the pastoral, and the agricultural stages, as well as to
present the chief problems that confronted man in taking the first
steps in the use of metals, and in the establishment of trade. Upon
these lines, marked out by the geologist, the paleontologist, the
archaeologist, and the anthropologist, the first numbers of this series
are based.

A generalized view of the main steps in the early progress of the
race, which it is thus possible to present, is all that is required
for educational ends. Were it possible to present the subject in
detail, it would be tedious and unprofitable to all save the
specialist. To select from the monotony of the ages that which is most
vital, to so present it as to enable the child to participate in the
process by which the race has advanced, is a work more in keeping with
the spirit of the age. To this end the presentation of the subject is
made: First, by means of questions, which serve to develop the habit
of making use of experience in new situations; second, by narrative,
which is employed merely as a literary device for rendering the
subject more available to the child; and third, by suggestions for
practical activities that may be carried out in hours of work or play,
in such a way as to direct into useful channels energy which when left
undirected is apt to express itself in trivial if not in anti-social
forms. No part of a book is more significant to the child than the
illustrations. In preparing the illustrations for this series as great
pains have been taken to furnish the child with ideas that will guide
him in his practical activities as to illustrate the text itself.

Mr. Howard V. Brown, the artist who executed the drawings, has been
aided in his search for authentic originals by the late J. W. Powell,
_director of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C._; by
Frederick J. V. Skiff, _director of the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago_,
and by the author. Ethnological collections and the best illustrative
works on ethnological subjects scattered throughout the country have been
carefully searched for material. Many of the text illustrations of this
volume are reproductions of originals found in the caves and rock shelters
of France.

K. E. D.

_October, 1906._

* * * * *

[Illustration: CONTENTS]

PAGE