before a race armed with bronze weapons. They would be 

 either exterminated or enslaved. The division of pre-historic 

 time into a stone, a bronze, and an iron age, as far as regards 

 man's advancement in civilisation, is an extremely simple, 

 and at the same time an ingenious one. You are aware that 

 this division was first suggested and adopted by the Danish 

 archaeologists, and was founded on the results of their inves- 

 tigations in the peat bogs of Denmark. They found that low 

 down in the peat the only implements or objects of man's 

 workmanship were formed of stone ; then, at a higher level in 

 the peat, Aveapons of bronze were found associated with stone. 

 As the explorers examined higher beds, they found th.at bronze 

 increased in quantity, while stone diminished; and, passing 

 still upwards, when the maximum of bronze implements and 

 weapons had been attained, iron began to make its appearance 

 as the material of which weapons, &c, were formed ; and, 

 passing still nearer the surface, as bronze decreased so iron 

 increased, until the iron age was fairly entered on. Sir John 

 Lubbock divides pre-historic archaeology into four great epochs. 

 This is done by making two stone periods — that is, an earlier 

 and a later. The following are the divisions he adopts : — 

 " I. That of the drift, when man shared the possession of 

 Europe with the mammoth, the cave-bear, the woolly-haired 

 rhinoceros, and other extinct animals. This we may call the 

 ' Palaeolithic' period. II. The later or polished stone age, a 

 period characterised by beautiful weapons and implements, 

 made of flint and other kinds of stone, in which, however, we 

 find no trace of the knowledge of any metal excepting gold, 

 which seems to have been sometimes used for ornaments. 

 This we may call the ' Neolithic' period. III. The bronze age, 

 in which bronze was used for arms and cutting instruments of 

 all kinds. IV. The iron age, in which that metal had super- 

 seded bronze for arms, axes, knives, &c, bronze still being in 

 common use for ornaments, and frequently, also, for the handles 

 of swords and other arms, though never for the blades. Stone 

 weapons of many kinds, however, were still in use during the 

 age of bronze, and even during that of iron, so that the mere 



