266 TRANSLATIONS AND SELECTED ARTICLES. 
of absolute chronology, expressed in thousands of years. The occa- 
sion has been singularly advantageous it is true, but it has the great 
drawback of being the first and only one of its kind. Let us hope 
that others as favorable will present themselves, from which we may 
obtain good results; for as long as a fact remains isolated, the indica- 
tions which we draw from it cannot be controlled by comparison, and 
the mind cannot rest entirely satisfied. 
But what is the benefit of all these researches in the past when the 
present suffices to absorb us? 
The question is legitimate, and it is right that we should conclude 
by some remarks on the end and utility of our study. When. the 
philosophers of Ancient Greece exercised the subtilty of their minds 
in developing the properties of the conic sections, they did not imagine 
that they were laying the base of those modern. processes by which we 
calculate astronomical tables, serving to guide the sailor in his course 
across the ocean. And now we no longer ask, what is the use of 
mathematics ! 
It is not a century since geologists would have been embarrassed 
to explain the practical utility of their researches. Now it is easy to 
answer by furnishing the most satisfactory examples of the application 
of geology to industry. 
All real knowledge, the simplest secret drawn from nature, has 
necessarily its value, and will find, soon or late, its application in con- 
tributing to the well-being of humanity. But Science also requires 
time to clear its land, to work it, to sow it, and to ripen the harvest. 
Besides, primitive Archeology is very young, younger even than its 
sister Geology; we must therefore not be astonished if it cannot 
glorify itself about the great services that it has already rendered. 
There are, however, some words of apology in its favor. 
We really know a man only by his past life, by his youth, by his 
education, and by the whole of his antecedents; precisely as the 
naturalist does not thoroughly know an organic being until he has 
followed its development from the first germ. In the same way, the 
study of the past of humanity is indispensable in learning to appre- 
ciate its present state, and to arrive at the comprehension of the social 
relations which regulate the life of nations. Thus it will be a real 
gain, when the progress of scientific researches on the development of 
humanity shall have silenced these modern discussions, to which may 
be a plied the bitter but true remark of the mathematician Littrow, 
