the flanged axes, with projecting ledges on either
side; and then the palstaves with loops and ribs, each marking some new
improvement in the character of the weapon, which the inventor would no
doubt have patented but for the unfortunate fact that patents were as
yet wholly unknown to Bronze Age humanity. Later still come the
socketed hatchets of many patterns, with endless ingenious little
devices for securing some small advantage to the special manufacturer.
I can fancy the Bronze Age smith showing them off with pride to his
interested customers: 'These are our own patterns--the newest thing out
in bronze axes; observe the advantage you gain from the ribs and
pellets, and the peculiar character which the octagonal socket gives to
the hafting!' Indeed, in this single department of bronze celts alone,
Mr. Evans in his great monumental work figures over a hundred and
eighty distinct specimens (out of thousands known), each one presenting
some well-marked advance in type upon its predecessor. There is almost
a Yankee ingenuity of design in many of the dodges thus registered for
our inspection.

Many of the celts, I may add, are most beautifully decorated with
geometrical patterns, some of which belong to a very high order of
ornamental art. This is still more the case with the daggers, swords,
and defensive armour, often intended for the use of great chieftains,
and executed with an amount of taste and feeling long since dead among
the degenerate workmen of our iron age.

But the indirect effects of the introduction of metal working were far
more interesting and important in their way than the direct effects.
With bronze began the great age of agriculture, of commerce, and of
navigation.

Of agriculture first, because the bronze hatchet enabled men to make
such openings in the forest as neolithic man had never ever dreamed of.
For the first time in the history of our race, whole tracts of country
at once began to be cleared and cultivated. Stone Age tillage was the
tillage of tiny plots in the forest's depths; Bronze Age tillage was
the tillage of fields and wide open spaces in the champaign country.
The Stone Age knew no specials implements of agriculture as such; its
tomahawk was indiscriminately applied to all purposes alike of war or
gardening. You scalped your enemy with it, or you cut up your dinner,
or you dug your field, or you planted your seed-corn, according as
taste or circumstances directed. But while the