REVIEW. AI7 
History of Mankind,” &c.,—M. Joly has presented within the 
small compass of about 350 pages, so to say, a kind of concen- 
trated solution of the evidence that supports the theory now held 
by the majority of scientific men, that the human race is of im- 
-mense antiquity—of an antiquity to be measured not by years 
but by geological epochs ; for not only do proofs of his existence 
abound in the quarternary strata, but traces of it are not, accord- 
ing to some, wanting in the rocks of the meiocene and pleiocene 
epochs. But whether this is so or not, there can now be no 
question that the evidence collected from almost every part of 
the globe proves beyond all doubt “that man was contempo- 
raneous with the extinct mammalia of the quaternary epoch, that 
he witnessed the upheaval of the Alps and the extension of the 
slaciers, and that he lived for ages before the dawn of the re- 
motest historical traditions.” From ancient times down to our 
own days worked flints have been found both on the surface and 
deep down in the soil, in caves and under the ruins of ancient 
monuments. These flints bear many shapes, but they generally 
resemble axes, saws, lances, &c. They are found of all degrees 
of polish and workmanship, ranging from the roughly-splintered 
to the finely-polished. They are found, too, in almost every 
country, an indication that man everywhere passes through 
similar stages of advancement in the art of tool-making as well 
as in the art of working materials subservient to the purpose of 
tool-making. The order of the materials is stone, copper, bronze, 
iron, and it is the first of these—the Stone Age that forms M. 
Joly’s principal theme. 
Art does not spring into existence spontaneously, but is the 
result of gradual development; and in the earlier stages of 
society this development is slower than in thelater. Flint tools 
have been found in Egypt, where, at least forty-nine centuries 
before the birth of Christ, flourished “a civilized people advan- 
ced in science and art, and in the knowledge of mechanics, 
capable of raising monuments of immense size and of indestruc- 
tible solidity.” The early inhabitants of Egypt began their art 
course by making splintered flint tools; 4900 years before Christ 
their descendants were able to produce works of art, so a com- 
petent judge informs us, unsurpassed by any produced by the 
Greeks. The time that elapsed between the making of the 
roughly-chipped flint axe, “the first monument of man ina state 
of nature,” and the execution of such remarkable works of art as 
the statue of King Chafra, and the door of the Great Pyramid of 
Sakkara, must have been immense. “In the remote epochs of 
which we are speaking,” says M. Joly, “the Egyptian tongue 
was already formed, and possessed a written character. Tle 
great number of our domestic animals were bred by the Egyp- 
tians, and distinct and long established breeds were known to 
them (greyhounds, lop-eared goats, &c.). No one can tell with 
certainty the number of centuries they must have passed through 
before attaining to so complex a civilization. The whole history 
of Egypt confirms our belief in the immense antiquity of the 
