CORRESP ONDENCE. 



11 1 



but that it was born with them. On the 

 strength of these superior qualifications, 

 they waive aside all the struggles of man 

 after truth, in the past, as so many distem- 

 pered dreams, which are about to be dis- 

 pelled forever, because they have lit up a 

 few farthing candles. Or, as a Buddhist 

 poet says, " they are like infants born at 

 midnight, who, because they see a sunrise, 

 think there was never a yesterday." Let 

 you and I, Mr. Editor, not be of the num- 

 ber. Let us be assured that som'e truth 

 has come a good while ago, that it is com- 

 ing still, in many ways, and will come in 

 broader and rosier flashes in the future, 

 though not to him who ostrich-like buries his 

 head in the sand, or muffles his eyes against 

 any of its illuminations. 

 I have the honor to be 



Your obedient servant, 



Parke Godwin. 



HOUMSEN'3 niSTORY AND THE STONE 

 AGE IN ITALY. 



Mr. Editor : In Mommsen's " History 

 of Rome " one of the greatest intellectual 

 productions of the age vol. i., p. SO, Ameri- 

 can edition, occurs the following passage : 

 " Nothing has hitherto been brought to 

 light to warrant the supposition that man- 

 kind existed in Italy at a period anterior 

 to the knowledge of agriculture and of the 

 smelting of metals ; and, if the human race 

 ever within the bounds of Italy really oc- 

 cupied the level of that primitive stage of 

 culture which we are accustomed to call 

 the savage state, every trace of such a fact 

 has disappeared." 



Surprised at such a passage in such a 

 book, I read it repeatedly, to be sure of its 

 meaning. It seems to be plain enough. 

 The statement is unwarranted ; and, seeing 

 that it is a negative one, it could hardly 

 have been justifiable at the time it was 

 written probably twenty years ago. But, 

 however that may be, it is certainly an over- 

 sight to retain it in the later editions with- 

 out explanation. 



Traces of early peoples who were savage 

 in the extreme are plenty in many parts of 

 Italy, even in the vicinity of Rome. Primi- 

 tive stone weapons abound at Ponte Molle, 



Torre di Quinto, and Acqua Traversa, on the 

 right bank of the Tiber. They are found 

 in Liguria, and everywhere in what was 

 Middle Etruria. Flint weapons of the rudest 

 type are found in the lowermost beds of 

 lava in ancient Latium. The like traces of 

 a savage population are found at Imola, 

 Casalvieri, and Alatri, in the neighborhood 

 of Naples ; at Ascoli, near Ancona ; on 

 Mount Brandon, in the vicinity of Ascoli, 

 and on an island near Monticelli ; in the ter- 

 ritory of Borgo Ticino, on the plain of 

 Yercelli-Borgo, and in the turf-pits of Mer- 

 curago .and San Giovanni ; in the region 

 of San Germano, near Pinerolo, between 

 the Tarnaro and Barrido, and on the right 

 bank of the Agogna, in the territory of 

 Briga ; and in many other localities. 



These relics consist mostly of hatchets 

 and arrow or javelin points of flint and com- 

 mon greenstone. They are of all grades 

 of workmanship, from the most rude to the 

 most polished, and such is the variety in 

 this respect that B. Gastaldi, who has thor- 

 oughly studied the specimens, believes that, 

 if the usual division of the Stone Period 

 into the Paleolithic and Neolithic (rough 

 and polished stone) Ages be admissible, 

 these relics would justify a further division 

 of the Neolithic into two ages, according to 

 the grade of workmanship. 



Prof. Issel believes the evidence quite 

 sufficient to show that the Ligurians re- 

 mained stone-using savages, without knowl- 

 edge of the metals, up to the time of their 

 subjugation by the Celts and Romans. 



It is trite to observe that unqualified 

 statements resting wholly on negative sup- 

 port are unsafe. Still the learned continue 

 to make them. This of Mommsen's reminds 

 one of Renan's archaeologico-poetic assump- 

 tion that the Egyptian civilization had no 

 foreground of preparation. This appears 

 very funny in the light of evolution. Wheth- 

 er the Egyptians were autochthones of the 

 Nile or not, their civilization had a long pe- 

 riod of beginnings just as certainly as 

 the Hellenic had ; and late discoveries, of 

 what are believed by some of the highest 

 authorities to be flint implements, indicate 

 that Egypt was once inhabited by the 

 rudest of savages. It is not safe to affirm 

 of any spot on earth which has been long 

 enough above water, that it has not been in- 



