One race will
outstrip another because of its advantage in soil, climate, or
geographical position. But the chief key to the remaining and
more important progress of mankind, which we are about to review,
is the stimulating contact of the differing cultures of different
races.
This will be seen best in the history of civilisation, but the
principle may be recognised in the New Stone Age which leads from
primeval savagery to civilisation, or, to be more accurate and
just, to the beginning of the historical period. It used to be
thought that there was a mysterious blank or gulf between the Old
and the New Stone Age. The Palaeolithic culture seemed to come to
an abrupt close, and the Neolithic culture was sharply
distinguished from it. It was suspected that some great
catastrophe had destroyed the Palaeolithic race in Europe, and a
new race entered as the adverse conditions were removed. This was
especially held to be the case in England. The old Palaeolithic
race had never reached Ireland, which seems to have been cut oft
from the Continent during the Ice-Age, and most of the
authorities still believe--in spite of some recent claims--that
it never reached Scotland.
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