The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-03-31
LITERATURE.
The Scientific Resurrection
OF Prehistoric Ages.
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL QUERY.
History Biography, Geography-Books Of
the Sea and the Coast
PROPERTY IN BRAINWORK.

I1(OfERl1 In BRAIN WOltA.
1.-THE DAWN OF HISTORY"
"The Dawn of History: An Introduction to Pre-
historic Study. is the title Of work edited by G.
F. Keary NJ. A.. of the British Museum. and pub
lished by Charles Scribners Sons. Antecedently to
all written history. saya Coleridge. and long glim-
mering through it as hazy tradition there presents
itself to imagination ian indefinite period, date
less eternitya state rather than time, for even
the of succession is lost in the uniformity of
the stream" Writing less than two decades ago
about the history buried in this dateless past.
historian and archeologist less eminent than the
late Sir Francis Falgrave mournfuly exclaimed.
1--WE must give it up-that speechless past. whether
1t be fact or chronology, doctrine or mythology;
whether it be in Europe. Asia. Africa or America, at
Thebes or Palenea. Lycian shore Salisbury
Plain-lost is lost. gone is gone forever
In spite OF his despairing cry this whole realm of
history rich in facts and chronology replete with
doctrine and not at all disdainful of myths. has
been redeemed. to the phrase Of Shakespeare.
from ''the dark backward and abysm of time on
every continent of our globe. It is if the fable
with which Plato introduces the ''Timmus."
and which meets US again in his "Critias"
(the fable of the lost and populous island Of At
lants, which, ten twelve thousand years ago.
is said to have disappeared and sunk into the SEAL
had suddenly doomed up again. like buoy, TO mark
the spot where world went down, instead of being
will o. the wisp floating the buried past.
Many are the spots in every part of the earth. in
America and in Palestine, in Arabia Felix and in
Ceylon in Sardinia and in Sweden, to which the in
terpreters of Plato have looked for the antelope Of
the lost Atlantis. and lo the lost Atlantis is
coming to light in every quarter Of the globe.
q. e..
cant if the coincidence should be accidental that Mr.
Keary has selected for the title of his book-'The
Dawn of History"-the very phrase which Mr..
Jowett employs when in his introduction to Platos
critics. translated by his mastery pen he seeks to
locate the logical place which that dialogue holds
tho Platonic physics. 'Tim@us." says Mr. Jowctt,
''had brought down the origin Of the world to the
creation of man. and the dawn of history was now
to succeed the philosophy Of nature. 1t is the first
time. far aware. that attempt has been
made to popularize for the English reading
public the methods and the leading results Of
those fruitful scientific studies which. whether
Quoted in the of archaeology Of anthropology.
have for their object the collection of facts and the
asccrtainment Of principles which shed light on the
origin of civilization and the early unwritten his
tory Of the human Niebuhr. the philosophical
historian Of the early Roman annals. In the
habit OF saying that he could be happy not only in
the divine Tyrol but anywhere else the globe
wherever the roots of history were mbedded In its
soil. 1t is discovered that the roots Of most
fertile history mbedded in the soil Of every land
upon which the foot OF man has trod. and that if
will only skilfuly dig for them it is possible to ind
sometimes in even the most unpromising places.
abundant relics Of the former generations-relics
which, if less brilliant. often hardly instruc-
tive than those which have rewarded the explorer at
island Of Cyprus.
And so 1t has come to pass In these latter days
that host Of scientific inqurers and phlosop hica
scholars have rumaged the shell heaps left by
savages on the shores of ancient Scandinavia;
have ransacked the ossuaries and plundered
the graves in which the primitive folk"
are known to have laid their dead; have
rejoiced in the "fnd" Of ancient and queer
shaped crania at Neanderthal or Engis; have col
lected and collated the human remains left by the
savage inhabitants who built their houses not
only the lakes Of Switzerland but the
lakes and water Of other lands; assorted
and tabulated in the museums of Copenhagen. of
Dublin of Salisbury of London and of Washington
the implements of rude and of polished stone of
bronze and of iron. which represent the successive
ages and stages through which the tribes Of the
world supposed to have passed in emerging from
savagery into civilization.
1t is into the general results which have been at
tanned by researches such these that Mr.. Keary
has introduced the English popular reader. Ex-
planning the methods pursued and surveying the
fields cultivated by the scientific student of COM
parative history, and doing this in popular Ian
guage. he has given. in rough but clearly defined
outlines, the salient features OF that great body Of
human knowledge which. in literal Of the
word has been exhumed from the buried past. 1t is
1,.,a .l.- kl..A
well as civilization and culture, have their
Nincvchs and Pompcis. which may be dis
entombed with large gains to the
of human knowledge. For tho problems with
which this branch of historic science is called to
deal are problems which come home nearest Of all
to the bosoms If not the business Of mcn-problems
which relate to the unity and distribution of the
human family; the antiquity Of man on tho globe
the starting points of that civizng progress which
augurs primitive low estate In the past US well as
q higher distinction in tho future and last but not
least the genesis OF morality and of social and civil
order in the Aryan tribes, which recognize MS the
progcntors of and the lawgivcrs Of our
speech in it's most lineal and essential features In
the pages of this little book, upon subject At once
vast and weighty, the unscientinc reader will be
able to discern that "cvery stone which we tread
can yield history. to follow up which is almost the
work OF lifetime" and that "every word we use is
. thread leading back the mind through centuries Of
mans life earth" And 1t is only In the presence
of such studies and in q full sense of the moral
lessons they teach that ftly conceive the
historic continuity which binds the days Of race
like tho days Of tho individual into that natural
piety" and unconscious identity which realize the
vision OF Pascal by converting the life of the human
into the life. it were. Of man who never
dies and who learns perpetually.
DECISIVE EVENTS OF HISTORY"
Under the above title q book by Mr. Thomas
Archer issues from the publishing house Of Csssel
Peter & dalpin. OF New York and LONDON. The six
teen decisive events of history here eel
ebrated and portrayed by Mr.. Archer arc the
battle OF Marathon, the Carthaucn iau defeat