Prehistoric England ¹

Abstract

AS this volume contains a notice by the publishers that they “will shortly begin” the issue of the series of “The Antiquary's Books,” to which this belongs, it may be assumed that it is the first. For the reason that it is an earnest of the quality to be expected in its successors, the book, both in manner and matter, must be treated in somewhat more critical and judicial fashion than if the series had been already fairly launched. The responsibility of a publisher in placing an antiquarian library before the public is never light, and at the present time it suffers from the inequality of modern knowledge in respect to the various prehistoric and archæological periods. The later stages of the former class have vast floods of light thrown upon them by the constantly recurring discoveries in the Levant, and the comparative method has enabled us to classify many of our native antiquities by their means. In regard to the earlier stages of man's existence we are in the main still advancing at a painfully slow rate, and can scarcely be held to have more than a misty comprehension of the subject. In historic times the same want of balance of knowledge exists equally, though it is a far easier task to mask the difficulty, and to produce a nicely balanced tale from groups of facts of very different values.