T,ECTURE IX, 233 



they accidentally meet with it ; man alone keeps it up, so as to 

 render it serviceable for various purposes. As far as our 

 investigations reacli into tlie recondite past, we find associated 

 with human bones and teeth objects of art, though rudely 

 fashioned, tools of wood, stone, horn, bones, and half-baked 

 clay, together with coals, which prove that man knew the use of 

 fire. But there are no traditions, no legends which can serve as 

 guides in reference to the first period of human existence. Even 

 in the oldest civilised countries, where from the earhest period 

 monuments and statues speak in hieroglyphics, whence great 

 scholars have endeavoured to collect the old traditions and to de- 

 cipher the primitive history of the country — even in these oldest 

 traditions there is no trace of a pre-historic non-metallic period 

 of which stone hatchets and pile-structures testify. It is only 

 the position of these relics, their relation to the beds upon 

 which they rest, or by which they are covered, their association 

 with other vegetable and animal remains, which can afibrd 

 any clue to the relation of the primitive man to the external 

 world, his mode of life, alimentation, dress, habitation, cus- 

 toms, manners, and social condition. 



The field, as you will observe, is very extensive ; the way to 

 it is dark ; knowledge difficult. From the fragments of the 

 scenery after the theatre is burned down, we are to guess the 

 pieces which have been played ; from the remains of those who 

 have perished we are to say what part they played. Wherever we 

 cast our glance, there is uncertainty and doubt ; it is only with 

 the greatest caution that we can grasp a guiding thread which 

 in this labyrinth may lead us to a starting- point. The least 

 mistake in observation may engender an innumerable series of 

 errors ; every unfounded or illogical deduction may lead us so 

 much astray that return becomes impossible. But the most 

 dangerous rocks, against which the vessel of the inquirer must 

 inevitably be wrecked, are the traditional prejudices of church 

 dogmas and biblical exegesis. Whosoever here attempts any 

 mediation is at once carried into a whirlpool of absurdities, 

 from which no degree of prowess as an oarsman is able to 

 extricate him. But the greater the difficulties, the greater the 

 satisfaction of the inquirer who may succeed in raising a 



