now come from his cultural rather than his
physical environment. Physical surroundings will continue to affect
him. One race will outstrip another because of its advantage in soil,
climate, or geographical position. But the chief key to the remaining
and more important progress of mankind, which we are about to review, is
the stimulating contact of the differing cultures of different races.

This will be seen best in the history of civilisation, but the principle
may be recognised in the New Stone Age which leads from primeval
savagery to civilisation, or, to be more accurate and just, to the
beginning of the historical period. It used to be thought that there was
a mysterious blank or gulf between the Old and the New Stone Age.
The Palaeolithic culture seemed to come to an abrupt close, and the
Neolithic culture was sharply distinguished from it. It was suspected
that some great catastrophe had destroyed the Palaeolithic race in
Europe, and a new race entered as the adverse conditions were removed.
This was especially held to be the case in England. The old Palaeolithic
race had never reached Ireland, which seems to have been cut oft from
the Continent during the Ice-Age, and most of the authorities still
believe--in spite of some recent claims--that it never reached Scotland.
England itself was well populated, and the remains found in the caves
of Derbyshire show that even the artist--or his art--had reached that
district. This Palaeolithic race seemed to come to a mysterious end,
and Europe was then invaded by the higher Neolithic race. England was
probably detached from the Continent about the end of the Magdalenian
period. It was thought that some great devastation--the last ice-sheet,
a submersion of the land, or a plague--then set in, and men were unable
to retreat south.

It is now claimed by many authorities that there are traces of a
Middle Stone (Mesolithic) period even in England, and nearly all the
authorities admit that such a transitional stage can be identified
in the Pyrenean region. This region had been the great centre of the
Magdalenian culture. Its large frescoed caverns exhibit the culmination
of the Old Stone life, and afford many connecting links with the new.
It is, however, a clearly established and outstanding fact that the
characteristic art of Magdalenian man comes to an abrupt and complete
close, and it does not seem possible to explain this without supposing
that the old race was destroye