unrelenting Past! Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain-- And fetters, sure and fast, Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign. Far in thy realm, withdrawn, Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom; And glorious ages, gone, Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb. Full many a mighty name Lurks in thy depths, unuttered, unrevered: With thee are silent fame, Forgotten arts, and wisdom disappeared. W. C. BRYANT Chapter I INTRODUCTION. Difficulties of the subject--Lesson to be learned--The pursuit of knowledge--Recent Advances--Prehistoric past of the Old World--Of the New--Of Mexico and the South--The Isles of the Pacific--Similar nature of the relics--The wonders of the present age--History of popular 27 Opinion on this subject--The teachings of the Bible--Nature of the evidence of man's antiquity--Geology--Astronomy--Unfolding of life--Nature of our inquiry. Who can read the book of the past? Who can tell us the story of Creation's morn? It is, not written in history, neither does it live in tradition. There is mystery here; but it is hid by the darkness of bygone ages. There is a true history here, but we have not learned well the alphabet used. Here are doubtless wondrous scenes; but our standpoint is removed by time so vast, the mist of years is so thick before us, that only the ruder outlines can be determined. The delicate tracery, the body of the picture, are hidden from our eye. The question as to the antiquity and primitive history of man, is full of interest in proportion as the solution is beset with difficulties. We question the past; but only here and there a response is heard. Surely bold is he who would attempt, from the few data at hand, to reconstruct the history of times and people so far removed. We quickly become convinced that many centuries, and tens of centuries, have rolled away since man's first appearance on the earth. We become impressed with the fact, "that multitudes of people have moved over the surface of the Earth, and sunk into the night of oblivion, without leaving a trace of their existence: without a memorial through which we might have at least learned their names." To think of ourselves, is to imagine for our own nation an immortality. We are so great, so strong, surely nothing can move us. Let us learn humility from the past: and when, here and there, we come upon some reminder of a vanished people, trace the proofs of a teeming population in ancient times, and recover somewhat of a history, as true and 28 touching as any that poets sing, let us recognize the fact, that nations as well as individuals pass away and are forgotten. The past guards its secret well. To learn of it we must seek new methods of inquiry. Discouraged by the difficulties in the way, many have supposed it hidden from the present by a veil which only thickens as time passes. In the remains of prehistoric times they have failed to recognize the pages of history. They saw only monuments of ancient skill and perseverance: interesting sketches, not historical portraits. Some writers have held that we must give up the story of the past, "whether fact or chronology, doctrine or mythology--whether in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America--at Thebes, or Palenque--on Lycian shore, or Salisbury plain--lost is lost and gone is gone for evermore." Such is the lament of a gifted writer, amongst the first to ponder over the mysteries of the past. At the present day, with better means at hand, a more hopeful view is taken. But here a caution is necessary; for, in attempting to reconstruct the history of primitive times, such is the interest which it inspires, that many allow imagination to usurp the place of research, and write in terms too glowing for history. The human mind is sleepless in the pursuit of knowledge. It is ever seeking new fields of conquest. It must advance: with it, standing still is the precursor of defeat. If necessary it invents new methods of attack, and rests not until it gains its objective point, or demonstrates the hopelessness of its quest. The world needs but be informed that on a given point knowledge is dim and uncertain, when there are found earnest minds applying to the solution of the mystery all the energies of their natures. All the resources of science are brought to bear; every department of knowledge is made to contribute of 29 its store: and soon a mass of facts is established and a new science is added to the department of human knowledge. Thus, with our knowledge of prehistoric times, what so seemingly vain as to attempt to roll back the flight of time, and learn the condition of primeval man? All the light of ancient history makes but little impression on the night of time. By its aid we can but dimly see the outlines of the fortieth century back; beyond is gloom soon lost in night. But a few short years ago, men did not think it possible to gain further information. With the materials at hand this could not be done. The triumph of the intellect was simply delayed, not hopelessly repulsed. Geology was but just beginning to make good its claim to a place among the sciences. This unfolded to man the physical history of the world as read from the rocks, and deals with times so vast and profound that we speak no longer of years, but of ages. And with the aid of Geology grand secrets were wrung from the past, and new light was thrown on the manners and customs of primitive man. Thus the foundation for still another science was laid, called Archaeology, or the science of Human Antiquities. These two sister sciences are the keys by whose aid we have not only acquired much information of a past that seemed a hopeless enigma--but, as Columbus on the waste of waters could perceive traces of land as yet invisible, so can the present seekers after knowledge trace the signs of a satisfactory solution of many of the great questions relating to the origin and history of the vanished races of mankind. In whatever land we commence our investigations, we quickly come upon the evidences of an ancient life long antedating all historical information. Ancient Egypt has been a fruitful theme for the 30 antiquarians pen. The traveler has moralized over the ruins of her past greatness, and many pointed illustrations of national growth and decay have been drawn from her history. Here was the seat of an ancient civilization, which was in the zenith of its power many centuries before Christ. The changes that have passed over the earth since that time are far more wonderful than any ascribed to the wand of the magician. Nations have come and gone, and the land of the Pharaohs has become an inheritance for strangers; new sciences have enriched human life, and the fair structure of modern civilization has arisen on the ruins of the past. Many centuries, with their burden of human hopes and fears, have sped away into the past, since "Hundred-gated Thebes" sheltered her teeming population, where now are but a mournful group of ruins. Yet to-day, far below the remorseless sands of her desert, we find the rude flint-flakes that require us to carry back the time of man's first appearance in Egypt to a past so remote that her stately ruins become a thing of yesterday in comparison to them. In the New World, mysterious mounds and gigantic earthworks arrest our attention. Here we find deserted mines, and there we can trace the sites of ancient camps and fortifications. The Indians of the prairies seem to be intruders on a fairer civilization. We find here evidences of a teeming population. In the presence of their imposing ruins, we can not think that nomadic savages built them. They give evidences rather of a people having fixed habitations and seem to imply the possession of a higher civilization than that of the Indians. These questions demand solution; but how shall we solve the problem? Save here and there a deserted camp, or a burial mound, containing perhaps articles of use or 31 adornment, all traces have vanished. Their earthworks and mounds are being rapidly leveled by the plow of modern times, and the scholar of the future can only learn from books of their mysterious builders. In Mexico, and farther south, we find the ruins of great cities. To the student of antiquity, these far surpass in interest the ruined cities of the Nile or Euphrates valley. Babylon of old, with its walls, towers, and pleasure resorts, was indeed wonderful. In our own land cities, if not as ancient, yet fallen in more picturesque ruin, reward the labors of the explorer. Uxmal, Copan, and Palenque, invite our attention. Here are hieroglyphics in abundance, but no Rosetta Stone supplies the key by whose aid a Champollion can unravel the mystery. The luxuriant vegetative growth of the tropics, with its fierce storms, is every year hastening the obliteration of these ruins, and we must improve the time well, if we would learn from them what they have to say of the past. The isles of the Pacific give evidence that, long before the dawn of authentic history, man lived there. Indeed, as the islands which gem that ocean, from their configuration and position, seem to be but the elevated plateaus and mountain peaks of a continent that has gone down beneath the blue wave of the Pacific, so, throughout Polynesia can be traced the fragmentary remains of a civilization, the greater portion of which has been completely buried by the waters of oblivion, leaving only here and there a trace to reconstruct, if we can, the entire structure. The earliest remains of man are very similar in all lands. They consist of weapons of war and of the chase, implements of domestic use, and articles of personal adornment. Few and simple as they are, they are 32 capable of imparting useful information as to early times. By their aid we become eye-witnesses of the daily life of primitive man. We learn that though lacking in almost every thing we consider essential for comfort and happiness, yet
