Isle of Wight, is Castle Hill,' which is encircled by an ancient earthwork, nearly square, and of British origin.

The raths of the pastoral age in Ireland are somewhat similar, as they are encircled by an earthen rampart and fosse. Gradually, as numbers increased and an agricultural phase was developed, the dwellers on the hill crept down its side far into the plains for the purpose of tillage and other agricultural purposes.

Such was the origin of the cities of Athens and Rome. The earliest pastoral inhabitants of Athens fixed their abode on the Acropolis, as a place of refuge and security. It was the central point, and the spot first inhabited, according to tradition. The original city was confined to the Acropolis, and obtained from its founder, Cecrops, the name of Cecropia; thence the Pelasgian or agricultural element being developed, the city gradually extended into the plain. Traces of the collection of little hovels which formed the primitive Athens have been lately discovered near the Pnyx and Areopagus. In Rome the primitive pastoral inhabitants took their abode on the Palatine Hill, the name of which was derived from the god Pales, a pastoral deity of those early peoples. There they formed the western half into an arx, or fastness, by scarping the sides of the cliffs, while their huts or dwelling-places were on the eastern half. The early population, being a pastoral people, kept their flocks and herds either in the valleys surrounding the hill or on the neighbouring hills, which

served as pasture ground, having the arx as a place of refuge for themselves and their families in case of danger, and also for their flocks. They lived in wooden huts of the rudest construction, collecting ogether for mutual protection.

The population of the time of the mythical Romulus was evidently in a pastoral phase; for 'we must bear in mind,' as Mr. Parker writes,' that at the period of the foundation of Rome the inhabitants of Italy were chiefly herdsmen, whose wealth consisted of their flocks and herds.' Around Rome, at that time, there was no place for agriculture, no ground to till. The Aventine was a pasture-ground for flocks and herds; the Vallis Murcia, between the Palatine and the Aventine, was frequently a lake; the Forum Boarium and the Velabrum were covered with trees, and the Roman Forum was a marsh.

As Montesquieu says, 'We must not take our ideas of the city of Rome in its beginnings from the towns we see at the present day, except those of the Crimea, built to enclose booty, cattle, and agricultural produce. The houses of Rome were placed without order, and were very small; for the men, always at work, scarcely ever remained in the houses. The dwellings of the people, even those of the chiefs, were cabins of mud dried in the sun and covered with thatch. In the middle of the eighth century B.C., those hills and the valleys which extend along their feet were almost deserted, and of the wildest aspect. The heights were covered with wood, and the lower ground with marshes; the osier grew on the Viminal; a forest of oaks and

beech trees arose on the Cœlian hill (then Querquetulana) and the Esquiline (Esculeta); and the Tiber bathed the feet of the Palatine.'

We may here introduce a few remarks on an observation of Mommsen: 'Nothing,' he says, ' has hitherto been brought to light to warrant the supposition that mankind existed in Italy anterior to the knowledge of agriculture and of the smelting of metals; and if the human race ever within the boundary of Italy really occupied the level of that primitive stage of culture which we are accustomed to call the savage state, every trace of such a fact has disappeared.'

Since this passage was written, numerous evidences have been brought to light of the existence of the earliest phases of culture in Italy-not only of the hunting and pastoral phases, but also of the rude and barbarous stage of man's development. 'There can hardly be a doubt,' writes Mr. Darwin, 'that the inhabitants of those countries-Europe as far east as Greece, Palestine, India, Japan, Egypt, which includes nearly the whole civilized world-were once in a barbarous condition.' Of this phase we find convincing evidences in the paleolithic implements found near Rome. In a cutting near the Ponte Molle there have been discovered, in the very lowest and therefore far most ancient gravel bed, flint implements which bore unquestionable markings of the hand of man; this bed, a deposit of remote antiquity, has yielded abundant specimens of wrought flints, in conjunction with the remains of several extinct animals-the Elephas primigenius, or mammoth, the Rhinoceros tichorinus,

the Hippopotamus major, the cave bear. Arrow-points, lance-heads, knife-blades, scrapers-most probably for stripping off and dressing the skins of animals, in which the barbarous men of that age dressed themselves-hammers and wedges-perhaps in special demand for splitting marrow-bones-turned up in this bed. As to any question of their human origin, one might as well inquire whether a knife-blade marked 'Rogers, Sheffield,' were or were not a product of man's handiwork. Other examples of similar flint implements have been found by Dr. Ceselli at Ponte Mammolo. Tor di Quinto, Monte Sacro, have also yielded indubitable specimens.

Carefully worked flint arrow-heads, which are evidences of a hunting phase, as they were used for the purpose of the chase, for killing animals for food, have been found in different parts of Italy. A stemmed flint arrow-head was found at Cervetri, another was found in the Roman Campagna. Two tombs of the neolithic period have been found at Prato di S. Cosimato, near Cantelupo Mandela, nine miles beyond Tivoli. Several flint arrow-heads were discovered in the same site. Indeed, the soil of Rome yields at its surface, or at no considerable depths, flint weapons of exquisite shape and workmanship. They have been found in great numbers in other parts, particularly in the south. At Ascoli Piceno they have been discovered in great quantities. Virgil describes in the following lines the rude inhabitants of the woods which surrounded the Palatine in this primitive period :

Hæc nemora indigenæ Fauni Nymphæque tenebant,

Gens virum truncis et duro robore nata,

Quis neque mos neque cultus erat, nec jungere tauros,
Aut componere opes norant, aut parcere parto

Sed rami atque asper victu venatus alebat.'

Stone hatchets, which are usually associated with a pastoral phase, have been found all over Italy. They were used for handicraft purposes, for cutting down trees, for splitting timber, for dressing posts for huts, or for such various purposes as would be required in a pastoral age.

No religious buildings were raised in this age: the age of temples had not come. Fetishism was the prevailing religion of the barbarous and rude races in this phase.

Of an agricultural phase we have proofs in the bronze implements for the purpose of tillage that have been frequently found. Of the bronze palstaves, and of the bronze sickles of this epoch, numerous examples have turned up in different parts of Italy.

We have thus evidence of Italy having passed through these phases of development—the barbarous, the hunting, the pastoral, and agricultural, which all nations have passed through in their upward development.

In the Athenæum of October 28th, 1882, Signor Lanciani writes: On the west side of the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, one of the most interesting relics of pre-historic Rome has been found-the grave of a primitive settler on the seven hills. It is a kind of pit six feet long, three feet wide, excavated in the soft superficial bed of tufa known as capellaccio, with the