14 Prehistoric Races. 



esting situations, which prehistoric archaeology, as 

 we shall see, quite significantly suggests, would 

 reduce the best of us to the abject condition of 

 " cave men," taken at their worst. And, possibly, 

 if there was nothing better to be had, we might 

 reconcile ourselves to things as they were; espe- 

 cially when, all distinct recollection of a better state 

 dying away in the course of time, custom with its 

 strong, nervous bonds of a second nature could give 

 men a positive preference for a cave or a hole, as 

 we know it gives some a preference for a craggy 

 hill-top or a smoky tent. Thus, in fact, we see that 

 troglodytes, or men who live in caves, are recorded 

 all through history. 



7. Not a little rhetoric has been expended on the 

 savagery of these cave-men, and the origin which 

 must have been theirs down among the 

 tribes of apes. So it is worth our while 

 to observe that, on the contrary, the more civilized 

 the men had been before, that is to say, the more 

 resources they had enjoyed outside of themselves 

 for procuring food, clothing, and shelter, the fewer 

 resources then would they find in themselves, and 

 the more abject would their condition be, in the 

 circumstances which we are contemplating. We 

 may bring this matter home to ourselves ; for it is 

 quite possible that the present civilization will 

 collapse into depths undreamed of now. Other great 

 civilizations have vanished like a dream of the 

 night before us. And what we say is this, that in a 





