f a past that has been
recovered to us out of the very night of time. From under the ashes of
Vesuvius archaeologists have brought to light an ancient city. We gaze
on it with great interest, for we there see illustrated the state of
society two thousand years ago. But other cities of that time are still
in existence, and not only by the aid of tradition and song, but from
the pages of history, we can learn of the civilization of the Roman
people at the time of the destruction of Pompei; so that, in this case,
our knowledge of the past is not confined to one source of information.
But no voice of history or tradition, or of existing institutions,
speaks to us of the Paleolithic Age. Of that remote time, the morning
time of human life, we learn only from the labors of geologists and
archaeologists. We are virtually dealing with a past geological age.
The long term of years thus defined drew to its close amidst scenes
of almost Arctic sterility. In all probability, glaciers reflected the
sun's rays from all the considerable hills and mountains of Central and
Northern Europe, though forming, perhaps, but a remnant of the great
glaciers of the Ice Age. The neighboring seas must have been whitened by
the glistening sails of numerous icebergs. Such was the closing scene of
Paleolithic life.

The first great cycle of human life, as far as we know it now, was
concluded in Europe. We do not mean to say that it terminated all over
the world. In other regions it survived to far later times. But, in
Europe, Paleolithic animals and men had worked out their mission, and we
have now to record the arrival and spread of a new race, bringing with
them domestic animals, a knowledge of rude husbandry, and many simple
arts and industries of which their Paleolithic predecessors were
ignorant.

We recall, that the men of the Paleolithic Age seemed incapable of
advancement;<2> or their progress was so slow that we scarcely notice
it. But we can trace the lines of advancement from the Neolithic culture
to that of the present. We have, however, to deal with people and times
far removed from the light of history.

We have before us, then, a new culture and a new people. On the one hand
is Paleolithic man, with his rude stone implements, merely chipped into
shape--surrounded by many animals which have since vanished from the
theater of life--inhabiting a country which, at its close at least,
was more like Greenland of to-day than England or Fra