4 INTRODUCTION. 



But it is only in particular parts of Human Culture where 

 the facts have not, so to speak, travelled far from their causes^ 

 that this direct method is practicable. Most of its phenomena 

 have g'rown into shape out of such a complication of events, 

 that the laborious piecing together of their previous history is 

 the only safe way of studying them. It is easy to see how far 

 a theologian or a lawyer would go wrong who should throw 

 history aside, and attempt to explain, on abstract principles, 

 the existence of the Protestant Church or the Code Napoleon. 

 A Romanesque or an Early English cathedral is not to be 

 studied as though all that the architect had to do was to take 

 stone and mortar and set up a building for a given purpose. 

 The development of the architecture of Greece, its passage 

 into the architecture of Rome, the grov.th of Christian cere- 

 mony and symbolismj are only part of the elements which went 

 to form the state of things in which the genius of the builder 

 had to work out the requirements of the moment. The late 

 Mr. Buckle did good service in urging students to look through 

 the details of history to the great laws of Human Development 

 which lie behind ; but his attempt to explain, by a few rash 

 generalizations, the complex phases of European history, is a 

 warning of the danger of too hasty an appeal to first principles. 



As, however, the earlier civilization lies very much out of the 

 beaten track of history, the place of direct records has to be 

 supplied in great measure by indirect evidence, such as Anti- 

 quities, Language, and Mythology. This makes it genei'ally 

 difficult to get a sound historical basis to work on, but there 

 happens to be a quantity of material easily obtainable, which 

 bears on the development of some of the more common and 

 useful arts. Thus in the eighth and ninth chapters, the tran- 

 sition from implements of stone to those of metal is demon- 

 strated to have taken place in almost every district of the habi- 

 table globe, and a progress from ruder to more perfect modes 

 of making fire and boiling food is traced in many diflFerent 

 countries ; while in the seventh, evidence is collected on the 

 important problem of the relation which Progress has borne to 

 Dechne in art and knowledge in the history of the world. 



In the remote times and places where direct history is at 



