25 



great q^uantity of relics from the Swiss lake dwell- 

 ings are exhibited at the british Museum, Euch 

 as needles, rings, pottery, bread, dried apples, 

 barley, woven fabric, raspbeny seeds, wheat, and 

 80 on. No doubt these dwellings were similar to 

 the present lake dwellings of New Guinea, and 

 very probably this is the style of dwelling which 

 existed on the site on which Canterbury now 

 stands, the object being no doubt to protect against 

 fire and enemies. Not only in these districts do 

 we find remains of primitive man, but in all the 

 deposits of the Quaternary age. In almost every 

 country of the world there have been discovered 

 weapons and implements of man associated with 

 the fauna of that period. There is good reason 

 to think that primitive man existed in what is 

 now Europe previous to the ice period (but we 

 must imagine England joined to the Continent 

 and extending far out west into the Atlantic at 

 that time with no North or Irish Seas). He was 

 very probably civilised by the cold and glaciers, 

 which aroused his activities, made him build a 

 shelter, to band together and build defences 

 against wild beasts, to fight hard and bunt 

 vigorously ; he lived along the river, apparent ly in 

 families. Then came the great change— the Polar 

 ice cap pusned its way down until it invaded the 

 regions inhabited by min. The first to fly into 

 more temperate regions would be the herb-eating 

 animals, for their food would be killed or covered 

 with ice; then followed the flesh-eaters, who 

 preyed upon their more peaceable fellows ; and 

 with them man, who was probably the most 

 destructive flesh-eater of them all. It is said that 

 at this period the tilting occurred of the earth's 

 floor, which led to the filling up of the Atlantic 

 ocean and causing a general deluge along the south 

 of what is now Europe. This, probably, is what 

 primitive man and animals encountered when 

 retreating from the glaciers, the larger animals 

 — possibly through their strength and speed — 

 being able to transport themselves to higher 

 ground beyond the reach of the floods. As for 

 man, the weakest, yet the moi^t resourceful of the 

 larger brutHS, he took refuge from the storms in 

 grottos and caverns (I might mention these 

 caverns are abundant, particularly in the Lime- 

 stone districts of France and Belgium ; one cavern 

 alone in the Lesse Valley has yielded as many as 

 40,000 distinct objects). 



Here, in the cavern, for the first time lie 

 became a social animal ; he kindled bis fire, which 

 perhaps had been previously only kindled acci- 

 dently in his former resting place, round which 

 huddled all the different families, compelled by 

 the storms to take refuge in the cave. Here 

 he learned to make clothes from the skins 

 of animals which he snared or ran down, and very 

 probably the society of his fellows led him 

 to fashion new ^t-apons and tools, to make 

 scrapers for skins, axes for cutting, maces for 

 striking. The pressure of common dangerand need 

 of organised defencw against the cave bear and 

 the cave lion, led him to elect a common leader, as 

 horses are wont to do. The art of decoration, of 

 industry, and of government all took their rise 

 within the cave. At lenght the glaciers, after, 

 perhaps, oscillating for many ages, retired, and as 



the new vegetation sprang up the animals followed 

 it northwards. The drying up of the land cleared 

 the fogs, the summers were hotter, while the 

 winters, owing to radiation, were more cold than 

 before. Animals migrated at fixed times in search 

 of a climate necessary to them, and man became a 

 traveller. 



Through the lessons of mutual help which he 

 had learned in the cave, he hit upon a plan of 

 division of labour, so the most skilful handicrafts- 

 man stayed at home and made axes, while the 

 swiftest and strongest hunter used them abroad 

 for their mutual benefit. 



Now began the drawings of Art. Vanity seems 

 to have been the first motive. Painting the face, 

 making ornaments, adorning the skins in which 

 the artist was clad ; but later. Art began to be 

 practiced for the pleasure it gave the embryo 

 artist; weapons, tools, and sometimes rocks, were 

 covered with pictoral representations of animals, 

 and man himself. Probably, here we have the 

 first precursor of a system of writing, and as the 

 material necessary for such designs were not 

 always to be found in one place, while well- 

 decorated weapons had a certain value of their 

 own, some sort of a barter with distant families 

 sprang up, and so trade was born. The ti*ee 

 branch was probably the firbt weapon, the stone 

 the first missile ; ages were required to combine 

 the stick and stone, but a family or tribe armed 

 with stone hatchets, would easily conquer its 

 neighbours and become a terror. Military liravery 

 gave security from foreign invasion, established 

 stable and despotic government, and by the 

 creation of a soldier caste, left the majority of the 

 people free to pursue the arts of peace. Another 

 step was taken when man began to employ the 

 labour of animalf. He who first harnessed a beast 

 of burden to the forked branch of a tree, and so 

 ploughed his land, was the father of modern agri- 

 culture. 



Immortality at its origin seemed to be the hope 

 of a continual family life, and the depaited were 

 considered members of the family still. The first 

 diflferentiation of the family was when the father 

 delegated the office of Priest and committed to him 

 the care of the dead, confining himself to the 

 secular affairs of his growing flock. Then came 

 about the first form of the clan and the tribe, and 

 the first step towards humanity and international- 

 ism. This was followed by a federation of tribes 

 for a common purpose. The Hebrews federated the 

 twelve Tribes of Israel. While the Gentile world 

 was developing the social state, the Jewish people 

 were developing a religion for the world, and with 

 their intact family created the church of modern 

 times. Greece developed the family into the city, 

 but the Romans had gone further in nation- 

 making and created the iState. 



Such is the outline of the story of this wonder- 

 ful placet on which we live. It is a feeble attempt 

 at the story I have longed to hear. It is a story 

 which I feel wq all should have learned in our 

 youth, for it prepares us to meet the enigmas of 

 life, it will bring us happiness, and it will make 

 us look around and realise our position in the 

 uni^rerse. It lays a foundation on which we can 

 build and connect the knowledge of any branch of 



