Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World | Page 5

family of nations,
as well as of the Semitic peoples, and possibly also of the Turanian 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.
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 labored ages before the Aryans descended upon India, or the
Phœnician 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 scepticism 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 "the fabulous cities." 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, "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 Necho 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 2100 years Vasquez de Gama in his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.
If I succeed in demonstrating the truth of the somewhat startling propositions with which
I commenced 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.








CHAPTER II.
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 Sais, 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 hinderance:
"'I grow in learning as I grow in age.'
And again:
"'Wine, wit, and beauty still their charms bestow, Light all the shades of life, and cheer us
as we go.'
"Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of the Atlantic Island, as a delightful
spot in some fair field unoccupied, to which also be 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