II 



THE HISTORY OF THINGS 



The Antiquity of Things. One of the most ob- 

 vious results of the study of nature is simply the 

 conviction that everything has a long history be- 

 hind it. "Everything," as Bagehot said, "has 

 become an antiquity." The human race seems 

 to be several hundreds of thousands of years old, 

 and yet man is a creature of yesterday compared 

 with many of his present companions upon the 

 earth. How long it is since the earth became fit 

 to be the cradle and home of life we do not know, 

 but it must be reckoned in millions of years. 

 One enthusiastic calculator has stated, with al- 

 most painful precision, that the earth is 861,000,- 

 000 years old. 



Things Change with the Times. But it is not mere- 

 ly the length of years that impresses us; it is that 

 everything or rather the aspect of everything 

 has changed with the times. The present is in a 

 sense a child of the past, but it is different from its 

 parent. The earth has passed from phase to 

 phase; one climate has succeeded another; there 

 has been a procession of faunas and floras over 

 the stage; we look back upon a great drama. 

 51 



