It was more probably a chance
discovery than an invention. Savages so commonly make fire by
friction--rubbing sticks, drills, etc.--that one is naturally
tempted to regard this as the primitive method. I doubt if this
was the case. When, in Neolithic times, men commonly bury the
dead, and put some of their personal property in the grave with
them, the fire-kindling apparatus we find is a flint and a piece
of iron pyrites. Palaeolithic man made his implements of any kind
of hard and heavy stone, and it is probable that he occasionally
selected iron ore for the purpose. An attempt to chip it with
flint would cause sparks that might fall on inflammable material,
and set it alight. Little intelligence would be needed to turn
this discovery to account.
Apart from these conjectures as to particular features in the
life of prehistoric man, it will be seen that we have now a broad
and firm conception of its evolution. From the ape-level man very
slowly mounts to the stage of human savagery. During long ages he
seems to have made almost no progress. There is nothing
intrinsically progressive in his nature. Let a group of men be
isolated at any stage of human evolution, and placed in an
unchanging environment, and they will remain stationary for an
indefinite period.
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