I 



PREHISTORIC SCIENCE 



TO speak of a prehistoric science may seem like 

 a contradiction of terms. The word prehistoric 

 seems to imply barbarism, while science, clearly 

 enough, seems the outgrowth of civilization; but 

 rightly considered, there is no contradiction. For, 

 on the one hand, man had ceased to be a barbarian 

 long before the beginning of what we call the historical 

 period; and, on the other hand, science, of a kind, is 

 no less a precursor and a cause of civilization than it 

 is a consequent. To get this clearly in mind, we must 

 ask ourselves: What, then, is science? The word 

 runs glibly enough upon the tongue of our every -day 

 speech, but it is not often, perhaps, that they who use 

 it habitually ask themselves just what it means. Yet 

 the answer is not difficult. A little attention will 

 show that science, as the word is commonly used, 

 implies these things : first, the gathering of knowledge 

 through observation; second, the classification of such 

 knowledge, and through this classification, the elabo- 

 ration of general ideas or principles. In the familiar 

 definition of Herbert Spencer, science is organized 

 knowledge. 



Now it is patent enough, at first glance, that the 

 veriest savage must have been an observer of the 

 phenomena of nature. But it may not be so obvious 



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