AGE OF MAN. 309 



Human period covers the whole age of Man, but the His- 

 toric period does not. What purports to be the early 

 history of many of the old nations is made up of tradi- 

 tions, which are far from being reliable. Real history, 

 with the exception of the inspired history of the Bible, 

 goes but a little way back in the case of any ancient na- 

 tion. " Milton did not scruple to declare," says Hume, 

 " that the skirmishes of kites or crows as much merited 

 a particular narrative as the confused transactions and 

 battles of the Saxon Heptarchy." But the study of the 

 remains of a people may be carried far back into the 

 past, beyond the beginning of that degree of civilization 

 which is necessary to authentic history, and may give us 

 valuable results. It is by such study alone that we can 

 acquire a knowledge of ancient nations in their savage 

 or barbaric state. 



420. Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages of Man. In mark- 

 ing the progress of man by means of the remains of his 

 implements, weapons, ornaments, etc., the materials 

 which he has used in making them have been consid- 

 ered as denoting three stages. In the first and rudest 

 condition we have the Stone age, when stone was the 

 material from which were shapen such implements as 

 hammers, axes, chisels, and arrow-heads. In Fig. 179 (p. 

 310) are represented some of these early stone imple- 

 ments gathered from various quarters, all of them exhib- 

 iting a striking similarity, but some of them being a lit- 

 tle more elaborate than the others. Those at 1 and 2 

 are from the Valley of the Somme, in France ; at 3, 4, 

 and 5, from England ; at 6, 7, and 8, from Canada ; and 

 at 9 and 10, from Scandinavia. Quite an advance upon 

 this is the Bronze age, for there are more thought and 

 skill shown in melting metals together for the making 

 of implements than in the bare shaping of stone. Cop- 

 per was the chief metal of this age. Last of all comes 

 the Iron age, in which the excellence of iron above all 

 other metals for the manufacture of tools and weapons is 



