 Section 1 of Atlantis, The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater. Atlantis, The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly The world has made such comet-like advance. Lately on science, we may almost hope, before we die of sheer decay to learn, something about our infancy when lived, that great, original, broad-eyed sunken race whose knowledge, like the sea-sustaining rocks, hath formed the base of this world's fluctuous lore. Festus Part 1, The History of Atlantis Chapter 1, The Purpose of the Book This book is an attempt to demonstrate several distinct and novel propositions. These are one that there once existed in the Atlantic Ocean opposite the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, a large island which was the remnant of an Atlantic continent and known to the ancient world as Atlantis. 2. That the description of this island, given by Plato, is not, as has been long-supposed, fable, but veritable history. 3. That Atlantis was the region where man first rose from a state of barbarism to civilization. 4. That it became in the course of ages a populous and mighty nation from whose overflowing the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River, the Amazon, the Pacific Coast of South America, the Mediterranean, the West Coast of Europe and Africa, the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian were populated by civilized nations. 5. That it was the true Antediluvian world, the Garden of Eden, the Garden of the Hesperides, the Elysian Fields, the Gardens of Alcanus, the Misonphilus, the Olympus, the Asgard of the traditions of the ancient nations representing a universal memory of a great land where early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness. 6. That the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Hindus, and the Scandinavians were simply the kings, queens, and heroes of Atlantis, and the acts attributed to them in mythology are a confused recollection of real historical events. 7. That the mythology of Egypt and Peru represented the original religion of Atlantis, which was sun worship. 8. That the oldest colony formed by the Atlanteans was probably in Egypt, whose civilization was a reproduction of that of the Atlantic island. 9. That the implements of the Bronze Age of Europe were derived from Atlantis, the Atlanteans were also the first manufacturers of iron. 10. That the Phoenician alphabet, parent of all European alphabets, was derived from an Atlantis alphabet which was also conveyed from Atlantis to the Mayas of Central America. 11. That Atlantis was the original seat of the Aryan or Indo-European family of nations, as well as of the Semitic peoples and possibly also of the Terranian races. 12. That Atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature in which the whole island sunk into the ocean with nearly all its inhabitants. 13. That a few persons escaped in ships and on rafts and carried to the nations east and west the tidings of the appalling catastrophe which has survived to our own time in the flood and deluge legends of the different nations of the old and new worlds. 14. If these propositions can be proved, they will solve many problems which now perplex mankind. They will confirm in many respects the statements in the opening chapters of Genesis. They will widen the area of human history. They will explain the remarkable resemblances which exist between the ancient civilizations found upon the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean in the old and new worlds. And they will aid us to rehabilitate the fathers of our civilization, our blood, and our fundamental ideas, the men who lived, loved, and laboured ages before the Aryans descended upon India or the Phoenician had settled in Syria or the Goth had reached the shores of the Baltic. The fact that the story of Atlantis was for thousands of years regarded as a fable proves nothing. There is an unbelief which grows out of ignorance as well as a skepticism which is born of intelligence. The people nearest to the past are not always those who are best informed concerning the past. For a thousand years it was believed that the legends of the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were myths. They were spoken of as, quote, the fabulous cities, end quote. For a thousand years the educated world did not credit the accounts given by Herodotus of the wonders of the ancient civilizations of the Nile and of Chaldea. He was called the father of liars. Even Plutarch sneered at him now in the language of Frederick Schlegel, quote, the deeper and more comprehensive the researches of the moderns have been, the more their regard and esteem for Herodotus has increased. Buckle says his minute information about Egypt and Asia Minor is admitted by all geographers. There was a time when the expedition sent out by Pharaoh Neco to circumnavigate Africa was doubted because the explorers stated that after they had progressed a certain distance, the sun was north of them. This circumstance, which then aroused suspicion, now proves to us that the Egyptian navigators had really passed the equator and anticipated by 2,100 years Vasquez de Gamma in his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. If I succeed in demonstrating the truth of the somewhat startling propositions with which I commence this chapter, it will only be by bringing to bear upon the question of Atlantis a thousand converging lines of light from a multitude of researches made by scholars in different fields of modern thought. Further investigations and discoveries will, I trust, confirm the correctness of the conclusions at which I have arrived. End of Section 1. Section 2, Part 1, Chapter 2 of Atlantis, The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater. Atlantis, The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly Part 1, Chapter 2 Plato's History of Atlantis Plato has preserved for us the history of Atlantis. If our views are correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to us from antiquity. Plato lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. His ancestor, Solon, was the great law giver of Athens 600 years before the Christian era. Solon visited Egypt. Plutarch says, Solon attempted in verse a large description or rather fabulous account of the Atlantic island which he had learned from the wise men of Cice and which particularly concerned the Athenians. But by reason of his age, not want of leisure, as Plato would have it, he was apprehensive the work would be too much for him and therefore did not go through with it. These verses are a proof that business was not the hindrance. Quote, I grow in learning as I grow in age, end quote. And again, quote, wine, wit and beauty, still their charms bestow, light all the shades of life and cheer us as we go, end quote. Quote, Plato ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of the Atlantic island as a delightful spot in some fair field unoccupied to which also he had some claim by reason of his being related to Solon laid out magnificent courts and enclosures and erected a grand entrance to it such as no other story, fable or poem ever had. But as he began it late, he ended his life before the work so that the more the reader is delighted with the part that is written, the more regret he has to find it unfinished. There can be no question that Solon visited Egypt. The causes of his departure from Athens for a period of ten years are fully explained by Plutarch. He dwelt, he tells us, quote, on the Canopian shore by Nile's deep mouth, end quote. There he conversed upon points of philosophy and history with the most learned of the Egyptian priests. He was a man of extraordinary force and penetration of mind as his laws and his sayings which have been preserved to us testify. There is no improbability in the statement that he commenced in verse a history and description of Atlantis which he left unfinished at his death. And it requires no great stretch of the imagination to believe that this manuscript reached the hands of his successor and descendant Plato. A scholar, thinker and historian like himself and, like himself, one of the profoundest minds of the ancient world. The Egyptian priest had said to Solon, quote, you have no antiquity of history and no history of antiquity, end quote. And Solon, doubtless, realized fully the vast importance of a record which carried human history back, not only thousands of years before the era of Greek civilization, but many thousands of years before even the establishment of the Kingdom of Egypt. And he was anxious to preserve for his half civilized countrymen this inestimable record of the past. We know of no better way to commence a book about Atlantis than by giving in full the record preserved by Plato. It is as follows. Then listen, Socrates, to a strange tale which is, however, certainly true, as Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages, declared, He was a relative and great friend of my great grandfather, Dropodus, as he himself says in several of his poems. And Dropodus told Cridius, my grandfather, who remembered and told us that there were of old great and marvelous actions of the Athenians which have passed into oblivion through time and the destruction of the human race, and one in particular, which was the greatest of them all, the recital of which will be a suitable testimony of our gratitude to you. Socrates, very good. And what is this ancient famous action of which Cridius spoke, not as a mere legend, but as a veritable action of the Athenian state which Solon recounted? Cridius, I will tell an old world story which I heard from an aged man. For Cridius was, as he said, at that time nearly ninety years of age, and I was about ten years of age. Now, the day was that day of the Apaturia which is called the registration of youth, at which, according to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations and the poems of several poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sung the poems of Solon which were new at the time. One of our tribe, either because this was his real opinion or because he thought he would please Cridius, said that, in his judgment, Solon was not only the wisest of men, but the noblest of poets. The old man, I well remember, brightened up at this and said, smiling, Yes, yes, Aminander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled by reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring in this country when he came home. To attend to other matters, in my opinion, he would have been as famous as Homer or Hesiod or any poet. And what was that poem about Cridius, said the person who addressed him, about the greatest action which the Athenians ever did and which ought to have been the most famous, but which, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, has not come down to us. Tell us, said the other, the whole story, and how and from whom Solon heard this veritable tradition. He replied, At the head of the Egyptian delta where the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sice, and the great city of the district is also called Sice, and is the city from which Amasis the king was sprung, and the citizens have a deity who is their foundress. She is called in the Egyptian tongue Naeth, which is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene. Now the citizens of this city are great lovers of the Athenians and say that they are in some way related to them. Vither came Solon, who was received by them with great honour, and he asked the priests who were most skillful in such matters about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other Helene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, when he was drawing them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world, about Foroneos, who is called the first, and about Nairobi, and after the deluge, to tell of the lives of Dukalian and Pira. And he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and attempted to reckon how many years old were the events of which he was speaking, and to give the dates. Thereupon, one of the priests, who was of very great age, said, Oh Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are but children, and there is never an old man who is an Helene. Solon, hearing this, said, What do you mean? I mean to say, he replied, That in mind you are all young, there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you the reason of this. There have been, and there will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time, Phaethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the seeds of his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, recurring at long intervals of time. When this happens, those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore, and from this calamity, the Nile, who is our never-failing saviour, saves and delivers us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among you herdsmen and shepherds on the mountains are the survivors, whereas those of you who live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. But in this country, neither at that time, nor at any other, does the water come from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below, for which reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest. The fact is that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer sun does not prevent, the human race is always increasing at times and at other times diminishing in numbers, and whatever happened, either in your country, or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed, if any action which is noble or great, or in any other way remarkable has taken place, all that has been written down of old and is preserved in our temples, whereas you and other nations are just being provided with letters and the other things which states require, and then, at the usual period, the stream from heaven descends like a pestilence and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education, and thus you have to begin all over again as children and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you have recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children. For, in the first place, you remember one deluge only, whereas there were many of them, and in the next place, you do not know that there dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men, which ever lived, of whom you and your whole city are but a seed or remnant, and this was unknown to you, because for many generations the survivors of that destruction died and made no sign. For there was a time, Solon, before that great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and was preeminent for the excellence of her laws, and is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells under the face of heaven. Solon marveled at this, and earnestly requested the priest to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. You are welcome to hear about them, Solon, said the priest, but for your own sake and for that of the city and above all for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and protector and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the earth and her festus the seeds of your race, and then she founded ours, the constitution of which is set down in our sacred registers as eight thousand years ago. As touching the citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of the noblest of their actions and the exact particulars of the whole we will hear after go through at our leisure in the sacred registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with your own, you will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours as they were in the olden time. In the first place there is the caste of priests, which is separated from all others. Next there are the artificers who exercise their several crafts by themselves and without admixture of any other. And also there is the class of shepherds and that of hunters as well as that of husbandmen and you will observe too that the warriors in Egypt are separated from all the other classes and are commanded by the law only to engage in war. Moreover, the weapons with which they are equipped are shields and spears and this the goddess taught first among you and then in Asiatic countries and we among the Asiatics first adopted. Then as to wisdom, do you observe what care the law took from the very first, searching out and comprehending the whole order of things down to prophecy and medicine, the latter with a view to health and out of these divine elements drawing what was needful for human life and adding every sort of knowledge which was connected with them. All this order and arrangement, the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born because she saw that the happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest of men. Wherefore, the goddess who was a lover both of war and of wisdom selected and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men like herself. And there you dwelt having such laws as these and still better ones and excelled all mankind in all virtue as became the children and disciples of the gods. Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories but one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valor. For these histories tell of a mighty power which was aggressing wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean for in those days the Atlantic was navigable and there was an island situated in front of the straits which you call the columns of Heracles. The island was larger than Libya and Asia put together and was the way to other islands and from the islands you might pass through the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean for this sea which is within the straits of Heracles is only a harbour having a narrow entrance but that other is a real sea and the surrounding land must be truly called a continent. Now in the island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had ruled over the whole island and several others as well as over parts of the continent and besides these they subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt and of Europe as far as Tirenia. The vast power thus gathered into one endeavored to subdue at one blow our country and yours and the whole of the land which was within the straits and then so long your country shone forth in the excellence of her virtue and strength among all mankind. For she was the first in courage and military skill and was the leader of the Hellenes and when the rest fell off from her being compelled to stand alone after having undergone the very extremity of danger she defeated and triumphed over the invaders and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjected and freely liberated all the others who dwelt within the limits of Heracles. But afterward there occurred violent earthquakes and floods and in a single day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body sunk into the earth and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared and was sunk beneath the sea and that is the reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable because there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way and this was caused by the subsidence of the island Plato's Dialogues 2.617 Timaeus But in addition to the gods whom you have mentioned I would specially invoke Mnemocene for all the important part of what I have to tell is dependent on her favour and if I can recollect and recite enough of what was said by the priests and brought hither by Solon I doubt not that I shall satisfy the requirements of this theatre. To that task then I will at once address myself. Let me begin by observing first of all that 9000 was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between all those who dwelt outside the pillars of Heracles and those who dwelt within them. This war I am now to describe of the combatants on the one side the city of Athens was reported to have been the ruler and to have directed the contest. The combatants on the other side were led by the kings of the islands of Atlantis which as I was saying once had an extent greater than that of Libya and Asia and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake became an impassable barrier of mud to voyages sailing from hence to the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various tribes of barbarians and helens which then existed. As they successively appear on the scene but I must begin by describing first of all the Athenians as they were in that day and their enemies who fought with them and I shall have to tell of the power and form of government of both of them. Let us give the precedence to Athens. Many great deluges have taken place during the 9000 years for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am speaking and in all the ages and changes of things there has never been any settlement of the earth flowing down from the mountains as in other places which is worth speaking of. It has always been carried round in a circle and disappeared in the depths below. The consequence is that in comparison of what then was there are remaining in small islets only the bones of the wasted body as they may be called all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away and the mere skeleton of the country being left. And next if I have not forgotten what I heard when I was a child I will impart to you the character and origin of their adversaries for friends should not keep their stories to themselves but have them in common. Yet before proceeding farther in the narrative I ought to warn you that you must not be surprised if you should hear Hellenic names given to the foreigners. I will tell you the reason of this. Solon who was intending to use the tale for his poem made an investigation into the meaning of the names and found that the early Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own language and he recovered the meaning of the several names and re translated them and copied them out again in our language. My great grandfather Dropodus had the original writing which is still in my possession and was carefully studied by me when I was a child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this country you must not be surprised for I have told you the reason of them. End of Section 2. Section 3 of Atlantis the Antediluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater. Atlantis the Antediluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly. The tale which was of great length began as follows. I have before remarked in speaking of the allotments of the gods that they distributed the whole earth into portions differing in extent and made themselves temples and sacrifices and Poseidon receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis begat children by a mortal woman and settled them in a part of the island which I will proceed to describe. On the side toward the sea and in the center of the whole island there was a plane which is said to have been the fairest of all planes and very fertile. Near the plane again and also in the center of the island at a distance of about 50 stadia there was a mountain not very high on any side. In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth born primeval men of that country whose name was Evernor and he had a wife named Lyukipe. And they had an old daughter who was named Klaito. The maiden was growing up to womanhood when her father and mother died. Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her and breaking the ground enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all around making alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller encircling one another there were two of land and three of water which he turned as with a lathe out of the center of the island equidistant every way so that no man could get to the island for ships and voyages were not yet heard of. He himself as he was a god found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the center island bringing two streams of water under the earth which he caused to ascend as springs one of warm water and the other of cold and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly in the earth. He also begat and brought up five pairs of male children dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions. He gave to the first born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment which was the largest and best and made him king over the rest. The others he made princes and gave them rule over many men and a large territory. And he named them all the eldest who was king he named Atlas and from him the whole island and the ocean received the name of Atlantic. To his twin brother who was born after him and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island towards the pillars of Heracles as far as the country which is still called the region of Gades in that part of the world. He gave the name which in the Hellenic language is Umulus in the language of the country which is named after him Gadairus of the second pair of twins he called one Amphires and the other Evimon to the third pair of twins he gave the names Nessius to the elder and Otochthon to the one who followed him. Of the fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasipus and the younger Mestor and of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of Azis and to the younger Diaprepies. All these and their descendants were the inhabitants and rulers of diverse islands in the open sea and also as has been already said they held sway in the other direction over the country within the pillars as far as Egypt and Terenia. Now Atlas had a numerous and honourable family and his eldest branch always retained the kingdom which the eldest son handed on to his eldest for many generations and they had such an amount of wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates and is not likely ever to be again and they were furnished with everything which they could have both in city and country for because of the greatness of their empire many things were brought to them from foreign countries and the island itself provided much of what was required by them for the uses of life. In the first place they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there mineral as well as metal and that which is now only a name and was then something more than a name or a calcium was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island and with the exception of gold was esteemed the most precious of medals among the men of those days. There was an abundance of wood for carpenters work and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild animals. Moreover there were a great number of elephants in the island and there was provision for animals of every kind both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers and also for those which live in mountains and on plains and therefore for the animal which is the largest and most voracious of them. Also whatever fragrant things there are in the earth whether roots or herbage or woods or distilling drops of flowers or fruits grew and thrived in that land and again the cultivated fruit of the earth. Both the dry edible fruit and other species of fruit which we call by the general name of legumes and the fruits having a hard rind affording drinks and meats and ointments and good store of chestnuts and the like which may be used to play with and our fruits which spoil with keeping and the pleasant kinds of dessert which console us after dinner when we are full and tired of eating all these that sacred island lying beneath the sun brought forth fair and wondrous in infinite abundance all these things they received from the earth and they employed themselves in constructing their temples and palaces and harbours and docks and they arranged the whole country in the following manner. First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis and made a passage into and out of they began to build the palace in the royal palace and then the habitation of the god and of their ancestors. This they continued to ornament in successive generations every king surpassing the one who came before him to the utmost of his power until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. And beginning from the sea they dug a canal 300 feet in width and 100 feet in depth and 50 stadia in length which they carried through to the outermost zone making a passage from the sea up to this which became a harbour and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. Moreover they divided the zones of land which parted the zones of sea constructing bridges of such a width as would leave a passage for an entire trireme to pass out of into another and roof them over ships for the banks of the zones were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth and the next two as well as the zone of water as of land were two stadia and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width. The island in which the passage was situated had a diameter of five stadia. This and the zones and the bridge which was the sixth part of a stadium in width they surrounded by a stone wall on either side placing towers and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in. The stone which was then used in the work they quarried from underneath the center island and from underneath the zones on the outer as well as the inner side. One kind of stone was white another black and a third red and as they quarried they at the same time hollowed out docks double within having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple but in others they put together different stones which they intermingled for the sake of ornament to be a natural source of delight. The entire circuit of the wall which went round the outermost one they covered with a coating of brass and the circuit of the next wall they coated with tin and the third which encompassed the citadel flashed with the red light of oracalsum. The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed in this wise. In the center was a holy temple dedicated to Clyto and Poseidon which remained inaccessible and was surrounded by an enclosure of gold. This was the spot in which they originally begat the race of the ten princes and thither they annually brought the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions and performed sacrifices to each of them. Here too was Poseidon's own temple of a stadium in length and half a stadium in width and of a proportionate height having a sort of barbaric splendor all the outside of the temple with the exception of the pinnacles they covered with silver and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory adorned everywhere with gold and silver and oracalsum. All the other parts of the walls and pillars and floor they lined with oracalsum. In the temple they placed statues of gold. There was the god himself standing in a chariot, the charioteer of six winged horses and of such a size that he touched the roof of the building with his head. Around him there were a hundred neorides riding on dolphins for such was thought to be the number of them in that day. There were also in the interior of the temple other images which had been dedicated by private individuals and around the temple on the outside were placed statues of gold of all the ten kings and of their wives. There were many other great offerings both of kings and of private individuals coming both from the city itself and the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an altar too which in size and workmanship corresponded to the rest of the work and there were palaces in like manner which answered to the greatness of the kingdom and the glory of the temple. In the next place they used fountains both of cold and hot springs. These were very abundant and both kinds wonderfully adapted to use by reason of the sweetness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings about them and planted suitable trees also cisterns some open to the heaven other which they roofed over to be used in winter as warm baths. There were the kings baths and the baths of private persons which were kept apart also separate baths for women and others again for horses and cattle and to them they gave as much adornment as was suitable for them. The water which ran off they carried some to the grove of Poseidon where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty owing to the excellence of the soil. The remainder was conveyed by aqueducts which passed over the bridges to the outer circles and there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods also gardens and places of exercise some for men and some set apart for horses in both of the two islands formed by the zones. And in the centre of the larger of the two there was a race course of a stadium in width and in length allowed to extend all round the island for horses to race in. Also there were guard horses at intervals for the bodyguard the more trusted of whom had their duties appointed to them in the lesser zone which was nearer the acropolis. While the most trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel and about the persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval stores and all things were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the royal palace. Crossing the outer harbours which were three in number you would come to a wall which began at the sea and went all around. This was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone and harbour and enclosed the whole. Meeting at the mouth of the channel toward the sea the entire area was densely crowded with habitations and the canal and the largest of the harbours were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts who from their numbers kept up a crowded toot in a sound of human voices and din of all sorts night and day. I have repeated his descriptions of the city and the parts about the ancient palace nearly as he gave them and now I must endeavour to describe the nature and arrangement of the rest of the country. The whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea. But the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea. It was smooth and even but of an oblong shape extending in one direction three thousand stadia and going up the country from the sea through the centre of the island two thousand stadia the whole region of the island lies toward the south and is sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains he celebrated for their number and size and beauty in which they exceeded all that are now to be seen anywhere having in them also many wealthy inhabited villages and rivers and lakes and meadows supplying food enough for every animal wild or tame and wood of various sorts abundant for every kind of work. I will now describe the plain which had been cultivated during many ages by many generations of kings. It was rectangular and for the most part straight and oblong and what it wanted of the straight line followed the line of the circular ditch. The depth and width and length of this ditch were incredible and gave the impression that such a work in addition to so many other works could hardly have been brought by the hand of man but I must say what I have heard. It was excavated to the depth of a hundred feet and its breadth was a stadium everywhere. It was carried round the whole of the plain and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which came down from the mountains and winding round the plain and touching the city at various points was there let off into the sea. From above likewise straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut in the plain and again let off into the ditch toward the sea. These canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia and by them they brought down the wood from the mountains to the city and conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships cutting transverse passages from one canal into another. And to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth in winter having the benefit of the rains and in summer introducing the water of the canals as to the population each of the lots in the plain had an appointed chief of men who were fit for military service. And the rise of the lot was to be a square of ten stadia each way and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand and of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country. There was also a vast multitude having leaders to whom they were assigned according to their dwellings and villages. The leader was required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a war chariot so as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots. Also two horses and riders upon them and a light chariot without a seat. Accompanied by a fighting man on foot carrying a small shield and having charioteer mounted to guide the horses. Also he was bound to furnish two heavy armed men, two archers, two slingers, three stone shooters and three javelin men who were skirmishers and four sailors to make up a complement of twelve hundred ships. Such was the order of war in the royal city that of the other nine governments was different in each of them and would be wearisome to narrate as to offices and honors the following was the arrangement from the first. Each of the ten kings in his own division and in his own city had an absolute control of the citizens and in many cases of the laws punishing and slaying whom so ever he would. Now the relations of their governments to one another were regulated by the injunctions of Poseidon as the law had handed them down. These were inscribed by the first men on a column of Oricalsum which was situated in the middle of the island at the temple of Poseidon. Whether the people were gathered together every fifth and sixth years alternately thus giving equal honor to the odd and to the even number. And when they were gathered together they consulted about public affairs and inquired if anyone had transgressed in anything and passed judgment on him accordingly and before they passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another in this wise. There were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon and the ten who were left alone in the temple after they had offered prayers to the gods that they might take the sacrifices which were acceptable to them. They hunted the bulls without weapons but with staves and nooses and the bull which they caught they led up to the column. The victim was then struck on the head by them and slain over the sacred inscription. Now on the column besides the law there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When therefore after offering sacrifice according to their customs they had burnt the limbs of the bull they mingled a cup and cast in a clot of blood for each of them. The rest of the victim they took to the fire after having made a purification of the column all round. Then they drew from the cup in golden vessels and pouring a libation on the fire they swore that they would judge according to the laws on the column and would punish anyone who had previously transgressed and that for the future they would not if they could help transgress any of the inscriptions and would not command or obey any ruler who commanded them to act otherwise than according to the laws of their father Poseidon. This was the prayer which each of them offered up for himself and for his family at the same time drinking and dedicating the vessel in the temple of the god. And after spending some necessary time at supper when darkness came on and the fire about the sacrifice was cool all of them put on most beautiful azure robes and sitting on the ground at night near the embers of the sacrifices on which they had sworn and extinguishing all the fire about the temple they received and gave judgment. If any of them had any accusation to bring against anyone and when they had given judgment at daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet and deposited them as memorials with their robes. There were many special laws which the several kings had inscribed about the temples but the most important was the following. That they were not to take up arms against one another and they were all to come to the rescue if anyone in any city attempted to overthrow the royal house. Like their ancestors they were to deliberate in common about war and other matters giving the supremacy to the family of Atlas and the king was not to have the power of life and death over any of his kinsmen unless he had the ascent of the majority of the ten kings. Such was the vast power which the gods settled in the lost island of Atlantis and this he afterward directed against our land on the following pretext as traditions tell. For many generations as long as the divine nature lasted in them they were obedient to the laws and well affectioned toward the gods who were their kinsmen for they possessed true and in every way great spirits practicing gentleness and wisdom in the various chances of life and in their intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue not caring for their present state of life and thinking lightly on the possession of gold and other property which seemed only a burden to them. Neither were they intoxicated by luxury nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control but they were sober and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtuous friendship with one another and that by excessive zeal for them and honour of them the good of them is lost and friendship perishes with them. By such reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature all that which we have described waxed and increased in them but when this divine portion began to fade away in them and became diluted too often and with too much of the mortal admixture and the human nature got the upper hand then they being unable to bear their fortune became unseemly and to him who had an eye to see they began to appear base and had lost the fairest of their precious gifts but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness they still appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were filled with unrighteous avarice and power. Zeus the god of gods who rules with law and is able to see into such things perceiving that an honourable race was in a most wretched state and wanting to inflict punishment on them that they might be chastened and improved collected all the gods into his most holy habitation which being placed in the centre of the world sees all things that partake of generation and when he had called them together he spake as follows. Here Plato's story abruptly ends. End of Section 3. End of Part 1, Chapter 2. Section 4, Part 1, Chapter 3 of Atlantis. The Anti-Diluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Anne Boulais. Atlantis, The Anti-Diluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly. Chapter 3, The Probabilities of Plato's Story. There is nothing improbable in this narrative so far as it describes a great, rich-cultured and educated people. Almost every part of Plato's story can be paralleled by descriptions of the people of Egypt or Peru. In fact, in some respects, Plato's account of Atlantis falls short of Herodotus' description of the grandeur of Egypt or Prescott's picture of the wealth and civilization of Peru. For instance, Prescott, in his conquest of Peru, Volume 1, page 95 says, The most renowned of the Peruvian temples, the pride of the capital and the wonder of the empire, was at Cusco, where under the munificence of successive sovereigns, it had become so enriched that it received the name Corricancia, or the place of gold. The interior of the temple was literally a mine of gold. On the western wall was emblazoned a representation of the deity, consisting of a human countenance looking forth from amid innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in every direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified with us. The figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold, of enormous dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious stones. The walls and ceilings were everywhere encrusted with golden ornaments. Every part of the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of precious metal. The cornices were of the same material. There are in Plato's narrative no marvels, no myths, no tales of gods, gorgons, hobgoblins, or giants. It is a plain and reasonable history of a people who built temples, ships, and canals, who lived by agriculture and commerce, who in pursuit of trade reached out to all the countries around them. The early history of most nations begins with gods and demons, while here we have nothing of the kind. We see an immigrant enter the country, marry one of the native women, and settle down. In time a great nation grows up around him. It reminds one of the information given by the Egyptian priest to Herodotus. During the space of 11,340 years they assert, says Herodotus, that no divinity has appeared in human shape. They absolutely deny the possibility of human beings descent from a god. If Plato had sought to drop from his imagination a wonderful and pleasing story, we should not have had so plain and reasonable a narrative. He would have given us a history like the legends of Greek mythology, full of the adventures of gods and goddesses, nymphs, fawns, and satyrs. Neither is there any evidence on the face of this history that Plato sought to convey in it a moral or political lesson in the guise of a fable, as did Bacon in The New Atlantis, and more in the kingdom of nowhere. There is no ideal republic delineated here. It is a straightforward, reasonable history of a people ruled over by kings, living and progressing as other nations have lived and progressed since their day. Plato says that in Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire, which aggressed wantonly across the whole of Europe and Asia, thus testifying to the extent of its dominion. It not only subjugated Africa as far as Egypt and Europe as far as Italy, but it ruled as well over parts of the continent, to wit, the opposite continent of America, which surrounded the true ocean. Those parts of America over which it ruled were, as we will show here after, Central America, Peru, and the Valley of the Mississippi, occupied by the mound builders. Moreover, he tells us that this vast power was gathered into one, that is to say, from Egypt to Peru, it was one consolidated empire. We will see here after, that the legends of the Hindus, as to the Deva Nahusha, distinctly refer to this vast empire, which covered the whole of the known world. Another corroboration of the truth of Plato's narrative is found in the fact that upon the Azores, black lava rocks, and rocks red and white in color, are now found. He says they built with white, red, and black stone. Sir C. Y. Ville Thompson describes a narrow neck of land between Fayol and Mount Dagwia, called Mount Quimada, the Burnt Mountain, as follows. It is formed partly of stratified tuffa, of a dark chocolate color, and partly of lumps of black lava, porous, and each with a large cavity in the center, which must have been ejected as volcanic bombs in a glorious display of fireworks at some period beyond the records of a Corian history, but late in the geological annals of the island. Voyage of the Challenger, Volume 2, page 24. He also describes immense walls of black volcanic rock in the island. The plain of Atlantis, Plato tells us, had been cultivated during many ages by many generations of kings. If, as we believe, agriculture, the domestication of the horse, ox, sheep, goat, and hog, and the discovery or development of wheat, oats, rye, and barley originated in this region, then this language of Plato, in reference to the many ages and the successive generations of kings, accords with the great periods of time which were necessary to bring man from a savage to a civilized condition. In the great ditch surrounding the whole land like a circle, and into which streams flowed down from the mountains, we probably see the original of the Four Rivers of Paradise, and the emblem of the cross surrounded by a circle, which, as we will show hereafter, was from the earliest pre-Christian ages, accepted as the emblem of the Garden of Eden. We know that Plato did not invent the name of Poseidon, for the worship of Poseidon was universal in the earliest ages of Europe. Poseidon worship seems to have been a peculiarity of all the colonies previous to the time of Sidon, prehistoric nations, page 148. This worship was carried to Spain and to Northern Africa, but most abundantly to Italy, to many of the islands, and to the regions around the Aegean Sea, also to Thrace. Ibid, page 155. Poseidon, or Neptune, is represented in Greek mythology as a sea god, but he is figured as standing in a war chariot drawn by horses. The association of the horse, a land animal, with the sea god is inexplicable, except with the light given by Plato. Poseidon was a sea god because he ruled over a great land in the sea, and was the national god of a maritime people. He is associated with horses, because in Atlantis, the horse was first domesticated, and as Plato shows, the Atlanteans had great race courses for the development of speed in horses. And Poseidon is represented as standing in a war chariot, because doubtless, wheeled vehicles were first invented by the same people who tame the horse, and they transmitted these war chariots to their descendants from Egypt to Britain. We know that horses were the favorite object chosen for sacrifice to Poseidon by nations of antiquity within the historic period. They were killed and cast into the sea from high precipices. The religious horse feasts of the pagan Scandinavians were a survival of this Poseidon worship, which once prevailed along all the coasts of Europe. They continued until the conversion of the people to Christianity, and were then suppressed by the church with great difficulty. We find in Plato's narrative the name of some of the Phoenician deities among the kings of Atlantis. Where did the Greek Plato get these names if the story is a fable? Does Plato, in speaking of the fruits having a hard grind, affording drinks and meats and ointments, refer to the coconut? Again, Plato tells us that Atlantis abounded in both cold and hot springs. How did he come to hit upon the hot springs if he was drawing a picture from his imagination? It is a singular confirmation of his story that hot springs abound in the Azores, which are the surviving fragments of Atlantis. And an experience wider than that possessed by Plato has taught scientific men that hot springs are a common feature of regions subject to volcanic convulsions. Plato tells us the whole country was very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea. One has but to look at the profile of the dolphin's ridge, as revealed by the deep sea soundings of the challenger, given as the frontispiece to this volume, to see that this is a faithful description of that precipitous elevation. The surrounding mountains, which sheltered the plain from the north, are represented in the present towering peaks of the Azores. Plato tells us that the destruction of Atlantis filled the sea with mud and interfered with navigation. For thousands of years, the ancients believed the Atlantic Ocean to be a muddy, shallow, dark and misty sea, where tenobrosum, cosmos, volume 2, page 151. The three-pronged scepter, or Trident of Poseidon, reappears constantly in ancient history. We find it in the hands of Hindu gods and at the base of all the religious beliefs of antiquity. Among the numerals, the sacred three has ever been considered the mark of perfection and therefore exclusively ascribed to the supreme deity as to its earthly representative, a king, emperor, or any sovereign. For this reason, triple emblems of various shapes are found on the belts, neckties, or any encircling fixture, as can be seen on the works of ancient art in Yucatan, Guatemala, Chiapas, Mexico, etc. Whenever the object has reference to divine supremacy. After Arthur's shot, Smith Repp, 1869, page 391, we are reminded of the tiara and the triple round of sovereignty. In the same manner, the ten kingdoms of Atlantis are perpetuated in all the ancient traditions. In the number given by the Bible for the anti-Diluvian patriarchs, we have the first instance of a striking agreement with the traditions of various nations. Ten are mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Other nations, to whatever epic they carry back their ancestors, whether before or after the Deluge, whether the mythical or historical character prevail, they are constant to this sacred number ten, which some have vainly attempted to connect with the speculations of later religious philosophers on the mystical value of numbers. In Chaldea, Borosis enumerates ten anti-Diluvian kings, whose fabulous reign extended to thousands of years. The legends of the Iranian race commence with the reign of ten Pesadian, Poseidon kings, men of the ancient law who lived on pure homa, water of life, nectar, and who preserved their sanctity. In India, we meet with the nine Brahmadikas, who, with Brahma, their founder, make ten, and who are called the Ten Petrus or Fathers. The Chinese count ten emperors, partakers of the divine nature, before the dawn of historical times. The Germans believed in the ten ancestors of Odin, and the Arabs in the ten mythical kings of the Aedites. Lenormont and Chavalier, ancient history of the East, volume one, page 13. The story of Plato finds confirmation from other sources. An extract preserved in Proclus, taken from a work now lost, which is quoted by Beck in his commentary on Plato, mentions islands in the exterior sea, beyond the pillars of Hercules, and says it was known that in one of these islands, the inhabitants preserved from their ancestors a remembrance of Atlantis, an extremely large island, which for a long time held dominion over all the islands of the Atlantic Ocean. Alien, in his Veria Historia, Book 3, Chapter 18, tells us that Theopomas, 400 BC, relates the particulars of an interview between Midas, King of Frisia, and Salinas, in which Salinas reported the existence of a large continent beyond the Atlantic, larger than Asia, Europe, and Libya, together. He stated that a race of men, called Moropes, dwelt there and had extensive cities. They were persuaded that their country alone was a continent. Out of curiosity, some of them crossed the ocean, and visited the hyperborians. The Gauls possessed traditions upon the subject of Atlantis, which were collected by the Roman historian, Timogenes, who lived in the first century before Christ. He represents that three distinct people dwelt in Gaul. One, the indigenous population, which I suppose to be Mongoloids, who long dwelt in Europe. Two, the invaders from a distant island, which I understand to be Atlantis. Three, the Aryan Gauls. Pre-Hedometes, Page 380. Marcellus, in a work on the Ethiopians, speaks of seven islands lying in the Atlantic Ocean, probably the Canaries, and the inhabitants of these islands, he says, preserve the memory of a much greater island, Atlantis, which had for a long time exercised a minion over the smaller ones. Dido-Mueller, Fragmenta Historicorium grechiorum, Volume 4, Page 443. Deodorus Seculus relates that the Phoenicians discovered a large island in the Atlantic Ocean beyond the pillars of Hercules, several days sail from the coast of Africa. This island abounded in all manner of riches. The soil was exceedingly fertile. The scenery was diversified by rivers, mountains, and forests. It was the custom of the inhabitants to retire during the summer to magnificent country houses, which stood in the midst of beautiful gardens. Fish and game were found in great abundance. The climate was delicious, and the trees bore fruit all seasons of the year. Homer, Plutarch, and other ancient riders mention islands situated in the Atlantic, several thousand stadia from the pillars of Hercules. Salinas tells Midas that there was another continent besides Europe, Asia, and Africa, a country where gold and silver are so plentiful that they are esteemed no more than we esteem iron. Saint Clement, in his epistle to the Corinthians, says that there were other worlds beyond the ocean. Attention may here be called to the extraordinary number of instances in which illusion is made in the Old Testament to the islands of the sea, especially in Isaiah and Ezekiel. What had an inland people, like the Jews, to do with seas and islands? Did these references grow out of vague traditions linking their race with islands in the sea? The Orphic Argonaut sings of the division of the ancient Lictonia into separate islands. He says, when the dark-haired Poseidon, in anger with Father Cronion, struck Lictonia with the golden trident. Plato states that the Egyptians told Solon that the destruction of Atlantis occurred 9,000 years before that date, to wit, about 9,600 years before the Christian era. This looks like an extraordinarily long period of time, but it must be remembered that geologists claim that the remains of man found in the caves of Europe deep back 500,000 years, and the fossil Calaveras skull was found deep under the base of Table Mountain, California, the whole mountain having been formed since the man to whom it belonged, lived and died. M. Opert read an essay at the Brussels Congress to show from the astronomical observations of the Egyptians and Assyrians that 11,542 years before our era, man existed on the earth at such a stage of civilization as to be able to take note of astronomical phenomena and to calculate with considerable accuracy the length of the year. The Egyptians, he says, calculated by cycles of 1,460 years, zodiacal cycles, as they were called. Their year consisted of 365 days, which caused them to lose one day in every four solar years, and consequently, they would attain their original starting point again only after 1,460 years, 365 times four. Therefore, the zodiacal cycle ending in the year 139 of our era commenced in the year 1322 BC. On the other hand, the Assyrian cycle was 1,805 years, or 22,325 lunations. An Assyrian cycle began 712 BC. The Chaldean state that between the Deluge and their first historic dynasty, there was a period of 39,180 years. Now what means this number? It stands for 12 Egyptian zodiacal cycles plus 12 Assyrian lunar cycles. 12 times 1,460 equals 17,520. 12 times 1,805 equals 21,660. Add the sums of the two equations, 17,520 plus 21,660. That equals 39,180. These two modes of calculating time are in agreement with each other, and were known simultaneously to one people, the Chaldeans. Let us now build up the series of both cycles, starting with our era, and the results will be as follows. Zodiacal cycle, 1,460. Lunar cycle, 1,805. Zodiacal cycle, 1,822. Lunar cycle, 712. Zodiacal, 2,782. Lunar, 2,517. Zodiacal, 4,242. Lunar, 4,322. Zodiacal, 5,702. Lunar, 6,127. Zodiacal, 7,162. Lunar, 7,932. Zodiacal, 8,622. Lunar, 9,737. Zodiacal, 110,082. Lunar, 11,542. Zodiacal and Lunar, 11,542. At the year 11,542 BC, the two cycles came together, and consequently they had on that year their common origin in one and the same astronomical observation. That observation was probably made in Atlantis. The wide divergence of languages which is found to exist among the Atlanteans at the beginning of the historical period implies a vast lapse of time. The fact that the nations of the old world remembered so little of Atlantis, except the colossal fact of its sudden and overwhelming destruction, would also seem to remove that event into a remote past. Herodotus tells us that he learned from the Egyptians that Hercules was one of their most ancient deities, and that he was one of the twelve produced from the eight gods, 17,000 years before the reign of Amasus. In short, I fail to see why this story of Plato, told his history, derived from the Egyptians, of people who it is known, preserve most ancient records, and who were able to trace their existence back to a vast antiquity, should have been contemptuously set aside as a fable by Greeks, Romans, and the modern world. It can be only because our predecessors, with their limited knowledge of the geological history of the world, did not believe it possible that any large part of the Earth's surface could have been thus suddenly swallowed up by the sea. Let us then first address ourselves to that question. End of Chapter 3 Section 5 Part 1 Chapter 4 of Atlantis The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Anne Boulet Atlantis The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Loyola Donnelly Chapter 4 Was such a catastrophe possible? All that is needed to answer this question is to briefly refer to some of the facts revealed by the study of geology. In the first place, the Earth's surface is a record of successive risings and fallings of the land. The accompanying picture represents a section of the anthracite coal measures of Pennsylvania. Each of the coal deposits here shown, indicated by the black lines, was created when the land had risen sufficiently above the sea to maintain vegetation. Each of the strata of rock, hundreds of feet in thickness, was deposited under water. Here we have 23 different changes of the level of the land during the formation of 2,000 feet of rock and coal. And these changes took place over vast areas, embracing thousands of square miles. All the continents which now exist were, it is well understood, once under water, and the rocks of which they are composed were deposited beneath the water. More than this, most of the rocks so deposited were the detritus or washings of other continents which then stood where the oceans now roll and whose mountains and plains were ground down by the action of volcanoes and earthquakes and frost, ice, wind and rain and washed into the sea to form the rocks upon which the nations now dwell so that we have changed the conditions of land and water. That which is now continent was once sea and that which is now sea was formerly continent. There can be no question that the Australian archipelago is simply the mountaintops of a drowned continent which once reached from India to South America. Science has gone so far as to give it a name. It is called Lemuria and here it is claimed the human race originated. An examination of the geological formation of our Atlantic states proves beyond a doubt from the manner in which the sedimentary rocks the sand, gravel and mud aggregating a thickness of 45,000 feet are deposited that they came from the north and east. They represent the detritus of pre-existing lands the washings of rain, rivers, coast currents and other agencies of erosion and since the areas supplying the waste could scarcely have been less extent than the new strata it formed it is reasonably inferred that land masses of continental magnitude must have occupied the region now covered by the North Atlantic before America began to be and onward at least through the Paleozoic ages of American history. The proof of this fact is that the great strata of rocks are thicker the nearer we approach their source in the east. The maximum thickness of the Paleozoic rocks of the Appalachian formation is 25,000 to 35,000 feet in Pennsylvania and Virginia while their minimum thickness in Illinois and Missouri is from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The rougher and grosser textured rocks predominate in the east while the farther west we go the finer the deposits were of which the rocks are composed the finer materials are carried further west by the water. New American Cyclopedia Destruction of Pompeii The history of the growth of the European continent as recounted by Professor Geike gives an instructive illustration of the relations of geology to geography. The earliest European land, he says appears to have existed in the north and northwest comprising Scandinavia, Finland and the northwest of the British area and to have extended through boreal and arctic latitudes into North America. Of the height and mass of this primeval land, some idea may be formed by considering the enormous bulk of the material derived from its disintegration. In the Celerian formations of the British islands, alone there is a mass of rock, worn from the land, which would form a mountain chain extending from Marseille to the North Cape, 1,800 miles. With a mean breath of over 33,000 miles and an average height of 16,000 feet. As the great continent which stood where the Atlantic Ocean now is wore away, the continents of America and Europe were formed and there seems to have been from remote times a continuous rising still going on of the new lands and a sinking of the old ones. Within 5,000 years or since the age of the polished stone the shores of Sweden, Denmark and Norway have risen from 200 to 600 feet. Professor Wynchel says the Preatomites, page 4 37. We are in the midst of great changes and are scarcely conscious of it. We have seen worlds in flames and have felt a comet strike the earth. We have seen the whole coast of South America lift up bodily 10 or 15 feet and let down again in an hour. We have seen the Andes sink 220 feet in 70 years. Vast transpositions have taken place in the coastline of China. The ancient capital located in all probability in an accessible position near the center of the empire has now become nearly surrounded by water and its site is on the peninsula of Korea. There was a time when the rocky barriers of the Thracian Bosporus gave way and the black seas subsided. It had covered a vast area in the north and east. Now this area became drained and was known as the ancient Lactonia. It is now the prairie region of Russia and the granary of Europe. There is ample geological evidence that at one time the entire area of Great Britain was submerged to the depth of at least 1700 feet. Over the face of the submerged land was strewn beds of sand, gravel and clay turned by geologists the northern drift. The British islands rose again from the sea bearing these water deposits on their bosom. Wood is now Sicily once laid deep beneath the sea. It subsequently rose 3000 feet above the sea level. The desert of Sahara was once under water and it's now burning sands are a deposit of the sea. Geologically speaking the submergence of Atlantis within the historical period was simply the last of a number of vast changes by which the continent which once occupied the greater part of the Atlantic had gradually sunk under the ocean while the new lands were rising on both sides of it. We now come to the second question. Is it possible that Atlantis could have been suddenly destroyed by such a convulsion of nature as described by Plato? The ancients regarded this part of the history as a fable. With the wider knowledge which scientific research has afforded the modern world, we can affirm that such an event is not only possible, but that the history of even the last two centuries has furnished us with striking parallels for it. We now possess the record of numerous islands lifted above the waters and others sunk beneath the waves accompanied by storms and earthquakes similar to those which marked the destruction of Atlantis. In 1783, Iceland was visited by convulsions more tremendous than any recorded in the modern annals of that country. About a month previous to the eruption on the mainland, a submarine volcano burst forth in the sea at a distance of 30 miles from the shore. It ejected so much pumice that the sea was covered with it for a distance of 150 miles and ships were considerably impeded in their course. A new island was thrown up consisting of high cliffs which was claimed by His Danish Majesty and named Naioi or the New Island. But before a year had lapsed, it sunk beneath the sea, leaving a reef of rocks 30 fathoms under the water. The earthquake of 1783 in Iceland destroyed 9,000 people out of a population of 50,000. 20 villages were consumed by fire or inundated by water and a mass of lava thrown out greater than the entire bulk of Mont Blanc. On the 8th of October, 1822 a great earthquake occurred on the island of Java near the mountain of Galang Gang. A loud explosion was heard the earth shook and immense columns of hot water and boiling mud mixed with burning brimstone ashes and lapoli the eyes of nuts were projected from the mountain like a water spout with such prodigious violence that large quantities fell beyond the river Tandoy, which is 40 miles distant. The first eruption lasted nearly 5 hours and on the following days the rain fell ill torrents the rivers densely charged with mud deluge the country far and wide. At the end of 4 days, October 12th a second eruption occurred more violent than the first in which hot water and mud were again vomited and great blocks of basalt were thrown to the distance of 7 miles from the volcano. There was at the same time a violent earthquake the face of the mountain was utterly changed its summits broken down and one side, which had been covered with trees became an enormous gulf in the form of a semi-circle. Over 4000 persons were killed and 114 villages destroyed. Lyles, Principles of Geology page 430 In 1831 a new island was born in the Mediterranean near the coast of Sicily it was called Grams Island it came up with an earthquake and a water spout 60 feet high and 800 yards in circumference rising from the sea in about a month the island was 200 feet high and 3 miles in circumference it soon however sank beneath the sea the Canary Islands were probably a part of the original empire of Atlantis. On the 1st of September 1730 the earth split open near year in the island of Lancerota in one night a considerable hill of ejected matter was thrown up in a few days another vent opened and gave out a lava stream which overran several villages it flowed at first rapidly like water but became afterward heavy and slow like honey. On the 11th of September more lava flowed out covering up a village and precipitating itself with a horrible roar into the sea. Dead fish floated on the waters in indescribable multitudes or were thrown dying on the shore the cattle throughout the country dropped lifeless to the ground by putrid vapors which condensed and fell down in drops these manifestations were accompanied by a storm such as the people of the country had never known before these dreadful commotions lasted for five years the lava's thrown out covered one third of the whole island of Lancerota Calabrian peasants engulfed by crevasses 1783 the Gulf of San Turin in the Gratian Archipelago has been for 2,000 years a scene of acting volcanic operations Pliny informs us that in the year 186 BC the island of Old Caymeni or the Sacred Isle was lifted up from the sea and in AD 19 the island of Thea the divine made its appearance in AD 1573 another island was created called the Small Sunburn Island in 1848 a volcanic convulsion of three months duration created a great shoal an earthquake destroyed many houses in Thea and the sulfur and hydrogen issuing from the sea killed 50 persons and 1,000 domestic animals a recent examination of these islands shows that the whole mass of San Turin has sunk since its projection from the sea over 1,200 feet the fort and village of Sindri on the eastern arm of the Indus above Luckput was submerged in 1819 by an earthquake together with attractive country 2,000 square miles in extent in 1828 Sir A Burns went in a boat to the ruins of Sindri where a single remaining tower was seen in the midst of a wide expansive sea the tops of the ruin wall still rose 50 feet above the level of the water and standing on one of these he could behold nothing in the horizon but water except in one direction where a blue streak of land to the north indicated the Ula Bund this scene says Lyle principles of geology page 462 presents to the imagination a lively picture of the revolutions now in progress on the earth a waste of water where a few years was land and the only land visible consisting of ground uplifted by a recent earthquake we give from Lyle's great work the following curious pictures of the appearance of the fort of Sindri before and after the inundation fort of Sindri on the eastern branch of the Indus before it was submerged by the earthquake of 1819 in April 1815 one of the most frightful eruptions recorded in history occurred in the province of Tambora in the island of Sambawa about 200 miles from the eastern extremity of Java it lasted from April 5th to July of that year but was most violent on the 11th and 12th of July the sounds of the explosions were heard for nearly 1000 miles out of a population of 12,000 in the province of Tambora only 26 individuals escaped violent whirlwinds carried up men, horses and cattle into the air tore up the largest trees by the roots and covered the whole sea with floating timber raffles history of Java volume 1 page 28 the ashes darkened the air the floating cinders to the westward of Sumatra formed on the 12th of April amassed 2 feet thick and several miles in extent through which ships with difficulty forced their way the darkness in daytime was more profound than the blackest night the town called Tambora on the west side of Sambawa was overflowed by the sea which encroached upon the shore so that the water remained permanently 18 feet deep in places where there was land before the area covered by the convulsion was 1000 English miles in circumference in the island of Amboina in the same month and year the ground opened throughout water and then closed again raffles history of Java volume 1 page 25 view of the fort of Sindri from the west in March 1839 but it is at that point of the European coast nearest to the site of Atlantis at Lisbon that the most tremendous earthquake of modern times has occurred on the 1st of November 1775 a sound of thunder was heard underground and immediately afterward a violent shock threw down the greater part of the city in six minutes 60,000 persons perished a great concourse of people had collected for safety upon a new quay built entirely of marble but suddenly it sunk down with all the people on it and not one of the dead bodies ever floated to the surface a great number of small boats and vessels on it and full of people were swallowed up as in a whirlpool no fragments of these wrecks ever rose again to the surface the water where the quay went down is now 600 feet deep the area covered by this earthquake was very great Humboldt says that a portion of the earth's surface four times as great as the size of Europe was simultaneously shaken it extended from the Baltic to from Canada to Algiers at eight leagues from Morocco the ground opened and swallowed a village of 10,000 inhabitants and closed again over them it is very probable that the center of the convulsion was in the bed of the Atlantic at or near the buried island of Atlantis and that it was a successor of the great earth throw which thousands of years before had brought destruction upon that land eruption of Vesuvius in 1737 Ireland also lies near the axis of this great volcanic area reaching from the canaries to Iceland and has been many times in the past the seat of disturbance the ancient annals contained several accounts of eruptions preceded by volcanic action in 1490 at the ox mountains one occurred by which 100 persons and numbers of cattle were destroyed and a volcanic eruption in May 1788 on the hill of Knocklaid Antrim poured out a stream of lava 60 yards wide for 39 hours and destroyed the village of Baleoen and all the inhabitants save a man and his wife and two children American Cyclopedia article Ireland while we find Lisbon in Ireland east of Atlantis subjected to these great earthquake shocks the west India islands west of the same center had been repeatedly visited in a similar manner in 1692 Jamaica suffered from a violent earthquake the earth opened and great quantities of water were cast out many people were swallowed up in these rents the earth caught some of them by the middle and squeeze them to death the heads of others only appeared above ground attractive land near the town of Port Royal about a thousand acres in extent sunk down in less than a minute and the sea immediately rolled in the Azore islands are undoubtedly the peaks of the mountains of Atlantis they are even yet the center of great volcanic activity they have suffered severely from eruptions and earthquakes in 1808 a volcano rose suddenly in San Jorge to the height of 3500 feet and burnt for six days desolating the entire island in 1811 a volcano rose from the sea near San Miguel creating an island 300 feet high which was named San Brina but which soon sunk beneath the sea similar volcanic eruptions occurred in the Azores in 1691 and 1720 along a great line a mighty fracture in the surface of the globe stretching north and south through the Atlantic we find a continuous series of active or extinct volcanoes in Iceland we have Oriafa, Hekla and Radoa Kamba another in Pico in the Azores the peak of Tenerife Fogo in one of the cave de Verde islands while of extinct volcanoes we have several in Iceland and two in Madeira while Fernando de Noroja the island of Ascension St. Helena and Tristan de Cuna are all of volcanic origins Cosmos, Volume 5 Page 331 the following singular passage we quote in Tyre from Lyles Principles of Geology Page 436 in the Nautical Magazine for 1835 Page 642 and for 1838 Page 361 April 1838 accounts are given of a series of volcanic phenomena earthquakes troubled waters floating scoria and columns of smoke which have been observed at interval since the middle of the last century in the space of open sea between longitudes 20 degrees and 22 minutes west about half a degree south of the equator these facts says Mr. Darwin seem to show that an island or archipelago is in the progress of formation in the middle of the Atlantic a line joining St. Helena and Ascension would, if prolonged intersect this slowly nascent focus of volcanic action should land be eventually formed here it will not be the first that has been produced by Ignatius action in this ocean since it was inhabited by the existing species of Testicia at Porto Prea in Santiago one of the Azores a horizontal calcareous stratum occurs containing shells of recent marine species covered by a great sheet of basalt 80 feet thick it would be difficult to estimate too highly the commercial and political importance which a group of islands might acquire if, in the next two or three thousand years they should rise in mid ocean between St. Helena and Ascension these facts would seem to show that the great fires which destroyed Atlantis are still smoldering in the depths of the ocean the vast oscillations which carried Plato's continent beneath the sea may again bring it with all its buried treasures to the light and that even the wild imagination of Jules Verne when he described Captain Nemo in his diving armor looking down upon the temples and towers of the lost island lit by the fires of submarine volcanoes had some groundwork of possibility to build upon but who will say in the presence of all the facts here enumerated that the submergence of Atlantis in some great world-shaking cataclysm is either impossible or improbable as will be shown hereafter we come to discuss the flood legends every particular which has come down to us of the destruction of Atlantis has been duplicated in some of the accounts just given we conclude therefore 1. that it is proven beyond question by geological evidence that vast masses of land once existed in the region where Atlantis is located by Plato and that therefore such an island must have existed 2. that there is nothing improbable or impossible in the statement that it was destroyed suddenly by an earthquake in one dreadful night and day End of chapter 4