Note 5 — End and PRELUDE

It is difficult to find words which have a sequence or gradation of meaning with respect to both development and a range of time in the past, or with a range of time from somewhere in the past which is perhaps not yet ended. One standard Webster definition of stage is: “One of the steps into which the material development of man ... is divided.” I cannot find any dictionary definition that suggests which of the words, stage or era, has the meaning of a longer span of time. Therefore, I have chosen to let my eras be shorter, and to subdivide my stages into eras. Webster gives era as: “A signal stage of history, an epoch.” When I want to subdivide my eras, I find myself using sub-eras. Thus I speak of the eras within a stage and of the sub-eras within an era; that is, I do so when I feel that I really have to, and when the evidence is clear enough to allow it.