In conclusion, let us observe how fully the Bible record accords with the statements of the Druidical, Hindoo, Scandinavian, and other legends, and with the great unwritten theory which underlies all our religion.  Here we have: 

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1.  The Golden Age; the Paradise.

2.  The universal moral degeneracy of mankind; the age of crime and violence.

3.  God’s vengeance.

4.  The serpent; the fire from heaven.

5.  The cave-life and the darkness.

6.  The cold; the struggle to live.

7.  The “Fall of Man,” from virtue to vice; from plenty to poverty; from civilization to barbarism; from the Tertiary to the Drift; from Eden to the gravel.

8.  Reconstruction and regeneration.

Can all this be accident?  Can all this mean nothing?

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PART IV.

(Conclusions)

CHAPTER I.

WAS PRE-GLACIAL MAN CIVILIZED?

WE come now to another and very interesting question: 

In what stage of development was mankind when the Drift fell upon the earth?

It is, of course, difficult to attain to certainties in the consideration of an age so remote as this.  We are, as it were, crawling upon our hands and knees into the dark cavern of an abysmal past; we know not whether that which we encounter is a stone or a bone; we can only grope our way.  I feel, however, that it is proper to present such facts as I possess touching this curious question.

The conclusion at which I have arrived is, that mankind, prior to the Drift, had, in some limited localities, reached a high stage of civilization, and that many of our most important inventions and discoveries were known in the pre-glacial age.  Among these were pottery, metallurgy, architecture, engraving, Carving, the use of money, the domestication of some of our animals, and even the use of an alphabet.  I shall present the proofs of this startling conclusion, and leave the reader to judge for himself.

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While this civilized, cultivated race occupied a part of the earth’s surface, the remainder of the world was peopled by races more rude, barbarous, brutal, and animal-like than anything we know of on our earth to-day.

In the first place, I shall refer to the legends of mankind, wherein they depict the condition of our race in the pre-glacial time.  If these statements stood alone, we might dismiss them from consideration, for there would be a strong probability that later ages, in repeating the legends, would attribute to their remote ancestors the civilized advantages which they themselves enjoyed; but it will be seen that these statements are confirmed by the remains of man which have been dug out of the earth, and upon which we can rely to a much greater extent.

First, as to the legends: