The following Essays, compiled from a course of public Lectures in the University of Dublin, con tain the facts which the audience desired to obtain in a permanent form. The omission of local allu sions, and of-colloquial address, will, I trust, make the book of Wider application and of larger use, as it is intended to expound, briefly and yet accurately, some of the great discoveries made in our day con cerning early civilisations. The Essays are not properly History, but Pro/egomena to Hz'siory, being mainly concerned in discussing the nature and the value of our evidences for human culture antece dent to that of Greece and Rome.