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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 6. 



are sometimes discovered associated withi 

 the bones of animals, some of which are 

 found to be of extinct species ; but the 

 relics of man are found in other formations. 

 Altogether, the finds are not many. The 

 geologic record of man we may call the 

 Stone Book. It records but a meager tale ; 

 the rock-leaved bible of geology has but a 

 postscript devoted to mankiud, but in it are 

 facts which prove to be of profound interest. 

 Man was scattered widely over all the 

 habitable earth in the early period of his 

 development. The ' Garden of Eden ' was 

 walled with ice, so that man was not dis- 

 persed to the poles, for the outer or polar 

 lands were uninhabitable. Within these 

 walls men were scattered far and wide, 

 on the coasts of every sea, on the shores 

 of every lake, and on the banks of 

 every stream, for everywhere between the 

 frigid zones the vestiges of primeval man 

 are discovered. The ruins of his habita- 

 tions are thus widely spread — ^in palefits 

 erected over lakes, in habitations con- 

 structed in every valley, in villages where 

 men gathered by tribes, and in cities where 

 they were gathered by nations. The ruins 

 of his ancient dwelling places and the ves- 

 tiges of his arts scattered over the lands 

 are now esteemed of priceless value by 

 the scientific historian. The ruins furnish 

 much more material than the rocks for the 

 ancient historj^ of mankind. Stone imple- 

 ments are found in great abundance over 

 all the eai'th ; implements of bone, horn, 

 shell and wood are in like manner widely 

 dispersed. In ruins of habitations and 

 vestiges of arts a story is told of develop- 

 ing activities in all of the five great depart- 

 ments of art, for by them we learn much of 

 the industries, pleasures, speech as recorded 

 in glyphs, institutions as illustrated by the 

 paraphernalia of social organizations, and 

 even of opinions as they are expressed in 

 picture writings and ideographs. Let us 

 call this the Ruin Book. It is a sti-ange 



book, studied by aid of the pickaxe and the 

 shovel. Sometimes' habitations are found 

 in ruins pUed one over another, giving evi-" 

 dence of the occupancy of sites for many 

 centuries during successive culture periods 

 extending from ruder to higher life. 



In all ages birth and death have been 

 abroad in the land. From the infant's wail 

 at bii-th to the mourner's cry at death men 

 are engaged in the five great activities. 

 Primeval man leai-ned to buiy his dead, 

 and as the swarming generations have come 

 down from antiquity thi'ough fields of life 

 whose sheaves were garnered by the sickles 

 of death, the tombs have become the gran- 

 aries of arts, to which the scientific historian 

 resorts that he may discover the vestiges of 

 the earlier humanities. Over all the earth 

 these gi-anaries are scattered in graves, 

 mounds, catacombs, sepulchers and mauso- 

 leums, and the whole habitable earth is a 

 necropolis. Sometimes more than bones 

 are found in the ancient tombs, for often 

 they contain works of art. Primeval men 

 were organized into ti-ibes by bonds of afiBn- 

 ity and consanguinity. The ownership of 

 propertj' was mainly in the tribe and in the 

 clans and gentes, which were organized 

 tiibal units; hence property was chiefly 

 communal in the clan or gens and in the 

 tribe. But some articles of property be- 

 longed to individuals, cliiefly clothing and 

 ornaments, though a few implements and 

 iitensils were owned by individual men and 

 women. In order that controversy should 

 not arise about the ownership of property 

 of this character, it was a fundamental doc- 

 trine of this early life that personal propertj' 

 should be inherited by the grave. With 

 the dead person, therefore, were buried the 

 clothing, ornaments, instruments and iiten- 

 sils which he ]30sscssed at his death. Grad- 

 ually this institution became a sacred rite, 

 as about it were thrown the sanctions of 

 religion; and in this more highly developed 

 stage propertj' belonging to the mourning 



