The Dawn of Civilization 



strata was 50,000 years removed from the time of the first 

 Egyptian Papyri Rolls. 



There is a gradual evolutionary growth shown In the 

 manufacture and use of all the primitive weapons and tools 

 from the first crudely chipped Implements to the horizon of 

 history. New implements were added and forms were 

 changed, but this period was so great and the growth so 

 slow that vast periods of time intervened when no per- 

 ceptible change can be noted. It is the purpose here to show 

 that these crude flint implements and weapons represent 

 the earliest mechanical devices used by man and from these 

 first Ideas of helpful aids there have grown the billion 

 mechanical forces now In use. The most mysterious fact 

 about all this development is that there had been more prog- 

 ress and improvement made during the past century than 

 there had been during all the preceding centuries. Most 

 of the ideas that have changed the manners and customs 

 of the human race have been put into use within recent 

 times. This change did not come until man began to study, 

 understand and control the forces of Nature and to apply 

 these forces to his daily work. Throughout the ages they 

 have lifted the burdens of mankind that had clung to him, 

 like a millstone about his neck. The sweating, aching, plod- 

 ding toil of the billions of men and women who had crossed 

 the stage of human action before a knowledge of these 

 forces came Into being, cannot be recalled, but a soothing, 

 comforting thought comes to us, their descendants, from a 

 school of Greek philosophers who taught that happiness 

 comes from within and not from without. 



[35] 



