CHAPTER XIX.
RECAPITULATION OF GEOLOGICAL PROOFS OF MAN'S ANTIQUITY.
RECAPITULATION OF RESULTS ARRIVED AT IN THE EARLIER CHAPTERS—AGES OF STONE AND BRONZE—DANISH PEAT AND KITCHEN-MIDDENS—SWISS LAKE-DWELLINGS—LOCAL CHANGES IN VEGETATION AND IN THE WILD AND DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY COEVAL WITH THE AGE OF BRONZE AND THE LATER STONE PERIOD—ESTIMATES OF THE POSITIVE DATE OF SOME DEPOSITS OF THE LATER STONE PERIOD—ANCIENT DIVISION OF THE AGE OF STONE OF ST. ACHEUL AND AURIGNAC—MIGRATIONS OF MAN IN THAT PERIOD FROM THE CONTINENT TO ENGLAND IN POST-GLACIAL TIMES—SLOW RATE OF PROGRESS IN BARBAROUS AGES—DOCTRINE OF THE SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE AND ENDOWMENTS OF THE ORIGINAL STOCK OF MANKIND CONSIDERED—OPINIONS OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS, AND THEIR COINCIDENCE WITH THOSE OF THE MODERN PROGRESSIONIST—EARLY EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION AND ITS DATE IN COMPARISON WITH THAT OF THE FIRST AND SECOND STONE PERIODS.
THE ages of stone and bronze, so called by archæologists, were spoken of in the earlier chapters of this work. That of bronze has been traced back to times anterior to the Roman occupation of Helvetia, Gaul, and other countries north of the Alps. When weapons of that mixed metal were in use, a somewhat uniform civilisation seems to have prevailed over a wide extent of central and northern Europe, and the long duration of such a state of things in Denmark and Switzerland is shown by the gradual improvement which took place in the useful and ornamental arts. Such progress is attested by the increasing variety of the forms, and the more perfect finish and tasteful decoration of the tools and utensils obtained from the more modern deposits of the bronze age, those
