TWO FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIONS. 183 



fact proves that rude stone implements are 

 not necessarily any indication whatever of 

 a really barbarous condition. Assuming then 

 that the use of stone has in all cases pre- 

 ceded the use of metals, it is quite certain 

 that the same Age which was an Age 

 of Stone in one part of the world was an 

 Age of Metal in another. As regards the 

 Eskimo and the South-Sea Islanders we 

 are now, or were very recently, living in a 

 Stone Age. And so it has been in all past 

 times of which any record remains. The 

 whole argument therefore which has been 

 founded on flint implements, is an argument 

 liable to these two fundamental objections, 

 first that flint implements are a very un- 

 certain index of civilization, even among the 



