AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE 



TO THE 



STUDY OF HIGH ANTIQUITY, 



DELIVERED AT THE 



ACADEMY OF LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND, ON THE 29th OF NOVEMBER, 1860, 



BY A. MORLOT. 

 [Translated by the author for the Smithsonian Institution.] 



" WTiat we know is very little, but what we do not know is immense." — LaplaCE. 



[Certain subjects arc more developed in this paper than they have been in the lecture itself. 

 This is especially the case with the delta of the Tiuiere. Such details, more interesting for the 

 geologist, may be omitted by the general reader, -who will find it easy to take in merely 

 the results. ] 



The process of reasoning, from tlic known to the unknown, from what is seen 

 to wLiat is not seen, is practiced by every one. When the Arab of the desert 

 descries at a distance an eagle soaring in a peculiar manner, he exclaims, "A 

 lion!" He knows that the eagle is waiting to pounce upon the prey which a 

 lion is about to quit. 



In fact, every one is more or less in the habit of forming an opinion by in- 

 direct means. Thus, a man's character is judged of by his dress, his language, 

 and even by his handwriting. 



It is, in reality, by the same means that a lawyer arrives at his conclusions, 

 and the savant — one ought rather to say the student, for the savant is, after all, 

 but a perpetual student — elaborates his doctrines. He begins by observation, 

 which he combines Avith experiment, when he can modify the circumstances 

 under which the phenomena observed are produced ; he then classifies, co- 

 ordinates, compares his first results, in order to understand them more fully ; 

 and, finally, ascending from effects to causes, he arrives at the great principles, 

 the laws which govern nature. Observation, combined, when feasible, with 

 experiment, comparison, and finally, induction : this process is the method of 

 which the result is science. 



One of the most striking examples of the application of this jirocess is fur- 

 nished by geology, which has reconstructed the history of our planet be- 

 fore the appearance of the human race. But why should we stop at the mo- 

 ment when for the first time an intelligent being appeared on this earth, 

 which had hitherto been solely peopled by animals, endowed with instinct 

 alone? Is not man also part of nature, and does not he, too, belong to the vast 

 plan of creation? 



The objection might be raised that for the human periods Ave have the trans- 

 mission of facts by Avritten records, Avhich is history proper, and by oral tradi- 



