Brit. Ass., Belfast, 1874. Much of this evidence already existed, but even when rightly interpreted it was for a long time ignored and scoffed at. It has been noted in the life-history of a scientific truth, “People first say, ‘It is not true,’ then that ‘It is contrary to religion,’ and lastly that ‘Everybody knew it before.’” The first attitude of incredulity was to a great extent justified by the doubtful character of the earlier finds, many of which later investigation has had to reject or to hold in suspense as “not proven.” The second stage was more serious, and for a long time the new science was hampered by the accusation of irreligion. But “Anthropology,” as Huxley pointed out, “has nothing to do with the truth or falsehood of religion.” “_Je suis naturaliste_,” said Abbé Bourgeois, “_je ne fais pas de théologie_.” Gradually the accumulated evidence became too insistent to be ignored. The work of various archæologists in Denmark, the explorations of caves and lake dwellings in Britain and on the Continent, and the patient labours of Boucher de Perthes in the Somme Valley, all gave proof of the existence of prehistoric man, and the science of prehistoric archæology was established. [Sidenote: =Flint Implements.=] Long before this time, as far back as the sixteenth century, flint implements had been discovered in various parts, and proved as great a puzzle as the fossils which perplexed and tried the faith of the earlier geologists. The uncultured folk of Europe recognised that the chipped arrow-heads which occasionally occur on the surface of the ground were the implements of an alien people, as the names “elf darts” and “fairy darts” imply. The country folk in the more backward districts believe that fairies still exist; but better informed intelligent people believe they are purely mythological, while students are aware that these arrow-heads were the implements of earlier populations, who are classed in folk-memory under the generic term of “fairies.” Typical neolithic implements, such as stone adze and axe heads, had attracted the attention of writers in the Middle Ages, such as Gesner and Agricola, who, as Sir John Evans[86] informs us, regarded them as thunder-bolts—a belief which is still widely spread not only in Europe, but over the greater portion of the Old World. But Mercati, physician to Clement VIII. at the end of the sixteenth century, appears to have been the first to maintain that what were regarded as thunderbolts were the arms of a primitive people unacquainted with the use of bronze or iron. Certain later writers, as de Boot (1636) and la Peyrère (1655), also regarded them as of human workmanship. Buffon, too, in 1778, declared the “thunder-stones” to be the work of primeval man. Footnote 86: _Ancient Stone Implements_, 1872; 2nd ed. 1897, chap. iii.