The First Days of Knowledge: as Narrated quite simply for Young Readers

Abstract

THIS is the second volume of a series of three called “The Earth's Story,” of which the first was “The First Days of Man.” In a preface to parents, the author explains that his object is to place before young readers a picture of the growth of civilisation in a form which will appeal to the imagination, stimulate thought, and at the same time link up with previous knowledge. This volume, after two introductory chapters, begins with the discovery of bronze; but in dealing with the growth of civilisation from that point onward the treatment is by subject and not chronological. Certain typical inventions, weaving, the water clock, the discovery of silk, irrigation, writing, and so on, are taken one by one and treated imaginatively and, on the whole, accurately. The chapter on religion might not perhaps pass the strict critic in all its detail, but this is perhaps out of deference to young readers-or their parents. It is, however, a little disconcerting to find Constantinople situated in Asia Minor.