MAN'S PROGRESS 263 



the pitchforks, rakes and hoes that they used on 

 their farms, the fruits and grains they raised, the 

 hnen cloth they made, the piles upon which they 

 built their houses and the ladders and boats by 

 which they reached them, and even the Uttle toy 

 boats of the children, we know a great deal about 

 these people who lived so long ago. 



It seems as if those ancient people needed only the 

 knowledge how to use the bright metals that were 

 in the rocks about them, to become really civilized. 

 In some way they got even this knowledge. They 

 must have learned that secret by themselves, for the 

 animals could not teach them that. 



Perhaps the fire did. Perhaps some of the rocks 

 they heated for cooking their food had copper or 

 tin in them. Perhaps the metal softened and 

 changed its shape under the heat of the fire. Then 

 some one whose eyes were quick and whose brain 

 was quick, too, would see that the bright shining 

 substance was softer than the rocks and could be 

 shaped and so used for new and useful objects. 



The use of bronze (which is a mixture of copper 

 and tin) for weapons and implements of all kinds 

 began a new era in the civilization of mankind. 

 Then came the use of gold and silver, and later of 

 iron. We owe our present high civiUzation largely 

 to the use of iron and the steel that is made from 

 it, — that iron which the rain water collected from 

 the rocks, and deposited in a form that we could get; 

 to the coal that was made from the great forests of 

 ages ago; and to the knowledge that has come to 

 us from countless generations of people all trying 



