30 Prehistoric Races. 



There come to light various articles of bronze, 

 weapons of iron, and even coins of Roman origin. 

 Does this mean that the prehistoric age of polished 

 stone is coeval with Roman history? It begins to 

 appear that the prehistoric man of even the stone 

 age was a man that trafficked, and perhaps fought, 

 with the dread legionaries of the Roman republic, 

 or perhaps the Roman empire. In fact, it dawns 

 upon us, as scientific investigation advances from 

 hazy theory into the broad light of ascertained re- 

 sults, that he is only our well-known European 

 cousin, or American, or Australasian, studied by 

 other lights than those of written history; whom 

 we have met often enough under a different name 

 from the " prehistoric " in the pages of his contem- 

 poraries, Herodotus, Livy, and even Tacitus, or 

 writers later still. The dimness of our view in this 

 study is owing to the fact that we are looking at 

 him under the light of inductive or inferential evi- 

 dence, not that of palpable observation, or docu- 

 mentary record. 



28. We may note, in passing, the different kinds 

 of evidence that may be brought to bear 

 on a subject. There is written history, 

 which furnishes documentary evidence: this is the 

 chief means of knowing our human family. There 

 is pure theory, which carries with it a kind of spec- 

 ulative light, to show the possibility of things being 

 true. There is natural science, which proceeds by 

 way of direct observation and experiment; and this 



