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The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, December 07, 1913, FOURTH SECTION PICTORIAL MAGAZINE, Image 43

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GREAT MYSTERIES OF THE WORLD-THE LOST ATLANTIS
Br CJEnTIU'DE MFFINGTON PniL
LIPS. SUM,: morning 1 bIiuII pick up my
paper nnd see on tho first page
bold triple banked headlines to
the effect that n despatch from
Cairo announces that some Egyptologist
lins dlscoercd at Seb-el-Hegcr u set of
Inscriptions that wholly confirm Flato's
rotation of the Egyptian priest's his
tory of the lout continent Atlantis.
t believe In Atlantis and so am con
fident 'the Inscriptions must lie some
where at the roots of what wan ancient
Pals. When they are found the main
mystery will be solved. No man then
will have the temerity to poohpooh the
tnlo as exaggerated mythology.
What a story may be unfolded! Those
who have been amusedly Interested In
Solon's bequest may reconsider It with
nwe nnd amazement.
one of the great obstacles of stu
dent!" of history of course has been the
proclivity of ancient writers to mingle
nods nnd goddesses and supernatural
vngurlcs with their historical data. Tlite
Is markedly true of Plato's discourse In
dialogue form concerning the Atlantcan
empire and Its appalling end.
The greatest student of Atluntean
mntters. the late Ignatius Donnelly,
whose memorable work "Atlantis" con
tains nearly everything known concern
ing the half mythical land previous to
18T!. rightly used the "Dialogues" as a
basis from which to project the daring
conjectures which were the cause of ts
rejection by the sober matter of fact
public. The mass of casual readers
were not prepared to accept anything so
sweeping, o visionary, say, as his fifth
and sixth propositions, ns follows:
"That It (Atlantis) was the true An
tediluvian world, the Garden of Eden,
the Gardens of Hesperldes, the Elyslan
Fields." &c, nnd "that the gods nnd
goddesses of the undent Oreeks, tho
I'lucnlclans, the Hindus and the Scan
dlnnWans were simply the kings, queens
nnl heroes of Atlantis," Ac. The
eleventh proposition was "that Atlantis
was the original seat of the Arlan or
jmio-i'.uropcan ramily of nations, us
well us of the Semitic people, ond pos
Mbly nlo of the Turanian races."
It will be come later, even If lesser,
man who will demolish Adnm nnd Eve
and tear their problematical locality
away from the region of upper Meso.
potamla, who will make Noah nnd his
ark a substantive myth nnd the Biblical
flood only an echo of a far earlier cata
clysm. No credited anthropologist will
fcub.-crlbe In this day and time to an
nertlon that the more Important
branches of the human race sprang
from the region of the Azores Instead
of the Indo-Iranian plateau, the now
commonly accepted theory.
However, so comprehensive Is the
Platonic discourse, so germane to this
consideration, that It Is given here with
the non-essential parts omitted.
Its history Is that Solon, the father
of laws for the Athenians, visited Egypt
about 600 13. C. nnd indited an
elaborate poetical work, which came
into the possession of his equally great
descendant, Plato, who lived about 400
II. C. Plato wrote:
"At the head of the Egyptian delta,
where the River Nile divides, there is
n certain district which Is called the
district of Sals, and the great city of
the district is also called Sals, nnd Is
the city from which Amasls tiie King
was sprung. Now the citizens of this
city are gieat lovers of rive Athenians
and say that they are in some way re
lated to them. Thither came Solon, who
was received by them with great honor,
and he asked the priests, who were
most skilful in such matters, about an
tiquity, and made the discovery that
neither he nor liny other Hellene knew
anything worth mentioning about the
times of old.
"On one occasion, when he was draw
ing them on to speak of antiquity, he
began to tell about the most ancient
things In our part of the world about
Phoroneus. who Is called 'the first,' nnd
about Nlobe. and. after the deluge, to
tell of the lives of Deucalion and
Pyrrlia: nnd he traced the genealogy
of their descendants and attempted to
reckon how many years old were the
events of which he was speaking nnd
to give the dates. Thereupon one of
the priests, who was of very great uge,
said:
" 'O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are
but children and there Is never an old
man who is an Hellene.'
".Solon, hearing this, said, 'What do
1 you mean?'
"1 mean to reply,' hu replied, 'that
in mind you arc till young; there is no
old opinion handed down among you by
ancient tradition, nor any science which
Is hoary with age.
"'As for those genealogies of youis
which you have recounted to us, Solon,
they are no better than the tales If
children: for. In, the first place, you re
member one deluge only, whereas there
were many of them: nnd, In the next
place, you do not know that there dwelt
, .... M, . I
in your land the fairest mm nowesi
rnee 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 Uled
and made no sign. For there was a
time, Solon, before that great deluge of
all, when the city which now is Athena
was first in wur, nnd wus preeminent
for the excellence of her laws, and is
said to have performed the noblest
deeds and to have had tho fairest con
stitution of any of which tradition tells
under the face of heaven.'
"Solon marvelled nt this nnd earnestly
requested the priest to Inform him
exactly and In order ulHiut theso former
citizens.
" 'Vou are welcome to heur nbout
them, Solon,' wild the priest, 'both for
our own sake and for that of tho city;
nnd. above all, for tho sake of the
goddess who Is the common patron and
protector nnd educator of Isilh our
t itles. She founded your city a thou
sand veurs liefore ours, receiving from
the Earth und Hephiestus the seed of
your race, nnd then she founded ourH,
the constitution or which Is set down In
mir sacred registers as 8,000 years
i. hi.
"Many great and wonderful deeds
are recorded of your Stale In our his
tories, but one of them exceeds nil tho
rest In greatness and valor; fur these
hlstorleH tell of a mighty power which
was aggressing wantonly against the
Supposed to Have Been Wiped Out by Great Deluge Lost Continent Will Remain a Standing
Challenge to Students of Antiquities Plato's Relation of Egyptian
Priest's History of the Great Island
whole of Europe and Asia and to which
your city put nn end. This power came
forth nut 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 to
gether, nnd 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 harbor,
having a narrow entrance, but that
other Is a real sea and the surrounding
land may be most truly called a con
tinent. " 'Now, In the Island of Atlantis there
was n great and wonderful empire,
which had rule 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 ns
Egypt, and of Europe as far as Yyrr
henla, 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; nnd then, Solon, 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, nnd 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 nnd
triumphed over the Invaders and pre
served 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 vio
lent earthquakes and floods, and In a
single day und night of rain all your
warlike men in n body sank Into the
earth, and the Island of Atlantis In like
manner disappeared, and was sunk be
neath the sea. And that Is the reason
why the sea In those parts is impassa
ble nnd impenetrable, because there Is
such a quantity of shallow mud In the
way: and this was caused by the sub
sidence of the Island.'
"The tale, which was of great length
began ns follows: I have before re.
marked, In speaking of the allotments
of the gods, Unit they distributed the
wnole earth into portions differing In
extent, and made themselves temples
nnu sacrifices, Aim foseltion, receiving
for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat
children by a mortal woman, and set-
tled them in a part of the Island which
I will proceed to describe.
"On the side toward the sea and In
the centre of the whole Island there
was n plain which Is said to have been
the fairest of all plains and very fertile.
Near the plain ngain and also In the
centre of the island at a distance of
about fifty stadia there wan a moun
tain not very high on any side. In this
mountain there dwelt one of the earth
born primeval men of that country
whose name was Evenor. and hu had
a wife named Leucippo and they had
nn only daughter, who was named
Clelto.
ine maluen was growing up to
womanhood when her father and mother
died: Poseidon fell In love with her
and breaking the ground enclosed the
hill in which she dwelt all round, mak
lug alternate zones of sea and land
larger and smaller, encircling one nn
other; there were two or land and three
of water, which ho turned as with a
lathe out of the centre of the Island
cquuustant every way, so that no man
could get to the Hand, for ships and
voyages were not yet heard of.
"He nlso begat nnd brought up live
pairs of male children, dividing the
Island of Atlantis Into ten portions,
He gave to the first born of the eldcut
pair his mother's dwelling and the sur
rounding allotment, which was the
largest and best, and made him king
over the rest; the others he made
princes, nnd gave them rule over many
men and a large territory. And he
named them all: Tho eldeit, who was
king, he named Atlas, and from lilni
tho whole Hand and the ocean received
the name of Atlantic.
"To his twin brother, who was born
after him nnd obtained as his lot the
extremity of the island toward the Pil
lars of Heracles, as far as the country
which he still cnlled the region of Oades
In that part of the world, he gave the
name which in the Hellenic language
is Eumelus, In the language of the coun
try which Is named after him, Oadelrus
Of the second pair of twins he called
one Amplieres and tho other Evu'innn,
"To the third pair of twins he gave
tho name Mneseus to the elder, nnd
Autochthon to tho ono who followed
him. Of the fourth pair of twins he
called the elder F.laslppus and the
younger Mestor. Awl the fifth pair ho
gave to the eliler the n:imi of Azacs,
and to tho younger Dlaprepes. All
these unl their descendants were the
inhabitants and rulers of d I verso Islands
In the open sea: und also, as had been
ulrendy said, they held sway In the
other direction over tho country within
the Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyr
hrenla.
"Now Atlas had a numerous nnd
honorable family, nnd his eldest branch
always retained the kingdom, which
tho eldest son handed on to his eldest
f3r many peneratlons; and they had
such an amount of wealth us wus never
before possessed by kings und poten
tates, and is not likely ever to be again,
and they were furnished with every
thing which they could have, both In
city and country.
"The entire nrea wns densely crowded
with habitations; nnd the canal nnd the
largest of tho harbors were full of ves
sels and merchants coming from all
parts, who from their numbers kept
up a multitudinous sound of human
voices and din of ull sorts night and
day. Tho whole country wus
described as being very lofty and pre
clpitlous on the side of the sea, but the
country Immediately nliout und sur
rounding the city was a level plain.
Itself surrounded by mountains which
descended toward thn sea; It was smooth
und 'ven, but of an oblong shape, ex
tending one direction three thousand
Madia, nnd going up the country from
the M'u 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.
"I will now describe the plain, which
had been cultivated during many ages
by tnnny generations of kings. It wus
rectangular, and for the most part
straight and oblong; and what It wanted
of the straight line followed tho line of
the circular ditch. The depth and width
and length of this ditch were Incredible
and gave the Impression that such a
ork, In addition to so many other
orks, could hardly have been wrought
by the hand of man. But I must say
what I have heard. It was excavated to
depth of a hundred feet und Its breadth
as a stadium everywhere. It was car
ried round the whole of the plain and
ns 10,000 stadia In length.
There occurred violent earthquakes
the island of Atlantis in
sea in those parts
"It received the streams which came
down from the mountains, nnd winding
round the plain and touching the city at
various points was there let off Into the
seta. From above, likewise, straight
canals of n hundred feet in width were
cut In the plain and again let off Into
the ditch toward the ea. 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 tho
fruits of the earth In winter having
the benefit of the rains, nnd In summer
Introducing the water of tho canals.
"As to the population, each of the lots
In the plain had nn appointed chief of
men who were fit for military service
and the size of the lot was to.be a
square of ten stadia each way, and the
total number of all the lots was 60,000.
"And of tho Inhabitants of the moun
tains and of the rest of tho country
there wan also a vast multitude having
leuders, to whom they wcro assigned ac
cording to their dwellings and villages.
The leader was required to furnish for
the wnr tho sixth portion of a war
chariot, so as to make up a total of 10,.
000 chariots; also two horseH and riders
upon Itiem, and a light chariot without
a seat, accompanied by a fighting man
on foot carrying a small shield and hav
ing a charioteer mounted to guide the
horses; also he was bound to furnish
two heavily armed men, two archers,
two sllngers, three stono shooters nnd
threo Javelin men who were skirmishers
and four sailors to make up a comple
ment of 1,200 ships. Such wus tho order
of war In tho royal city, That of the
nine other governments was different In
each of them and would bo wearisome
to narrate.
"Such was the vast power which the
god settled In the lost Island of At-
lantls; and this he afterward directed
against our land on the following pre
text, us traditions tell."
The narrative terminates abruptly In
the existing version, but classical stu
dents hope to discover more.
In the United States hydrogrnphlc
bureau at Washington ho who cures
to delve may find tho voluminous re
ports of the commander of the IT, S. H.
Dolphin, which took soundings over the
very portion of the Atlantic Plato de
scribed 2,200 years before as having
' , '
and floods, and in a single day
like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. Ana mat
is impassable and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of
the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island."
been the region of Atlantis yet 0,000
years earlier. In those reports tho
proof Is afforded that an oval area of
what Is now the ocean's bottom, meas
uring one-third the size of the United
States, was once above water. That Is
to say there did exist a laud of con.
tlnental dimensions such as Pinto de
scribed, no matter whether the descrip
tion is accurato or not.
The name for this In hydrography Is
tho Dolphin's Hidgo and at Its eastern
side lie the Azores, which are merely
the tops of its mountains thrust above
the water, the higher peaks of what
was once the range that was tho back
bone of Atlantis. Perhaps native
prejudice is responsible for tho men
tion of the Dolphln'c discoveries In prec
edence. The British ship Challenger
brought to port In her day more knowl
edge of the sea drowned portions of
tho earth than all the ships that ever
made soundings.
She not only corroborated the Dolphin
but found that South America and
Africa, which a glance, at a map will
show to approach to-day more closely
than any two portions of the continents
of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres
save Siberia and Alaska, nro joined by
a crooked ridge, which Is now sunk to
no great depth nnd from tho mouth of
the Amazon swings around to take in
St, Paul's nnd Ascenclon Islands and
approximate tho Nigerian coast before
turning south to extend for 4,000 miles
strulghtawoy toward Urn south pole.
By theso two ships, by tho fiernian
ship Qazello and by tho other British
snips, Hydra nnd Porcupine, the bottom
of the Atlantic has been mapped out
with astounding accuracy, and us tho
Kclcnlllio American pointed nut In di
gestlng the Dolphin's results:
"Tho Irregularities, the mountains
und valleys of its surfaco could never
have been produced In accordance with
any laws for the deposition of sediment
nor by submarine elevation, but on the
contrary, must have been carried on
by agencies uctlng above the water
level."
Sir C. Wyvlllo Thompson (vide "Voy
age of the Challenger") goes Into de
tulls ns to the topography of the region
under discussion und plots out the areas
which have been overlaid by a gigantic
outspreading of basalt rock from Us
volcanic sources. This In some spots
is from 80 to 100 feet In thickness.
What u volcuno to flood valley us
large as tho Stute of Connecticut with
and night of rain all your warlike men
lava, which when cooled laid over It In
such thickness!
Under this lies n non-Igneous rock
and soil. Such u valley may easily have
been ono of the most fertile and pro
ductive in the world. An Interesting
thing Is that in many places the basalt
bears signs of having been still hot
when dipped below the water and
cooled. It takes time to form a largo
nrray of basaltic prhms, and there are
millions of tons of them to be seen in
the islands, which are half crystal
lized only, the remainder of the ma
terial bearing such signs ns rapid water
cooling leaves In thn Aleutian Islands.
When the beds are flat there are fis
sures that show the bed to have been
convulsed by sudden contraction. On
the whole tho scale of the results is the
most gigantic to bo'fouud anywhere in
tho world save In very ancient moun
tain ranges. Thn signs argue that here
was ii great earth body well established
nnd that It was made the centre of a
terrific subterranean upheaval Holes
Into the molten bowels of the earth
scores of miles In circumference seem
to havo opened. Explosions must have
occurred that shook tho globe.
It Is easily conceivable that an en
velope of watery vapor was formed by
tho turning of thousands of square miles
of the sen Into steam, which re precipi
tating on the earth caused n rain that
endured forty days und forty nights.
Hero It is that Donnelly takes his
first tangent and sets out to show that
every old people had Its tradition of a
world devastating deluge and that these
traditions nil hark back to tho Atlan
tcan catastrophe. It Is not to lie dented
that he finds abundant classical refer
ences that lend themselves to his theory.
Passing over these save as they point
directly to tho existence of the empire
of Atlantis we find such as are given
In the following paragraphs:
St, Clement In his epistle to the
Corinthians states positively that there
nro other worlds beyond the western
ocean. Plutarch, Homer and Morcel
lus ull nssert Hint extensive lands lay
westward of the Plllnrs of Hercules.
DIodortiM Hiculus relates that "the
Phienlcians 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 ull manner of riches. The soil was
exceedingly fertile; the scenery was
diversified by rivers, mountains and
forests. It was the custom of tho in
in a body sank into the earth, and
is tne reason wny tne
shallow mud in
habitants 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 boro fruit at all seasons
of the year."
A Midas of Sardls was entertained by
tho traveller Sllenus with the descrip
tion of a land In the same region In
which to quote "gold and silver are so
plentiful that they esteem them no more
than wo esteem Iron,"
The d.ites of the records are so far
apart and the literatures from which
they nre drawn have taken on so lltllo
else from each other that It Is not
likely that one fictional talc was tho
source of all of the later oulcropplngs.
Tho references to the little known land
nre so frequent and Insistent because It
existed. Also having once heard tho
tale the Plm-nlciuns without doubt made
sure of the truth or falsity of It.
Those who contend that the Azores
and the Canaries of to-day were the
causes of these historical fragments nre
answered by the wldo disparity of de
scription. They have no broad fertile
plains, no extensive forests, no remains
of cities and country seats, no rich
stores of gold and silver discoverable,
The nnclent ships voyaging west
ward would have been compelled to
traverse the breadth of tho Atlantic to
the American continent, ns nun. of tho
West Indian islands furnish anything to
match the description, und Newfound
land und the British Isles are too fur
north. This sums up the extent If not
the detail of the circumstantial evi
dence that a largo und fair land existed
say above water where tho Dolphin's
P.idge now lies hencuth.
The circumstantial evidence thnt It
wus the sent of uti empire Is another
matter. Here the mystery grows fasci
natingly profound.
On one side we havo those who con-
tend thut here dwelt a nation that was
thn mother of all of the great nations
of history, even to the Peruvians nnd
Mexicans contemporary or antedating
the Egyptians. On the other side nro
nt rayed those who scoff at such a
theory ns beyond renson. Some cling
to tho Indo-Arynn dispersions, content
to believe that In that spot where first
the light of history breaks there first
wus history made.
The undents who bequeathed us ail
wo knew till the third generation back
talked vaguely of anything that luy
beyond the Ox its to the east, Ethiopia
tJ the south, the Buttle to the north and
the western coasts of modern Spain,
Portugal and Morocco. It Is since that
time thut It has been proved that In
tho days wnen Egypt's great story was
begun hundreds and perhaps thousands
of years hud elapsed In centres of other
civilizations, such as the Southern
Chinese Empire, the Qulchas und their
South American kingdoms, a people of
which some degenerate descendant
tribes still survive on the eastern
slopes of the Andes, according to Bald
win's "Ancient America," 4c.
It Is the belief of such authorities as
Lord Klngsborough, Prof. Le Plougcon
and Leopoldc Batres that on the table
land west of Popocatepetl was the
centre of an empire then In one of Its
high periods, the first Toltec dynasty,
and that from Uxmal In Yucatan, west
to Palenque und Copan the vast val
ley of the Usamacinta was the home of
a nation of equal power and advance
ment. Sufllcc It to say that as Monte
slno, Aymus Leigh, Stephens and Hum
boldt point out the scores of huge cieml
cities in the wilderness are ruins two
and three thousand years old built on
ruins, that nre built on other ruins, the
foundations of which are the stones of
cities laid in u period too remote for
conjecture.
Is there room for doubt that If the
region of the Dolphins Ridge was then
above water, a fair and fruitful land,
It may have been peopled by Just
such a race as the Egyptian learned
men described to Solon, whose tran
script was the source of Plato's story?
Yet another form of circumstantial
evidence Is found In the exhumed
human relics and signs of nature of the
Atlantic islands. A few examples only
can be cited.
It remained for the German botanists
to discover that the banana or plantain,
which Is si seedless plant, existed at an
early date not only In tropical Africa
and Asia but was generally cultivated
In the tropical portions of the Western
Continent. Since tho plant dies If car
ried Into the temperate zones It could
have been transplanted only by some
direct connection between the conti
nents In the tropical region.
continent or a series of Islands
across the Atlantic Is the only means
that logic fUggests. Recent excavations
In the Madeiras corroborated tho exca
vations made by the University of Se
ville in the Azores twenty years before. "
viz., that the banana flourished there
two to five thousand years ago.
The pineapple Is a plant that Is com
monly supposed to be Indigenous to
America and to have been confined to
the Western Continent till post-Columbian
times. However, Assyrlologlsts
have decided that a certain plant found
frequently In Assyrian inscriptions und
decorations is the pineapple plant. Re
cent fossil deposits In Spain, Barca.
Fayal and Senegambla show it to have
existed there within the past thousand
years.
In the graves of the autoothones of
the Canary Islands ore found imple
ments of war and the chase Identical
with Iberian relics In Europe and
Africa, and. most conclusive proof of
all, the skulls have the same circular
holes bored In the top that are found in
the skulls of Swiss lake dwellers, of
nnclent men In the Basque country,
among the Carlbs of the West Indies
and In the sepulchres of the Azore and
Canary Islands.
Identical stone axes, bronze daggers
and pottery may be found all the world
over and yet not prove consanguinity
of race. These circular holes In the
skull are different. The utensils am
natural adaptations, in a logical de
velopment of primitive means to servo
human ends. The circular holes In the
skull were to give the Imprisoned soul
an easy exit from the seat of life. The
people who followed the practice may
have had utilities in common without
end, but something so exact, so abstract
In purpose, so peculiar in nature can
have sprung only from a close rela
tionship of race of the practitioners.
It is fallacy on the other hand to
argue that tho universal tradition of a
great destroying deluge, reaching us
through the Bible in tho form of th
story of tho flood und Noah and tho
Ark, point to end of Atlantis unerringly.
The Maoris may have derived their
tradition from the submerging of the
ancient continent of which the South
Sea Islands are the mountain tops and
which Is called I.emurla. The Druids
nnd the Skjalds of the Norsemen may
hnve got their version from the dipping
of Great Britain below the sea. Geology
shows that once It was lowered to a
depth of seventeen hundred feet and
then raised again, and lufore that time
Cornwall extended to Ireland and
Ireland 300 miles to the southwest.
The Chaldean and Kgyptian versions
may have been derived from the series
of convulsions which ended In the mak
ing of the Black nnd Caspian seas, Tho
gate at the Bosporus was blinked by an
undent upheaval and the steppes of
Russia and east to Russian Turkestan
were Hooded. There the gateway was
opened onco more and the water sub
sided to the level It holds to-day.
Vexing questlotiH arise. If Atlantis
was so puissant a realm and her colo
nies peopled Spain. Ireland, northern
Africa 'to Egypt, perhaps even Greece,
und the Turanian regions to the east,
nnd the Mississippi Valley, Mexico, Bra
zil and Peru to the west, how doee It
happen that she left no stronger traces
In them of their common origin than
the multitudinous but vague nnd In
conclusive things which the pseudo
scientists point out.
Naturally they would have had In the
beginning a common language, a com
mon degreo of development in arts and
utilities. Could even tlvo or more thou
sand yearn have brought nbout so great
a disparity?
And again, since such a civilization
argues marked characteristics of archi
tecture, of Inscribed monuments, Se ,
why has the science that has given us
the fllaveras skull, the Assyrian libra
ries, the elaborate symbolism f Thebes.
&c nnd the talcs In rock and shard of
nations of tho dead past, never produced
one celt, ono bowl, ono grave, onf
tumulus, ono tablet that could be called
Atlanteun, nnd Atluntean only?
The truth Is thnt this, the greatest
mystery of tho history of mankind,
stretches vague and terrific Into the
gloom of the past, a standing challenge
to the students of antiquities.

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