The San Francisco call. [volume], October 04, 1896, Page 24, Image 24

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
24
THE YEAR 1901
What Has Happened Once
Will Occur Again— The
Law of Cycles
Five Years From Next December the Sun
and the Planets Will Bear About the
Same Relation to the Earth
as in the Year of the
Great Deluge
The ancient Chaldean astronomer, Be
rosus, wrote twenty-two centuries ago of
the deluge and recited the positions of the
sun and major planets at tbe lime of the
cataclysm. Almost a similar position o;
these planets will occur in December,
1901, and many people are of the opinion
that some great cataclysm will then oc
cur.
What may we reasonably expect?
All human knowledge rests on bnman
experience. Ii it be proven that certain
terrestrial phenomena have occurred when
certain ultra-terrestrial conditions have ob
tained it requires no argument to indue
the belief that when similar conditions
again take place similar results may be
expected. No more, no less. Science, if it
deserves its name, must be absolutely true
and unbiased. The pedantry that disre
gards natural phenomena is not science.
The dictionary dehnes "cycle" as a
"uniformly returning occurrence of the
same event."
Just now, for some reason (that may
form the subject of future discussion), the
popular mind is much interested ;n eye ie
phenomena, and anything that offers ever
so slight a clew to tbe elucidation of the
mysterious working is eagerly accepted.
Probably ninety-nine out of every hun
dred human beings of average intelligence
have an inborn conviction that, what has
once happened will most likely happen
again. Asked why such ideas are enter
tained, the reply is, "I don't know." But,
all the same, the conviction is present.
Indefinite, vague, unexplainable, but —
existing.
The "cycle" is the expression of eter
nity. "\V itbout beginning or ending."
Modern science i:-, emphatically, mate
rialistic. It takes cognizance only of wha
pertains to the material universe and what
is susceptible of measurement by weight
and volume. The laws it recognizes apply
only to matter, and it confines its re-
Bffwches to the determination of material
causes, so that every effect is measured as
the result of a purely physical cause.
For convenience we divide science into
many branches, each pertaining to some
one specially, as "astronomical science,"
the "science of chemistry," etc. Natu
rally, there is a tendency due to such
division, to narrow the limits of research,
and consequently confine conclusions,
with the result that out of 10,000 specialist
investigators there arises but one philoso
pher.
The astronomer is, perhaps, the one
most inclined to search for the key to
cyclic phenomena. He witnesses the
evidence of cyclic law in all his investiga
tions. The simplest illustration of tbe
cycle is found in the motion of the earth
in her revolution around the sun. S leet
any point in the orbit of the earth, and at
the expiration of a period of time embrac
ing 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 47.6
seconds the earth will have completed
one revolution around the sun along the
path of her orbit, and will occupy a like
position in regard to the sun that she d d
at the beginning of the elapsed time above
mentioned.
In the computation of time use is made
of what are known as "cycles." The
Dominical cycle is for the purpose of de
termining the day of the week correspond
ing to any given date. If is found that at
the end of a term of 400 years ihe same
order of Dominical letters and days of the
week will return. A cycle of the sun de
termines the order of the Dominicai let
ters applying to the days of the ruonth
and lasts during a period of twenty -eight
years, when the same order returns. The
lunar cycle determines the times of occur
rence of the new moon and has the period
of nineteen years, at the expiration of
which begins another period of similar
length, the duplicate of its predecessors.
Astronomy declares that almost every
heavenly body is governed by cyclic law.
The motions of the plantts, their satel
lites, the so-called fixed stars (there are
no fixed stars; every star that, lor want
of a better expression, is cailed a "fixed
star," is, in fact, swiftly speeding through
space at a rate of motion calculated in
some instances to be a million miles an
hour, yet so distant from us that, though
a thousand years were expended in watch
ing, it would be impossible in that period
of time to detect any change in its posi
tion), and airo the motions of some
comets, are in cycles that have been deter
mined by us.
Because we have been unable to measure
the orbit of each comet is no reason that
we should say that any is exempt from
cyclic law. The vastness of the orbit may
exceed our finite comprehension, yet it is
an orbit.
Coming closer to home we observe many
manifestations of cyclic power. In mat
ters of disease and health the physician is
well aware of the lorce of cyclic law.
Fevers are distinguished by the periodic
ity of their recurrence. Some physiolo
gists declare that every seven years our
material bodies are renewed. That is,
tb* process of eliminating effete animal
mater and the supplying of its place with
new is gradually and constantly going on,
so that at the end of tbe period of seven
years our physical organism contains
nothing that formed it seven years pre
viously.
It would be strange if with such forcible
evidence b- fore ua, our brains were unten
anted with the belief that past occur
rences would be reduplicated. It will not
do to relegate such imaginings to the
land of myths and say such thoughts are
nonsensical. Education and culture have
not, nor will they ever, expurge such
thoughts. The greater application the
student bestows upon the phenomena of
nature the more pronounced appears the
truth ot the cyclic law.
The development of intelligence but
whets Hie appetite for knowledge. Tbe
more we know the more we want to know,
and Uiere is growing to-day an intense
desire to learn what cycles are determin
able, what particu ar occurrences mark
the epochs and the probable times of tbe
happenings. In other words, there is a
strong tendency to break away irom the
strict materialism of science, as science is
interpreted, to leap, so to speak, irom the
rock of exact science and take a header in
tbe inviting surf rolling in from the sea of
speculation.
Science itself is not to blame for this
condition. But some of its exponents are.
In ministering to greed, the application
of practical science has occupied their
time and attention to the exclusion of
wnat is pure science, which seems, in too
many instances, not only to be ignored,
but forgotten.
The cyclic law is the "law of unrest."
Everywhere the arrangement of matter is
varying. The movements among differ
ent portions, be the masses great or small,
are constantly changing both in direction
and rate. Look upon the sky at night
time. Hither and thither suns and satel
lites are rushing with motions varying ac
cording to the attractive forces of other
suns and other satellites encountered by
each orb at various portions of its course.
Alike in those vast bodies of cosmical
dust; alike in the fantastic folds of those
enigmatical, vaporous masses of 3telJar
space, and in ail that sense is cognizant of,
is lound the evidence of unrest. Trace
downward in the oraer of size from these
mighty masses of the sky, through all the
intermediate shapes and forms of matter,
until is reached the smallest atom wiihin
the range of conceivable vision. Among
all, in all, ruling all, in general and in de
tail, permeating the universe, there is an
unceasing redistribution of matter and un
ceasing chan c of motion. Birth and death
are ever side by side. The action iscvclic.
From the utmost limits of the undenna
ble space come particles of matter, drawn
toward a common center by the unknown
power. They coalesce to form a mass, the
motion of each particle diminishing with
the formation of the ag regation. Inte
gration compensating the dissipation of
motion. So were the stars born.
Outward, toward unending limits rush
other panicles, departing from some ag
gregation undergoing disruption, in
obedience to some unknown force. Disin
te ration metamorphosing into motion.
So die the stars.
Fom out, beyond, come particles of
matter, imponderable, immeasurable by
the most delicate mechanical appliance,
but nevertheless matter. For inconceiva
ble lengths of time the process of gathering
goes on, the converging streams at last
forming what vision recognizes as a dimly
outlined, almost impalpable mist. Men
come and go, the history of one race and
a^e becomes ancient, molders and is for
gotten. Millions upon millions of years
succeed each other, and the beginning
lapses into the unknown; and then some
eye views a dusty cloud where the mist was.
The timepiece ol eternity marks the
passing of the seconds of creation's hours
with steady swing of pendulum, whose
mighty sweep is all too ponderous for
human recogn.tion. The dusty fog has
coudensed into a nebulous mass. Thus
onward with steady growth, so gradual
that finite sense is too short-lived, and
human history too brief to record a
change, the aggregation advances to its
coherence. At some period ot such a for
mation our eyes may rest upon the then
stage of growth and view the faint, misty
cloud or tbe nebulous crust, or the
splendor of the blazing sun. Every orb
shining with inherent light was thus
born.
This process of integration goes on
until a certain point is reached. It mu3t
not be supposed, however, that tbe cul
mination may be recognized by our feebie
comprehension of time, but there is a time
when the motion of aggregation attains
its highest development — that instant
when the power of aggregation is exactly
balanced by the power of segregation.
Thenceforward disintegration takes place.
In obedience lo the same law of unrest,
ihe cyclic law that sped each particle
toward a common center, the aggregated
mass was in motion from tbe instant of
its conception. Each arriving particle
transferred its direct motion to the gen
eral aggregation, all these direct motions,
arriving from all conceivable directions,
compounding to form a rotary motion of
tbe mass thus aggregated.
Coexistent with such rotary motion is
the tendency to disrupt. With the in
crease of density of the mass the speed of
rotation increases and with it the power of
disruption grows until a condition is
reached where centrifugal force is stronger
than the cohesive qua.Uies of the mass,
when from the spinning mass are thrown
off partic.'es of matter, whose tendency to
depart further is arrested by the attractive
force of the central mass at the distance
where the energy of expulsion becomes
expended and whera the rotary force of
disintegration is balanced by the direct i
force of integration. (I say "particle" ; I
do not mean that large masses are thus
thrown off.) Henceforward each particle
assumes an orbital motion, the many
particles forming a zone or ring, encir
cling and revolving around the parent
mass.
Gradually the articles forming the zone
coalesce and in time a mass is formed
which retains the orbital motion. This
expulsion, or throwing off of particles,
goes on until the reduction in size of the
parent mass gradually reduces the velocity
of rotation, and thus weakens and finally
ends iis destructive tendencies. With loss
of revolutionary motion comes loss of
heat and consequent Jailing power of co
hesion. Not speedily, as measured by
finite cognizance of time, but yet surely
and Ftendily, with imperceptible grada
tion each riant of the universe fades and j
dissolves back into tbe imponderability
whence it came. Such is the birth,
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1896.
such '.8 the death of every stellar system!
With the inception of birth is compassed
the beginning of death.
The effect of motion upon matter i« the
expression of cyclic law. It may be thusly
formulated: Matter proceeding along a
right line (i. c., direct line) is creative,
Matter departing from a right line (i. c.,
curved, rotary, circular) is dectructive.
To descend, so to speak, to phenomena
near to vs — the events transpiring upon
our own globe and witnin the scope of our
own experience — the same cycling Jaw of
unrest, of unceasing change, is manifest.
In the development of civilization is ob
served the formation of colonies by indi
viduals coming from all portions of the
older countries to people the new; the
groups thus formed at the port of departure
coalescing upon the new continent. We
have thus a segregation of matter as
resulting from direct motion as regards
the oil nation; a;id, an aggregation of
matter dissipating motion as regards the
new nation. There is with all this yet
another illustration of th? universal cyclic
law. In addition to change of direction
there is also change of form. In every
change from an inherent to a coherent
stale — i. c., from a more or less scattered
condition of matter to a mass forming a
simple aggregate, the different portions of
aggregating matter cause varieties of con
dition in the mass formed. No absolutely
uniform process of aggregation bas ever
been or ever can take place. The varie
Mariposa's Harness for the Mystic Power
CAMP MARIPOSA AT BROADHEAD'S OLD DAM ON THE MARIPOSA RIVER.
The figure in the center foreground is Civil Engineer G. F. Allardt, while behind him to the left is Civil Engineer W. G. Lnckhard. Drawn from a photograph taken for The Call.
in Mariposa the acre of the long torn,
rocKer, sluice, pick, pan and shovel has
passed away forever. The eaMly won gold
from the beds, bars and banks cf the
streams and pulches has petered out, and
the more serious work of attacking the
parent sources from which that gold came
is now the order of tbe day. Quartz
mines are being opened up in every direc
tion, and with the systematic work that is
necessary in gold quartz mining has arisen
the demand for cheap motive power.
A few days ago the Mariposa Electric
Power Company was incorporated under
the laws of the State of California. Its
capital stock is $1,000,000, divided into
100,000 shares of $10 e*ch. The president
of the company is Captain A. H. Ward of
the Pinon Blanco mine, near Conlterville;
vice-president, Charles T. Lindner, elec
trical engineer; and the treasurer and sec
retary is George L. Ecker. The other di
rectors are Wallace B Taylor and Harold
C. Ward of the Nevada Metallurgical
Works, San Francisco.
In addition to its capital stock the com
pany is making an issue of bonds to the
amount of about $500,000 for construction,
and operations are now in progress.
The romantic interest in all tales of the I
submerged continent, Atlantis, i s as reat
to-day as it ever was, and, curiously enough,
what was once regarded as pure romance
is now, in many quarters, regarded as
historical truth. Many have thought that
Plato's tales of Atlantis were fiction or at
least legendary. But now the iid<? has
turned and civilization itself 3eems to be
turnirrg back for light to the old masters,
and many things the western world used
to think it had grown p&st are now com
ing back as truths. In view of nil this it
is interesting to recount some of the
proofs that are now offered in support of
the belief that Poseiaon was a reality and
that once a wonderfully developed race of
human beings inhabited an enormous
continent in tne Atlantic Oc.an, longsince
submerged.
Ignatius Donnelly devotes much time
and care to the presentation of testimony
b« has gathered respecting the location of j
tbe fra.m^nt, if not ihe whole continent
Atlantis. First is the testimony of the
sea, baaed upon the soundings of the
United States &hip Dolphin, the German
frigate Gazelle and the British ships
Hydra, Porcupine and Challenger, which
have mapped out the bottom of the At
lantic Ocean, showing a great elevation,
reaching from a point, on tbe coast of the
British Islands southerly to the coast of I
South America, at Cape Orange, thence
southeasterly to the coast of Africa and
thence southerly to Tristan d'Acunha.
The various deluges are then taken up
ami the civilization of the Old and New |
worlds contrasted, together with the com
plexion of the races. Evidence of Ameri
can intercourse with Europe and Atlantis,
traces of Atlantis in Genesis, the origin of
the alphabet in Atlantis, artificial de
formation of the skull, the pyramids, the
cross and other structures the product of
the Atlantean, all are dwelt upon and |
handled in a masterly manner, and all j
proving Atlantis as the center from which j
they radiated. Colonies from Atlantis i
entered Central America and Mexico, the
Mississippi Valley, Egypt. Peru, Africa
•and Ireland, along the banks of the Ania- i
zon and the Aryan settlements. Many if
not all of our grtat inventions were de
veloped ia Atlantis, and we are merely
rediscovering.
iies beginning at the inception of the
aggregation become more and more
marked as the proceso progresses, the less
heterogeneous is transformed into the j^; ore
heterogeneous. Homogeneity bas notice
in the universe. The word is a synonym
for annihilation.
In life, as we know it, definite varieties
take their origin in minute differences of
conditions and surroundings. In each of
the various races, animal and vegetable,
the various genera become distinct.
Never were seen two human beings alike
in all particulars. Never were seen two
trees, one the duplicate of the other.
Never were seen two leaves exactly alike.
In the formation of nations from the va
rious races of men the characteristics
distinguishing the one nation from the
other grow with the nation, and we recog
nize the nationality of the individual with
greater or less readiness of perception as
the nation producing him is old or new.
Again, in the nation itself arise class dis
tinctions that become more prominent aa
time progresses; each class becomes sub
divided into minor classes, each char
acteristically differing one from the
other, and extending to tbe family
group between the individual members
of which are marked distinctions. The
tendencies of all the subdivisions and
multiplications of diversities is toward
equilibrium of the forces of which ail
parts of an aggregation are exposed, and
the forces which these pans oppose to
The objects of the company are to gen
erate electric power by the waters of the
Merced River and to sell it out to mm- -
owners atvt others. The power plant is to
be constructed at Benton Mills bridge,
where the new road from Bear Valley to
Mariposa crosses the Merced River. The
situation is central and convenient and j
the power supply will be easily available i
for a large number of operative mines. It
would be easy to make a list of thirty or
forty mines within a radius of ten miles
Irom the new power-house which are ali
at present heavily handicapped by the ex
cessive cost of fuel for steam purposes and
to which the advent of cheap electrical
power will be almost as important as
doubling the value of the ore upon which
they are working. In Mariposa steam
costs at the present time about $12 to $15
per horsepower per month.
The Mariposa Electric Power Company
intimatet its willingness to supply con
sumers at the rate of $5 per horsepower
per month. Take a small mine, using
100 horsepower a month and costing, say,
$12 per porsepower, or $1200 a month for
steam power. Tho new company will fur
nish the same for $500 a month, a saving
A Mighty Nation
That Sank in Mid-Ocean
Before the Deluge
Mr. Donnelly writes:
If our knowledge of Atlantis was more
thorough it would no doubl appear that in
evory instance wherein the people of Europe
accord with the paopie of America they'were
botti in accord with the Deopie of Atlantis. It
will be seen in every case where Plato gives
us information in this respect as to Atlantis
we find tbis agreement to exist. It existed in
architecture, sculpture, navigation, engrav
ing, writing, an established priesthood, the
mode of warship, agricnUure, and the con
struction of r< ads and canals; and it is rea
sonable to suppose that the same correspond
ence extended down to all tho minor details.
Processor Huxley said in 1880:
There is nothing, so far as I am aware, in the
biological or geological evidence at pro-ent
accessible to renaer untenable the hypothesis
that an area of the mid-Atlantic or Pacific
seabed as big as Europe should have been up
lifted as high as Mount Blanc and have sub
sided a?ain, any time since the palsezoic
epoch, if there were any grounds for enter
taining it
Donnelly writes:
We are but! beginning to understand the
past; one hundred years ago the world knew
nothing of Pompeii and Hercuianeum; noth
ing of ttie linifual tie that bind- together tbe
Indo-European nations; nothing of the sg
nificance ol the r»at volumes of inscriptions
on the tombs and temple!) of Egyp* ; nothing
of the meaning of tho. arrow-beaded inscrip
tions cl Babylon; nothing of ihe marvelous
civiiiza:io is revealed in the remains of Yuca
tan, Ajex'co and Peru. We are on the thresh
old. Scientific investigation is advancing
with giant strides. Who shall scy that one
huii'ired years from now the great museums
of the wcrld may not be adorned with gems,
statues, arms and implements from Atlantis,
while the libraries of the world shall contain
them. When the moment arrives that
such equilibrium is attained, growth ends
and dec;iy begins. Be it star or nation, it
ia the same. It is the tendency of a:l that
is to, at some time, reach uniformity as
the result of the subdivision and distribu
tion of energy. It is the. law. Such uni
formity is what we call death. Yet after
death comp processes of renewed life, dif
fering from the former life — but actual
life. The cycle has no end.
The mighty systems of space, aggregated
from tbe invisible atoms, must in the
course of time eqmlibrate their energies
with their surroundings, thenceforward
yieldin<-' to the process of disintegration,
the beginning and the ending of the sys
tem compassing periods of time immeae
uraole by finite comprehension. Yet of
such mighty masses thus disintegrating,
no particle of matter but what, when libe
rated from the aggregation by dissolution,
speeds swiftly in direct line to aid the 'or
mation of some new aggregation. The
great cyclic law, the rhythm of "death
from life, from death to li c," was, is and
ever will bs. In the stellar orb, in the
tiniest atom, in the nation, in tbe indi
vidual,-the same cosmual law, the law of
the cycle exists, governing all.
What that is which, itself unchanging,
eternally produces change is beyond the
ken of human science — it is not for finite
comprehension. It is the unknown power
transcen> ing all human knowledge or con
ception. It is illimitable — without meas
of $700, or over $8000 a year, in itself a
comfortable dividend on a mine that is
not over-capitalized. In addition, there
is the saving in many other ways. There
are no tires to be monkeyed with in shut
ting down or getting up steam. T.tero
are no firemen's wnges, and at small ex
pense the interior workings of a mine can
be lighted as well as the streets of San
Francisco ought to be lit after dark.
The power by which the Mariposa Elec
tric Power Company's plant at Benton
Mills will be operated is the water of the
Merced River, taken from a point about
eight miles higher up, and known as the
Broadhea-i o.'d dam. Here the Merced
River Canyon narrows in and forms a sort
of natural dam. Thence the water will be
taken by ditch and Hume eight miles to
the power-house. It is estimated that at
the dryest seasons there is at least 10,000
miners' inches of water available, ami the
fall is a ciear 225 tret. This is sufficient to
generate 6000 horsepower in the dryest time
of the year, while at other times, when
the snow-water 3 from the upper Sierras
are in the river, there is no limit to the
capacity. The location of the Mariposa
Electric Power Company's operations is
translations of tbe inscriptions, throwing new
light on all the past history of the human
race, and all the great problems which now
perplex the thinkers of to-day.
Until very recent years modern science
made no distinction between Lemuria
and Atlantis, but since the appearance of
Donnelly's book there is a disposition to
be mote accurate.
An empire which reached from the
Andes to Hindostan, if not to China, mu3t
have been magnificent, Indeed, and the
more we learn of th.s mighty drowned
nation tbe more is our priae in nineteenth
century achievement wounded.
Portions of Atlantis lie but a few hun
dred fathoms beneath the Atlantic Ocean;
"and if expeditions have been sent out
from time to time in the past to resurrect
from the depths of the sea sunken
treasure-ships with a few thousand doub
loons Hidden in their cabins, why should
not an attempt be made to reach the
buried wonders of Atlantis? A single
engraved tablet dredged from Plato's
inland would be worth more to science,
would more strike th* imagination of
mankind, than all the gold of Peru, all the
monuments of Egypt and all the terra
cotta frngments from the great libraries of
Chaidea."
It is millions of years since Atlantis
first rose from the sea, but it is only
11,000 years since the island, opposite tho
mouth of tbe Mediterranean, of which
Homer sang and Piato taught, was
drowned.
Ancient classical literature is full of
reference to this great country. Its posi
tion and its magnitude were committed to
ure or compass. Neither has it beginning
nor ending. It is the cyclic law.
It is apparent that all tbe phenomena of
life is obrdient to the operation of evelic
law. Yet how few people recognize such
fact. To the great majority the mention
of the word "cycle" calls up a host of
speculative fears. It is by the ignorant
associated with the foreshadow of coming
calamity, and is by them believed to be "a
cause ori -inating outside of the earth pro
ducing effects in and upon the earth."
Thfre can always be found some grains
of truth in the popular rumor. General
beiiefs do not rest altogether upon false
hood, no matter how fantastic tuey may
be. The sun-pots that mart the face of
the sun increase and diminish in numbers
and size with periodical regularity, cover
ing a period of eleven years. Magnetic
disturbances always occur upon ihe globe
with greater force at the time of tbe
maxima of sun spots. The giant planets,
Jupiter and Saturn, reach certain positions
with regard to the earth in periods cf
twelve and twenty-eight years, and so far
back as the records extend it is shown
that earthquakes occur more frequently at
the times when these great planets attain
such positions The stream of meteors
which the earth passes through every
November is richer in one portion than in
another and the revolution of the meteoric
ring brines the richer portion in the
earth's pathway every thirty-three years.
F. M. Close. D.Sc.
just alongside the northern border of the
Mariposa grant.
The surveys and preliminary plans have
been made by Civil Engineer G. F.
Allardt, assisted by W. G. Luckhardt,
C. E. The report of these gentlemen is
entirely satisfactory, and bids for the con
struction of the power-honse and plant
will be called for in a few days. In the
meantime, work is in progress on the ditch
and fltune. Captain A. H. Ward is now in
New York arranging matters in connec
tion with the company that require atten
tion there, bat will return to San Francisco
in ten days' time.
The promoters of the Mariposa Eiectric
Power Company claim that their power
when completed will be tbe second lar?est
in the United States. That, however,
does not cut much figure, but this solid
fact remains, just so soon as they turn on
the power and stretch a network of wires
around their vicinity there are very many
valuable gold mines, that have been shut
down for a generation, which will start up
into life a/am, yielding treasure to some
and work for blood ana sinew to others.
Mariposa is not dead; she is sleeping.
R. W. Wilson.
the kee> ing of prose-writing, while the
deeds and misdeeds of the ra es have
been preserved in verse. Herodotus
recordei the facJsof Atlantis; Pliny wrote
j of it; even Plutarch refers to it, and there
are many other so-called profane writers
who have helped to keep its memory
green. Even the night of the dark ages
was not sufficient to dim its luster. But
above all other writers, outside of tne
wisdom-religion records of the East, Plato |
stands out conspicuously as the fountain
head, the source of information concern
ing the continent and its mighty people.
But even Plato has left us but a fragment.
His story stop 9 abruptly, over which
fact the whole literary world has mourned
from the time of the wise Greek to the
present day. Plato attributes his knowl
edge of Atlantis to the Egyptian priests
of Sfcis, who pomrmiriica-ed the facts to
Solon, a relative of Plato, and from Solon,
the great law-giver, the knowledge de
scended to tbe jape Plato. There is reason
lo believe, however, that this was simply
a device resorted to by Plato to screen his
own knowledge and wisdom, as it was
dangerous to give out too much in his
time, except under cloak of fable, allegory
or alleged tradition. It seems, too, that
Plato purposely confounded the island, or
the last so-called remnant of Atlantis,
with the great continent itself.
Plato was a student or pupil of the wise
Egyptians, who doubtless obtained their
knowledge by direct succession from tbe
Atlanteans, whose descendants they were,
and "had not Diocletian burned the
esoteric works of the Egyptians in 296,
together wi h their books on alchemy;
Caesar 700.000 rolls at Alexandria, Leo
Isaurus 300.000 at Constantinople, and the
Mohammedans all they could lay their
sacrilegious hands upon," the world mieht
know more to-day of Atlantis than it
does.
Tbe whole East firmly believes in the
existence and high civilization of the At
lanteans. which civilization was much
greater than (hat of the Egyptians. It is
the degenerate descendants of these A-
Janteano who built tbe first i yram ds in
tbe country. Concerning the pyramid*,
it is stated that "'there are subterr^nran
passages and winding retreats, w Ich men
I skillful in ancient mysteries, by means of
which they divined the coming of a flood,
constructed in diff rent piaces lest the
memory of all their sacred ceremonies
should be lost." Tbtsfl men who divined
the coming of the rloo.is were not Egyp
tians, who never had any floods, except the
per.odical rising ot the Nile. They were
rather the last remnants of the Atlan
teans—those race-< w ich science is begin
ning to believe lived and breathed bef re
the so-called historic period. Charles
Gould, the well-known geologist, ?ays:
' Can we suppose thnt we have at all ex
hausted ttie ?reat mu-eum o' nature? Have
we, in fact, penetrated yet beyond iis ante
chambers? Does the written history of man.
comprising a few thousmd years, embrace the
wiiole course of his intelligent existence? Or
have we in the long mythical era, extending
over hundreds of thousands of years ana re
corded on tbe chronologies of Chsldea and of
China, shadowy mementos of prehistoric man,
handed down by tradition and perhaps trans
ported by a few survivors to existing Innds
from others, wtiieh 1 ke tbe fabled (?i Atlantis
of Plato, may have been submerged, or the
scene of some joint catastrophe, which de
stroyed them all with their civilization?
Modern research and effort have gone
far to demonstrate the truth of Plato's
siatements. and many are tho scientific
writers who have added something to a
c carer understanding of Atlantis; yet
there are s< me who are skeptical or luke
warm concerning the facts. But if one
will take the time to ca-efully go over the
facts and mass of proofs presented by Mr.
Donnelly in his book entitled "Atlantis:
The Antediluvian World," be can scarcely
remain in doubt about the existence or
rise and fall of Ailantis. In the present
sketch one can do lUtle more than point
out the mos>t important facts as gleaned
from various sources concerning the an
cient world thai now lies buried beneath
the Atlantic Ocean. Tho!<e who are in
terested in the small Atlantic island, its
divisions into land and water, the places,
the temples, the statues of gold, the foun
tains, and springs, and baths, should read
Plato's description:
The military and naval establishments,
the race courses and docks, theeardensand
streets ali come in for a share in the de
scription. The whole country was stated
to be "very lofty and precipitous on the
side of the sea. but the country imme
diately about and surrounding the city
wa«» a level plane, itself surrounded by
mountain chains. * * • And the place
was smooth and level and of oblong shape,
lying north and south, 3000 stadia in one
direction and 2000 in t c other. * * *
They surrounded the plain by an enor
mous canal or dike, 101 feet deep, 606 feet
broad and 1250 miles in length."
In other places Plato gives the entire
size of the island of Poseidonis as about
tbe same as that assigned above to the
plain around the city alone. It seems
then that one statement refers to the
great continent and the other to the small
remnant — Plato's island.
The standing army of Atlantis is given
as upward of 1,000.000 men; its navy as
1200 ships and 240,000 men. Such state
ments are not applicable to a small island
state of about the size of Ireland. Con
cerning the people, he says:
For many generations, as long as the divine
nature lasted in them, they were obedient to
the laws. They possessed true and in every
way ereat spirits, practicing gentleness and
wisdom. They despised everything but virtue,
and thinking lightly on the possession of gold
and other property, they were not intoxicated
by luxury nor did wealth deprive them of
their self-control. • • • But when the
divine nature began to fade and became
diluted with too much of the mortal mixture,
they being unable to bear their fortunes, be
came unseemly, losing their fairest and most
precious gifts. Then a most honorable race
becoming wretched, retribution follows.
The early Atlanteans, we are told, were,
like the Lemurians, from whom they de
sceiided, giants, but smaller than the early,
third race, Cyclops. It is probable that the
Atianteans were early twenty-seven feet high
and eight feet across tbe shoulders, but they
gradually diminished in size.
The term "Atlantean" must not mislead the
reader to regard them as one race only or
even a nation. It is as though one said
"Asiatics." Many, multityped and various
were the Atlanteans, who represented several
humanities and almost a countless number of
races and nations, more varied, indeed, than
would be the Europeans were their name to
be given indiscriminately to the five now ex
isting parts of the world. There were brown,
red, yellow, white and black Atlanteans.
giants and dwarfs (as some Airican tribes art
even now).
It is from the Atlanteans that tbe early
Aryans got their knowledge of "the
bundle of wonderful things" mentioned
in the Mababbarata. It is from them that
they learned aeronautics (the knowledge
of flying in air vehicles), and therefore
their great arts of meteorograpby and me
teorology. It ia from them that they in
herited their most valuable science of the
bidden existence of precious and other
stones; of chemistry, or rather alchemy,
of mineralogy, geology, physics and as
tronomy.
It is stated that the Atlanteans learned
the secret and hidden laws of nature, and
"the more evil among them used or mis
used their knowledge for base purposes.
It is even claimed that they had obtained
the keys to some of the most arcane laws
of magnetism and electricity, to which
the X ray is as child's play. They may
even have known of that most myste noaa
force called "vril" Dy Bulwer.
in fact, their knowledge bad risen to
such a height that they were virtually
gods, until some of them, by prostituting
their powers to unworthy ends, became
sorcerers and demons. Tnen comes the
record of wars, bloodshed and ruin, cul
minating in a great catastrophe, and the
sinking of tbe continent, the elect of th«
cations seekin-i other lands.
It is of this cataclysm, the submersion
of the great continent of Atlantis, that the
old records say that "the ends of the earth
got loose," and upon this catastrophe have
been based the legends and allegories of
Vaivasvota and Noah. Tradition, taking
into no account the differences between
sidereal and geological phenomena, calli
botn, indifferently, "deluges." Yet there
is, in truth, a great difference. Subter
ranean convulsions destroyed Lemuria,
but the end of Atlantiß was brought about
by disturbances or shiftine oi the earth's
axis of rotation.
It began during the earliest tertiary
periods, and, continuing for long apes,
carried away successively the last vestige
of Atlantis, with the exception perhaps of
Ceylon and a small oortion of what is now
Africa. It changed the face of the globe,
and no memory of its flourishing conti
nents and isles, of its civilizations and
sciences, remained in the annalsof history,
save in the sacred records of the East.
It was several millions of years ago that
the main continent of Atlantis ; embed,
that is during the miocene p rlod, but it
was 850,000 years ago that i:s famous
islands ol Rvita and Daitya were destroyed,
probably during the later pliocene times,'
while amort* enduring fragment, Plato's
island, or P>s"idon, did not sink until
about 11,000 v- rs a .»n.
__ i
The growth o. the nails on the left hand '
j requires ci.ht or ten days more IfaftnthoM/i
!on the right. The growth is more rapid'
■ in children than in adults, and goe3 on
faster in summer than in winter. It re
quires an average of 132 days for the re
i newal of the nails in cold weather, and
[ but 116 in warm weather.