PRE-HISTORIC TIMES. 



CHAPTER I. 



ON THE USE OF BRONZE IN ANCIENT TIMES. 



rE first appearance of man in Europe dates back to a 

 period so remote, that neither history, nor even tra- 

 dition, can throw any light on his origin, or mode of life. 

 Under these circumstances, some have assumed the past to 

 be hidden from the present by a veil, which time would 

 probably thicken, but could never remove. Thus, the me- 

 morials of antiquity have been valued as monuments of 

 ancient skill and perseverance, but it has not been supposed 

 that they could be regarded as pages of ancient history ; 

 they have been recognized as interesting vignettes, not as 

 historical pictures. Some writers have assured us that, in 

 the words of Palgrave, "We must give it up, that speech- 

 less past ; whether fact or chronology, doctrine or mythology ; 

 whether in Europe, Asia, Africa or America; at Thebes or 

 Palenque, on Lycian shore or Salisbury Plain : lost is lost ; 

 gone is gone for ever." While if others, more hopefully, 

 have endeavoured to reconstruct the story of the past, they 

 have too often allowed imagination to usurp the place of 

 research, and written rather in the spirit of the novelist, 

 than in that of the philosopher. 



But of late years a new branch of knowledge has arisen ; 



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