THE ANCIENT WORLD OF AMERICA; OR, WILSON'S PREHISTORIC MAN.*

Prehistoric Man-the very title of the book is suggestive of scores of keenlyvexed questions which now agitate the literary, and not less so the ecclesiastical, world. But Dr. Wilson has happily no love for that spirit of heterodox speculation which has of late become a passion, a pest, a mania. In his book there are no accounts of pretended generations of mankind before Adam-no intellectual bigotry and self-conceit which delight to mock at received opinions in science and at common faith in religion. The purpose of his book is simply to elucidate, from many and varied sources, the arts of life as they appear in the initiatory stage of civilization, and before history arose to describe and leave a record of them. "Prehistoric man," in the sense in which the term is legitimately used by Dr. Wilson, does not mean mankind at an epoch prior to all history, but merely prior to the invention of written records by the particular race or nation of which he writes. Thus, a thousand years ago-we might say at a much later date-the entire population of the American continent was "prehistoric," although history was at that time cultivated by every nation of the Old World from China to the Atlantic.

is very detrimental to a literary career. | portant questions the author leaves us in The strangeness of the country and of the doubt as to his opinion. mode of life, the duties of the appointment, perhaps the unhealthiness of the climate, combine to waste the prime of life, when literary ambition and enthusiasm for work are strongest ; while the scarcity of books of reference, the difficulty of communicating with fellow-workers, and not least, the getting "out of gear" with public opinion at home, the diminished sensibility to the taste of the reading world, which seldom fails to steal over the scholar in the comparative isolation of life abroad, are all unfavorable to his accomplishment of any great work. Dr. Wilson has been more fortunately circumstanced, and he has turned his opportunities most happily to account. In preparing his first work, the Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, he had studied in its general bearings the interesting branch of archæology to which he devotes himself, and had mastered it in detail as regards the British Isles; and when he transferred his residence to Canada, he wisely resolved to find in the New World a field for further researches and contemplation. Archæology is a science which can only partially be prosecuted in the closet. It is true that, for very many of his facts, the archæologist, like the votaries of other sciences, must depend upon the truthful- Dr. Wilson has brought together a ness and sound judgment of fellow-inquir- great mass of curious and interesting ers; but the more widely he can see and materials in elucidation of the arts of life as examine for himself, the more valuable they appear in the initiatory stage of civiland the more interesting will be the book ization. This constitutes the value of his in which the results of his research are work. He has studied this early phase recorded. This value and this interest of humanity, those rude beginnings of are to be found in no common measure civilization, in many different countries; in the work which Dr. Wilson has now and in his pages we obtain interesting published. It is a mature and mellow glimpses of primitive peoples in various work of an able man; free alike from parts of the world. He is a strong advocate crotchets and from dogmatism, and ex- for the use of the terms “stone period,” hibiting on every page the caution and "bronze period," " iron period;" and unmoderation of a well-balanced judgment; questionably they may be employed with written in a style which in many parts is advantage to mark different stages of lamentably diffuse, but which artistically civilization. But it must be borne in mind interweaves with the level portions of the that these periods have nothing in combook charming passages of personal narra- mon with the periods of geology. They tive and description. The plan of the did not exist in succession all over the book naturally occasions considerable re-earth; they all coëxisted at the same dundancy, which is not satisfactory to a disciplined intellect; and yet for the general reader we suspect this redundancy will be useful and not unpleasing. Another and stronger objection, likely to be taken by men who have studied this department of archæology, is, that on too many im

time. When one people was in full possession of the metallurgic arts, which is called the "iron period," another would be only able to deal with the softer ones and most simple alloys, which is what is meant by the "bronze period;" while a third might be quite ignorant of the