194 THE EARLIEST MEN 



in the future life of man, and thus so far as this 

 is evidence of the possession of religious beliefs. 

 And considering how little we know about these 

 far-off people, this is a great deal. Supposing that 

 everything in these countries could be swept away 

 except our graveyards, and that some after-coming 

 race, ignorant of the customs of its forbears, were 

 to examine them, the savants of that race would 

 hardly be able to say much more than that the 

 people whose cemeteries they had been examining 

 believed in a future life. Of these far-oil inhabit- 

 ants of the world whose condition we have been 

 inquiring into, we have nothing but the cemeteries 

 or interments in caves to guide us, and yet of them 

 we are able to make an exactly similar statement. 



Thus we may sum up by saying with regard to 

 all these peoples, that, judged by every standard, 

 they were men like unto ourselves, though in 

 many ways perhaps in some cases quite certainly 

 of a more rugged cast, and though unprovided 

 with the resources of civilization now at our dis- 

 posal. 



The Question of Date. A few words may perhaps 

 be devoted to this important subject, which will 

 be dealt with more fully in the next succeeding 

 article. It has already been seen that enormous, 

 quite possibly insuperable, difficulties surround 

 the task of endeavouring to translate geological 

 periods into actual numbers of years. How im- 

 possible this is, may be gathered from the fact 

 that every book which has attempted the task 

 discloses a different scheme of chronology. 



Let it be clearly understood that as to relative 



