weakened by internal dissensions and
enervated by luxury, split in twain, and the western, and most important
part, fell before its barbarian foes.

The various tribes could not keep alive the civilization they had
overthrown. The wandering hordes of Germanic people could not easily
forget their former barbaric life, their marches of conquest, and
careers of pillage. But the claims of civilization, though light and
pleasant, are none the less imperative, and a people who seek her
rewards must form settled communities, develop public spirit, organize
government, and sink the individual in the public good. Not appreciating
these claims, it is not strange that the incipient civilization nearly
expired, and that the night of the Dark Ages enwrapt Europe. From out
that darkness, composed of the descendants of the people whose culture
we have been investigating, finally emerged the mediaeval nations of
Europe.

The review has been a pleasant one, for it is a record of progress.
The difference between the culture of the Neolithic and the Iron Age is
great, but it is simply a development, the result of a gradual growth.
Civilization and history have only hastened this growth. If we look
around us to-day we can trace the elements of our civilization back
through the eras of history, and though the faint beginning of some can
be noticed, yet many of them come down to us from prehistoric times. We
have treated of these early people in the three stages of culture known
as the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages. We have seen there is no hard
and fast line dividing the different stages of culture. To borrow the
words of another, these stages of progress, like the three principal
colors of the rainbow, overlap, intermingle, and shade off the one into
the other, and yet in the main they are well defined.<16>

We instinctively long to set bounds to the past, to measure it by the
unit of years. It affords us satisfaction to give dates for events long
since gone by. For any event in the domain of history, it is natural and
appropriate to gratify this desire. It gives precision to our thoughts,
and more firmly fixes the march of events. But the historical portion of
human life on the globe is but a small part of the grand whole. When
we pass beyond history, or into prehistoric times, we find ourselves
utterly at a loss as to dates.

We have referred in the preceding pages to the commonly accepted belief
of a few years ago, that, at most,