. This later period is that of the " Lake 

 Dwellings," which link on to that known to anti- 

 quaries as the " Bronze period." To this succeeds 

 the Iron age, and, if you like, the present, or 

 "Steel" age. The two former are historical, and 

 come within the range, not only of scieutihc deduc- 

 tion, hut also of written history. I have simply men- 

 tioned them to show how, from the time when the 

 most ancient and rude of the flint implements were 

 deposited in the river-gravels, there is more or less 

 of an unbroken sequence. Archajology commences 

 where geology leaves olf— the past and the present 

 meet on common ground. Standing on this neutral 

 area, you may gaze backward into the illimitable 

 ages which l;avc gone by, and see the gradual 

 ascension in animal life, which began in the dim 

 and distant Laurent ian epoch in the animalcule, 

 and has terminated in Man. Looking forward from 

 the same vantage-ground, you may hopefully note 

 the development of society, the growth of civiliza- 

 tion, and probability of the unfolding of the social 

 and moral attributes of man as n.arvcUously as the 



lower animal life has culminated in its existing 

 apex ! Throughout, in the buried past, as well as 

 in the yet unfolded future, you never lose sight of 

 the operations of an Almighty Spirit — ever working, 

 never resting ! — out of chaos bringing forth order, 

 — out of simple protoplasmic material educing the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms, in all their multi- 

 tudinous types and varieties, until a small area like 

 the superficies of this planet has teemed with life 

 sufiicient to stock a million existing worlds! One 

 generation has passed away, but, in doing so, has 

 furnished a basis on which the new comer may 

 ascend to a higher physiological platform. Every 

 form, animal and vegetable, has been but the ex- 

 pression of Divine Love, communicating to them 

 the excess of its own joyous life ! Every species 

 has been an outwardly crystallized Divine idea. 

 Spirit has clothed itself with matter, until in Man 

 the past and the future have met: the ancient 

 Greek fable has been more than realized, for it has 

 been true spiritual fire from heaven— given, not 

 stolen — which has been instilled into fleshly clay 1 



My slory is now ended, and, with mine, the series, 

 whos3 purpose hiis been to give as plain an outline 

 of the biography of our old world as possible. It 

 will have been seen that a story may be properly 

 read olF, even from so common and ordinary an 

 object as a Gravel-pit. In geology, more than any 

 other scienca, he that humbleth himself shall bo 

 exalted ! All its objects lie at your feet, and arc of 

 the lowliest kind. Not a pebble you accidentally 

 kick before you, not a handful of dust blown by the 

 wind into gutters, not a spadeful of soil turned 

 over, but each is fi-aught with teaching of the 

 utmost value and of the intensest interest. It is by 

 recognizing a Cause that you alone can unlock the 

 secret; setting out with the full belief that every- 

 thing exists by virtue of a right— has resulted, i-.ot 

 from accident, but law, — until you arrive at the 

 highest conception of which man is capable,— that 

 the total of these various laws meet and concen- 

 trate into one focus, and find their expression in a 

 personal and Almighty God! 



"The land bird is bound to its home by power- 

 ful bonds, which, for the most part, are invisible to 

 our dull vision ; with some species these limits m:iy 

 perhaps embrace an area less than the hundredth 

 part of a mile."— "i)'/rt/ Life;' hj Dr. Brehm. 



"TuE South, by destroying its trees, has dried up 

 its springs. It has abandoned the mouutaius to 

 ruin, and its plains to a couple of ."scourges— the 

 wind and the flood. The North and Central Erance 

 bid fair ere long to lose their fuel. Before the 

 Ilevolutiou, iu 17G0, Erance had thirty millions of 

 hectares in forest— to-dny she has loss than eight 

 millions."—" Nature" by Madame Michelet. 



