THE BRONZE AXE. 215 



and are so thin that they could only have been intended 

 to possess exchange value. And when a distinguished 

 Sinologist gives us a date for anything Chinese, it 

 behoves the rest of the unlearned world to open its 

 mouth and shut its eyes, and thankfully receive whatever 

 the distinguished Sinologist may send it. 



In the seventh century, then, these mercantile axes, 

 made in the strictest sense to sell and not to use, were 

 stamped with an official stamp to mark their amount, 

 and became thereby converted into true coins that was 

 the root of the 'root of all evil.' Thence the declension 

 to the ' cash ' is easy ; the form grew gradually more and 

 more regular, while the square hole in the centre, once 

 used for the handle, was retained by conservatism and 

 practical sense as a convenient means of stringing them 

 together. 



So this was the end of the old bronze hatchet, 

 perhaps the most wonderful civilizing agent ever invented 

 by human ingenuity. Let us hark back now, and from 

 the opposite side see what was its first beginning. 



' But why,' you ask, ' the most wonderful civilizing 

 agency ? What did the bronze axe ever do for humanity ? ' 

 Well, nearly everything. I believe I have really not said 

 too much. We are apt to talk big nowadays about the 

 steam-engine, and that marvellous electricity which is 

 always going to do wonders for us all to-morrow ; but 

 I don't know whether either ever produced so great a 

 revolution in human life, or so completely metamor- 

 phosed human existence, as that simple and common- 

 place bronze hatchet. 



For, consider that before the days of bronze man knew 



