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The Story of Atlantis
A Geographical, Historical and Ethnological Sketch
by W Scott-Elliot
[1896]
Preface to the First Edition
by A. P. SINNETT

For readers unacquainted with the progress that has been made in 
recent years by earnest students of occultism attached to the 
Theosophical Society, the significance of the statement embodied in 
the following pages would be misapprehended without some preliminary 
explanation. Historical research has depended for western 
civilization hitherto, on written records of one kind or another. 
When literary memoranda have fallen short, stone monuments have 
sometimes been available, and fossil remains have given us a few 
unequivocal, though inarticulate assurances concerning the antiquity 
of the human race; but modern culture has lost sight of or has 
overlooked possibilities connected with the investigation of past 
events, which are independent of fallible evidence transmitted to us 
by ancient writers. The world at large is thus at present so 
imperfectly alive to the resources of human faculty, that by most 
people as yet, the very existence, even as a potentiality, of psychic 
powers, which some of us all the while are consciously exercising 
every day, is scornfully denied and derided. The situation is sadly 
ludicrous from the point of view of those who appreciate the 
prospects of evolution, because mankind is thus wilfully holding at 
arm's length, the knowledge that is essential to its own ulterior 
progress. The maximum cultivation of which the human intellect is 
susceptible while it denies itself all the resources of its higher 
spiritual consciousness, can never be more than a preparatory process 
as compared with that which may set in when the faculties are 
sufficiently enlarged to enter into conscious relationship with the 
super-physical planes or aspects of Nature.

For anyone who will have the patience to study the published results 
of psychic investigation during the last fifty years, the reality of 
clairvoyance as an occasional phenomenon of human intelligence must 
establish itself on an immovable foundation. For those who, without 
being occultists -- students that is to say of Nature's loftier 
aspects, in a position to obtain better teaching than that which any 
written books can give -- for those who merely avail themselves of 
recorded evidence, a declaration on the part of others of a disbelief 
in the possibility of clairvoyance, is on a level with the proverbial 
African's disbelief in ice. But the experiences of clairvoyance that 
have accumulated on the hands of those who have studied it in 
connection with mesmerism, do no more than prove the existence in 
human nature of a capacity for cognizing physical phenomena distant 
either in space or time, in some way which has nothing to do with the 
physical senses. Those who have studied the mysteries of clairvoyance 
in connection with theosophic teaching have been enabled to realize 
that the ultimate resources of that faculty range as far beyond its 
humbler manifestations, dealt with by unassisted enquirers, as the 
resources of the higher mathematics exceed those of the abacus. 
Clairvoyance, indeed, is of many kinds, all of which fall easily into 
their places when we appreciate the manner in which human 
consciousness functions on different planes of Nature. The faculty of 
reading the pages of a closed book, or of discerning objects 
blindfold, or at a distance from the observer, is quite a different 
faculty from that employed on the cognition of past events. That last 
is the kind of which it is necessary to say something here, in order 
that the true character of the present treatise on Atlantis may be 
understood, but I allude to the others merely that the explanation I 
have to give may not be mistaken for a complete theory of 
clairvoyance in all its varieties.

We may best be helped to a comprehension of clairvoyance as related 
to past events, by considering in the first instance the phenomena of 
memory. The theory of memory which relates it to an imaginary 
rearrangement of physical molecules of brain matter, going on at 
every instant of our lives, is one that presents itself as plausible 
to no one who can ascend one degree above the thinking level of the 
uncompromising atheistical materialist. To every one who accepts, 
even as a reasonable hypothesis, the idea that a man is something 
more than a carcase in a state of animation, it must be a reasonable 
hypothesis that memory has to do with that principle in man which is 
super-physical. His memory in short, is a function of some other than 
the physical plane. The pictures of memory are imprinted, it is 
clear, on some nonphysical medium, and are accessible to the embodied 
thinker in ordinary cases by virtue of some effort he makes in as 
much unconsciousness as to its precise character, as he is 
unconscious of the brain impulse which actuates the muscles of his 
heart. The events with which he has had to do in the past are 
photographed by Nature on some imperishable page of super-physical 
matter, and by making an appropriate interior effort, he is capable 
of bringing them again, when he requires them, within the area of 
some interior sense which reflects its perception on the physical 
brain. We are not all of us able to make this effort equally well, so 
that memory is sometimes dim, but even in the experience of mesmeric 
research, the occasional super-excitation of memory under mesmerism 
is a familiar fact. The circumstances plainly show that the record of 
Nature is accessible if we know how to recover it, or even if our own 
capacity to make an effort for its recovery is somehow improved 
without our having an improved knowledge of the method employed. And 
from this thought we may arrive by an easy transition at the idea, 
that in truth the records of Nature are not separate collections of 
individual property, but constitute the all-embracing memory of 
Nature herself, on which different people are in a position to make 
drafts according to their several capacities.

I do not say that the one thought necessarily ensues as a logical 
consequence of the other. Occultists know that what I have stated is 
the fact, but my present purpose is to show the reader who is not an 
Occultist, how the accomplished Occultist arrives at his results, 
without hoping to epitomize all the stages of his mental progress in 
this brief explanation. Theosophical literature at large must be 
consulted by those who would seek a fuller elucidation of the 
magnificent prospects and practical demonstrations of its teaching in 
many directions, which, in the course of the Theosophical 
development, have been laid before the world for the benefit of all 
who are competent to profit by them.

The memory of Nature is in reality a stupendous unity, just as in 
another way all mankind is found to constitute a spiritual unity if 
we ascend to a sufficiently elevated plane of Nature in search of the 
wonderful convergence where unity is reached without the loss of 
individuality. For ordinary humanity, however, at the early stage of 
its evolution represented at present by the majority, the interior 
spiritual capacities ranging beyond those which the brain is an 
instrument for expressing, are as yet too imperfectly developed to 
enable them to get into touch with any other records in the vast 
archives of Nature's memory, except those with which they have 
individually been in contact at their creation. The blindfold 
interior effort they are competent to make, will not as a rule, call 
up any others. But in a flickering fashion we have experience in 
ordinary life of efforts that are a little more effectual. "Thought 
Transference" is a humble example. In that case "impressions on the 
mind" of one person -- Nature's memory pictures, with which he is in 
normal relationship, are caught up by someone else who is just able, 
however unconscious of the method he uses, to range Nature's memory 
under favourable conditions, a little beyond the area with which he 
himself is in normal relationship. Such a person has begun, however 
slightly, to exercise the faculty of astral clairvoyance. That term 
may be conveniently used to denote the kind of clairvoyance I am now 
endeavoring to elucidate, the kind which, in some of its more 
magnificent developments, has been employed to carry out the 
investigations on the basis of which the present account of Atlantis 
has been compiled.

There is no limit really to the resources of astral clairvoyance in 
investigations concerning the past history of the earth, whether we 
are concerned with the events that have befallen the human race in 
prehistoric epochs, or with the growth of the planet itself through 
geological periods which antedated the advent of man, or with more 
recent events, current narrations of which have been distorted by 
careless or perverse historians. The memory of Nature is infallibly 
accurate and inexhaustibly minute. A time will come as certainly as 
the precession of the equinoxes, when the literary method of 
historical research will be laid aside as out of date, in the case of 
all original work. People among us who are capable of exercising 
astral clairvoyance in full perfection -- but have not yet been 
called away to higher functions in connection with the promotion of 
human progress, of which ordinary humanity at present knows even less 
than an Indian ryot knows of cabinet councils -- are still very few. 
Those who know what the few can do, and through what processes of 
training and self-discipline they have passed in pursuit of interior 
ideals, of which when attained astral clairvoyance is but an 
individual circumstance, are many, but still a small minority as 
compared with the modern cultivated world. But as time goes on, and 
within a measurable future, some of us have reason to feel sure that 
the numbers of those who are competent to exercise astral 
clairvoyance will increase sufficiently to extend the circle of those 
who are aware of their capacities, till it comes to embrace all the 
intelligence and culture of civilized mankind only a few generations 
hence. Meanwhile the present volume is the first that has been put 
forward as the pioneer essay of the new method of historical 
research. It is amusing to all who are concerned with it, to think 
how inevitably it will be mistaken -- for some little while as yet, 
by materialistic readers, unable to accept the frank explanation here 
given of the principle on which it has been prepared -- for a work of 
imagination.

For the benefit of others who may be more intuitive it may be well to 
say a word or two that may guard them from supposing that because 
historical research by means of astral clairvoyance is not impeded by 
having to deal with periods removed from our own by hundreds of 
thousands of years, it is on that account a process which involves no 
trouble. Every fact stated In the present volume has been picked up 
bit by bit with watchful and attentive care, in the course of an 
investigation on which more than one qualified person has been 
engaged, in the intervals of other activity, for some years past. And 
to promote the success of their work they have been allowed access to 
some maps and other records physically preserved from the remote 
periods concerned -- though in safer keeping than in that of the 
turbulent races occupied in Europe with the development of 
civilization in brief intervals of leisure from warfare, and hard 
pressed by the fanaticism that so long treated science as 
sacrilegious during the middle ages of Europe.

Laborious as the task has been however, it will be recognized as 
amply repaying the trouble taken, by everyone who is able to perceive 
how absolutely necessary to a proper comprehension of the world as we 
find it, is a proper comprehension of its preceding Atlantean phase. 
Without this knowledge all speculations concerning ethnology are 
futile and misleading. The course of race development is chaos and 
confusion without the key furnished by the character of Atlantean 
civilization and the configuration of the earth at Atlantean periods. 
Geologists know that land and ocean surfaces must have repeatedly 
changed places during the period at which they also know - from the 
situation of human remains in the various strata that the lands were 
inhabited. And yet for want of accurate knowledge as to the dates at 
which the changes took place, they discard the whole theory from 
their practical thinking, and, except for certain hypotheses started 
by naturalists dealing with the southern hemisphere, have generally 
endeavoured to harmonize race migrations with the configuration of 
the earth in existence at the present time.

In this way nonsense is made of the whole retrospect; and the 
ethnological scheme remains so vague and shadowy that it fails to 
displace crude conceptions of mankind's beginning, which still 
dominate religious thinking and keep back the spiritual progress of 
the age. The decadence and ultimate disappearance of Atlantean 
civilization is in turn as instructive as its rise and glory; but I 
have now accomplished the main purpose with which I sought leave to 
introduce the work now before the world, with a brief prefatory 
explanation, and if its contents fail to convey a sense of its 
importance to any readers I am now addressing, that result could 
hardly be accomplished by further recommendations of mine.

1896

The Story of Atlantis
A Geographical, Historical and Ethnological Sketch
THE GENERAL scope of the subject before us will best be realized by 
considering the amount of information that is obtainable about the 
various nations who compose our great Fifth or Aryan Race.

>From the time of the Greeks and the Romans onwards volumes have been 
written about every people who in their turn have filled the stage of 
history. The political institutions, the religious beliefs, the 
social and domestic manners and customs have all been analyzed and 
catalogued, and countless works in many tongues record for our 
benefit the march of progress.

Further, it must be remembered that of the history of this Fifth Race 
we possess but a fragment -- the record merely of the last family 
races of the Celtic sub-race, and the first family races of our own 
Teutonic stock.

But the hundreds of thousands of years which elapsed from the time 
when the earliest Aryans left their home on the shores of the central 
Asian Sea to the time of the Greeks and Romans, bore witness to the 
rise and fall of innumerable civilizations. Of the 1st sub-race of 
our Aryan Race who inhabited India and colonized Egypt in prehistoric 
times we know practically nothing, and the same may be said of the 
Chaldean, Babylonian, and Assyrian nations who composed the 2nd sub-
race -- for the fragments of knowledge obtained from the recently 
deciphered hieroglyphs or cuneiform inscriptions on Egyptian tombs or 
Babylonian tablets can scarcely be said to constitute history. The 
Persians who belonged to the 3rd or Iranian sub-race have, it is 
true, left a few more traces, but of the earlier civilizations of the 
Celtic or 4th sub-race we have no records at all. It is only with the 
rise of the last family shoots of this Celtic stock, viz., the Greek 
and Roman peoples, that we come upon historic times.

In addition also to the blank period in the past, there is the blank 
period in the future. For of the seven sub-races required to complete 
the history of a great Root Race, five only have so far come into 
existence. Our own Teutonic or 5th sub-race has already developed 
many nations, but has not yet run its course, while the 6th and 7th 
sub-races, who will be developed on the continents of North and South 
America, respectively, will have thousands of years of history to 
give to the world.

In attempting, therefore, to summarize in a few pages information 
about the world's progress during a period which must have occupied 
at least as great a stretch of years as that above referred to, it 
should be realized how slight a sketch this must inevitably be.

A record of the world's progress during the period of the Fourth or 
Atlantean Race must embrace the history of many nations, and register 
the rise and fall of many civilizations.

Catastrophes, too, on a scale such as has not yet been experienced 
during the life of our present Fifth Race, took place on more than 
one occasion during the progress of the Fourth. The destruction of 
Atlantis was accomplished by a series of catastrophes varying in 
character from great cataclysms in which whole territories and 
populations perished, to comparatively unimportant landslips such as 
occur on our own coasts to-day. When the destruction was once 
inaugurated by the first great catastrophe there was no intermission 
in the minor landslips which continued slowly but steadily to eat 
away the continent. Four of the great catastrophes stand out above 
the rest in magnitude. The first took place in the Miocene age, about 
800,000 years ago. The second, which was of minor importance, 
occurred about 200,000 years ago. The third -- about 80,000 years 
ago -- was a very great one. It destroyed all that remained of the 
Atlantean continent, with the exception of the island to which Plato 
gave the name of Poseidonis, which in its turn was submerged in the 
fourth and final great catastrophe of 9564 B.C.

Now the testimony of the oldest writers and of modern scientific 
research alike bear witness to the existence of an ancient continent 
occupying the site of the lost Atlantis.

Before proceeding to the consideration of the subject itself, it is 
proposed cursorily to glance at the generally known sources which 
supply corroborative evidence. These may be grouped into the five 
following classes:

First, the testimony of the deep-sea surroundings.

Second, the distribution of fauna and flora.

Third, the similarity of language and of ethnological type.

Fourth, the similarity of religious belief, ritual, and architecture.

Fifth, the testimony of ancient writers, of early race traditions, 
and of archaic flood-legends.

Deep-Sea Soundings
In the first place, then, the testimony of the deep-sea soundings may 
be summarized in a few words. Thanks chiefly to the expeditions of 
the British and American gun boats, "Challenger" and "Dolphin" 
(though Germany also was associated in this scientific exploration) 
the bed of the whole Atlantic Ocean is now mapped out, with the 
result that an immense bank or ridge of great elevation is shown to 
exist in mid-Atlantic. This ridge stretches in a southwesterly 
direction from about fifty degrees north towards the coast of South 
America, then in a south-easterly direction towards the coast of 
Africa, changing its direction again about Ascension Island, and 
running due south to Tristan d'Acunha. The ridge rises almost sheer 
about 9,000 feet from the ocean depths around it, while the Azores, 
St. Paul, Ascension, and Tristan d'Acunha are the peaks of this land 
which still remain above water. A line of 3,500 fathoms, or say 
21,000 feet, is required to sound the deepest parts of the Atlantic, 
but the higher parts of the ridge are only a hundred to a few hundred 
fathoms beneath the sea.

The soundings too showed that the ridge is covered with volcanic 
débris of which traces are to be found right across the ocean to the 
American coasts. Indeed the fact that the ocean bed, particularly 
about the Azores, has been the scene of volcanic disturbance on a 
gigantic scale, and that too within a quite measurable period of 
geologic time, is conclusively proved by the investigations made 
during the above-named expeditions.

Mr. Starkie Gardner is of opinion that in the Eocene times the 
British Islands formed part of a larger island or continent 
stretching into the Atlantic, and "that a great tract of land 
formerly existed where the sea now is, and that Cornwall, the Scilly 
and Channel Islands, Ireland and Brittany are the remains of its 
highest summits."[1]

Distribution of Fauna and Flora
The proved existence on continents separated by great oceans of 
similar or identical species of fauna and flora is the standing 
puzzle to biologists and botanists alike. But if a link between these 
continents once existed allowing for the natural migration of such 
animals and plants, the puzzle is solved. Now the fossil remains of 
the camel are found in India, Africa, South America and Kansas: but 
it is one of the generally accepted hypotheses of naturalists that 
every species of animal and plant originated in but one part of the 
globe, from which centre it gradually overran the other portions. How 
then can the facts of such fossil remains be accounted for without 
the existence of land communication in some remote age? Recent 
discoveries in the fossil beds of Nebraska seem also to prove that 
the horse

[1. Pop. Sc. Review, July, 1878.]

originated in the Western Hemisphere, for that is the only part of 
the world where fossil remains have been discovered, showing the 
various intermediate forms which have been identified as the 
precursors of the true horse. It would therefore be difficult to 
account for the presence of the horse in Europe except on the 
hypothesis of continuous land communication between the two 
continents, seeing that it is certain that the horse existed in a 
wild state in Europe and Asia before his domestication by man, which 
may be traced back almost to the stone age. Cattle and sheep as we 
now know them have an equally remote ancestry. Darwin finds 
domesticated cattle in Europe in the earliest part of the stone age, 
having long before developed out of wild forms akin to the buffalo of 
America. Remains of the cave-lion of Europe are also found in North 
America.

Turning now from the animal to the vegetable kingdom it appears that 
the greater part of the flora of the Miocene age in Europe -- found 
chiefly in the fossil beds of Switzerland -- exist at the present day 
in America, some of them in Africa. But the noteworthy fact about 
America is that while the greater proportion are to be found in the 
Eastern States, very many are wanting on the Pacific coast. This 
seems to show that it was from the Atlantic side that they entered 
the continent. Professor Asa Gray says that out of 66 genera and 155 
species found in the forest east of the Rocky Mountains, only 31 
genera and 78 species are found west of these heights.

But the greatest problem of all is the plantain or banana. Professor 
Kuntze, an eminent German botanist, asks, "In what way was this 
plant" (a native of tropical Asia and Africa) "which cannot stand a 
voyage through the temperate zone, carried to America?" As he points 
out, the plant is seedless, it cannot be propagated by cuttings, 
neither has it a tuber which could be easily transported. Its root is 
treelike. To transport it special care would be required, nor could 
it stand a long transit. The only way in which he can account for its 
appearance in America is to suppose that it must have been 
transported by civilized man at a time when the polar regions had a 
tropical climate! He adds, "a cultivated plant which does not possess 
seeds must have been under culture for a very long period ... it is 
perhaps fair to infer that these plants were cultivated as early as 
the beginning of the Diluvial period." Why, it may be asked, should 
not this inference take us back to still earlier times, and where did 
the civilization necessary for the plant's cultivation exist, or the 
climate and circumstances requisite for its transportation, unless 
there were at some time a link between the old world and the new?

Professor Wallace in his delightful Island Life, as well as other 
writers in many important works, has put forward ingenious hypotheses 
to account for the identity of flora and fauna on widely separated 
lands, and for their transit across the ocean, but all are 
unconvincing, and all break down at different points.

It is well known that wheat as we know it has never existed in a 
truly wild state, nor is there any evidence tracing its descent from 
fossil species. Five varieties of wheat were already cultivated in 
Europe in the stone age -- one variety found in the "Lake Dwellings" 
being known as Egyptian wheat, from which Darwin argues that the Lake 
dwellers "either still kept up commercial intercourse with some 
southern people, or had originally proceeded as colonists from the 
South." He concludes that wheat, barley, oats, etc., are descended 
from various species now extinct, or so widely different as to escape 
identification, in which case he says: "Man must have cultivated 
cereals from an enormously remote period." The regions where these 
extinct species flourished, and the civilization under which they 
were cultivated by intelligent selection, are both supplied by the 
lost continent whose colonists carried them east and west.

>From the fauna and flora we now turn to man.

Similarity of Language
The Basque language stands alone amongst European tongues, having 
affinity with none of them. According to Farrar, "there never has 
been any doubt that this isolated language, preserving its identity 
in a western corner of Europe, between two mighty kingdoms, resembles 
in its structure the aboriginal languages of the vast opposite 
continent (America) and those alone."[1]

The Phoenicians apparently were the first nation in the Eastern 
Hemisphere to use a phonetic alphabet, the characters being regarded 
as mere signs for sounds. It is a curious fact that at an equally 
early date we find a phonetic alphabet in Central America

[1. Families of Speech, p. 132.]

amongst the Mayans of Yucatan, whose traditions ascribe the origin of 
their civilization to a land across the sea to the east. Le Plongeon, 
the great authority on this subject, writes: "One-third of this 
tongue (the Maya) is pure Greek. Who brought the dialect of Homer to 
America? or who took to Greece that of the Mayas? Greek is the 
offspring of the Sanscrit. Is Maya? or are they coeval?" Still more 
surprising is it to find thirteen letters out of the Maya alphabet 
bearing most distinct relation to the Egyptian hieroglyphic signs for 
the same letters. It is probable that the earliest form of alphabet 
was hieroglyphic, "the writing of the Gods," as the Egyptians called 
it, and that it developed later in Atlantis into the phonetic. It 
would be natural to assume that the Egyptians were an early colony 
from Atlantis (as they actually were) and that they carried away with 
them the primitive type of writing which has thus left its traces on 
both hemispheres, while the Phoenicians, who were a sea-going people, 
obtained and assimilated the later form of alphabet during their 
trading voyages with the people of the west.

One more point may be noticed, viz., the extraordinary resemblance 
between many words in the Hebrew language and words bearing precisely 
the same meaning in the tongue of the Chiapenecs -- a branch of the 
Maya race, and amongst the most ancient in Central America.[1]

The similarity of language among the various savage races of the 
Pacific islands has been used as an

[1. A list of' these words is given in North Americans of Antiquity, 
p. 475.]

argument by writers on this subject. The existences of similar 
languages among races separated by leagues of ocean, across which in 
historic time they are known to have had no means of transport, is 
certainly an argument in favour of their descent from a single race 
occupying a single continent, but the argument cannot be used here, 
for the continent in question was not Atlantis, but the still earlier 
Lemuria.

Similarity of Ethnological Types
Atlantis as we shall see is said to have been inhabited by red, 
yellow, white and black races. It is now proved by the researches of 
Le Plongeon, De Quatrefages, Bancroft and others that black 
populations of negroid type existed even up to recent times in 
America. Many of the monuments of Central America are decorated with 
negro faces, and some of the idols found there are clearly intended 
to represent negroes, with small skulls, short woolly hair and thick 
lips. The Popul Vuh, speaking of the first home of the Guatemalan 
race, says that "black and white men together" lived in this happy 
land "in great peace," speaking "one language."[1] The Popul Vuh goes 
on to relate how the people migrated from their ancestral home, how 
their language became altered, and how some went to the east, while 
others travelled west (to Central America).

[1. See Bancroft's Native Races, p. 547.]

Professor Retzius, in his Smithsonian Report, considers that the 
primitive dolichocephalae of America are nearly related to the 
Guanches of the Canary Islands, and to the population on the Atlantic 
seaboard of Africa, which Latham comprises under the name of Egyptian 
Atlantidae. The same form of skull is found In the Canary Islands off 
the African coast and the Carib Islands off the American coast, while 
the colour of the skin in both is that of a reddish-brown.

The ancient Egyptians depicted themselves as red men of much the same 
complexion as exists to-day among some tribes of American Indians.

"The ancient Peruvians," says Short, "appear from numerous examples 
of hair found in their tombs to have been an auburn-haired race."

A remarkable fact about the American Indians, and one which is a 
standing puzzle to ethnologists, is the wide range of colour and 
complexion to be found among them. From the white tint of the 
Menominee, Dakota, Mandan, and Zuni tribes, many of whom have auburn 
hair and blue eyes, to the almost negro blackness of the Karos of 
Kansas and the now extinct tribes of California, the Indian races run 
through every shade of red-brown, copper, olive, cinnamon, and bronze.
[1]

We shall see by and by how the diversity of complexion

[1. See Short's North Americans of Antiquity, Winchell's Pre-
Adamites, and Catlin's Indians of North America; see also Atlantis, 
by Ignatius Donnelly, who has collected a great mass of evidence 
under this and other heads.]

on the American Continent is accounted for by the original race-tints 
on the parent continent of Atlantis.

Similarity of Religious Belief, Ritual and Architecture
Nothing seems to have surprised the first Spanish adventurers in 
Mexico and Peru more than the extraordinary similarity to those of 
the old world, of the religious beliefs, rites, and emblems which 
they found established in the new. The Spanish priests regarded this 
similarity as the work of the devil. The worship of the cross by the 
natives, and its constant presence in all religious buildings and 
ceremonies, was the principal subject of their amazement; and indeed 
nowhere -- not even in India and Egypt -- was this symbol held in 
more profound veneration than amongst the primitive tribes of the 
American continents, while the meaning underlying its worship was 
identical. In the west, as in the east, the cross was the symbol of 
life - sometimes of life physical, more often of life eternal.

In like manner in both hemispheres the worship of the sun-disk or 
circle, and of the serpent, was universal, and more surprising still 
is the similarity of the word signifying "God" in the principal 
languages of east and west. Compare the Sanscrit "Dyaus" or "Dyaus-
pitar," the Greek, "Theos" and Zeus, the Latin "Deus" and "Jupiter," 
the Keltic "Dia" and "Ta," pronounced "Thyah" (seeming to bear 
affinity to the Egyptian Tau), the Jewish "Jah" or "Yah" and lastly 
the Mexican "Teo" or "Zeo."

Baptismal rites were practised by all nations. In Babylon and Egypt 
the candidates for initiation in the Mysteries were first baptized. 
Tertullian in his De Baptismo says that they were promised in 
consequence "regeneration and the pardon of all their perjuries." The 
Scandinavian nations practised baptism of new-born children; and when 
we turn to Mexico and Peru we find infant baptism there as a solemn 
ceremonial, consisting of water sprinkling, the sign of the cross, 
and prayers for the washing away of sin.[1][2]

In addition to baptism, the tribes of Mexico, Central America and 
Peru resembled the nations of the old world in their rites of 
confession, absolution, fasting, and marriage before priests by 
joining hands. They had even a ceremony resembling the Eucharist, in 
which cakes marked with the Tau (an Egyptian form of cross) were 
eaten, the people calling them the flesh of their God. These exactly 
resemble the sacred cakes of Egypt and other eastern nations. Like 
these nations, too, the people of the new world had monastic orders, 
male and female, in which broken vows were punished with death. Like 
the Egyptians they embalmed their dead, they worshipped sun, moon and 
planets, but over and above

[1. See Humboldt's Mexican Researches and Prescott's Mexico.

2. For a fuller description of Baptismal Rites see W. 
Williamson's "The Great Law, " chap. "Sacraments and Blood Covenants.]

these adored a Deity "omnipresent, who knoweth all things ... 
invisible, incorporeal, one God of perfect perfection."[1]

They too had their virgin-mother goddess, "Our Lady" whose son, 
the "Lord of Light," was called the "Saviour," bearing an accurate 
correspondence to Isis, Beltis and the many other virgin - goddesses 
of the east with their divine sons.

Their rites of sun and fire worship closely resembled those of the 
early Celts of Britain and Ireland, and like the latter they claimed 
to be the "children of the sun." An ark or argha was one of the 
universal sacred symbols which we find alike in India, Chaldea, 
Assyria, Egypt, Greece and amongst the Celtic peoples. Lord 
Kingsborough in his Mexican Antiquities[2] says: "As among the Jews 
the ark was a sort of portable temple in which the deity was supposed 
to be continually present, so among the Mexicans, the Cherokees and 
the Indians of Michoacan and Honduras, an ark was held in the highest 
veneration and was considered an object too sacred to be touched by 
any but the priests."

As to religious architecture, we find on both sides of the Atlantic 
that one of the earliest sacred buildings is the pyramid. Doubtful as 
are the uses for which these structures were originally intended, one 
thing is clear, that they were closely connected with some religious 
idea or group of ideas. The identity of design in the pyramids of 
Egypt and those of Mexico

[1. See Sahagun's Historia de Nueva España, lib. vi.

2. Vol. viii, p. 250.]

and Central America is too striking to be a mere coincidence. True 
some -- the greater number -- of the American pyramids are of the 
truncated or flattened form, yet according to Bancroft and others, 
many of those found in Yucatan, and notably those near Palenque, are 
pointed at the top in true Egyptian fashion, while on the other hand 
we have some of the Egyptian pyramids of the stepped and flattened 
type. Cholula has been compared to the groups of Dachour, Sakkara and 
the step pyramid of Médourn. Alike in orientation, in structure, and 
even in their internal galleries and chambers, these mysterious 
monuments of the east and of the west stand as witnesses to some 
common source whence their builders drew their plan.

The vast remains of cities and temples in Mexico and Yucatan also 
strangely resemble those of Egypt, the ruins of Teotihuacan having 
frequently been compared to those of Karnak. The "false arch" -- 
horizontal courses of stone, each slightly overlapping the other -- 
is found to be identical in Central America, in the oldest buildings 
of Greece, and in Etruscan remains. The mound builders of both 
eastern and western continents formed similar tumuli over their dead, 
and laid the bodies in similar stone coffins. Both continents have 
their great serpent-mounds; compare that of Adams Co., Ohio, with the 
fine serpent-mound discovered in Argyleshire, or the less perfect 
specimen at Avebury in Wilts. The very carving and decoration of the 
temples of America, Egypt and India have much in common, while some 
of the mural decorations are absolutely identical.

Testimony of Ancient Writers
It only remains now to summarize some of the evidence obtainable from 
ancient writers, from early race traditions, and from archaic flood-
legends.

Aelian in his Varia Historia,[1] states that Theopompus (400 B.C.) 
recorded an interview between the King of Phrygia and Silenus, in 
which the latter referred to the existence of a great continent 
beyond the Atlantic, larger than Asia, Europe and Libya together.

Proclus quotes an extract from an ancient writer who refers to the 
islands in the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of 
Gibraltar), and says that the inhabitants of one of these islands had 
a tradition from their ancestors of an extremely large island called 
Atlantis, which for a long time ruled over all the islands of the 
Atlantic Ocean.

Marcellus speaks of seven islands in the Atlantic, and states that 
their inhabitants preserve the memory of a much greater island, 
Atlantis, "which had for a long time exercised dominion over the 
smaller ones."

Diodorus Siculus 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."

But the greatest authority on this subject is Plato. In the Timaeus 
he refers to the island continent, while the Critias or Atlanticus is 
nothing less than a detailed account of the history, arts, manners 
and customs of

[1. Lib. iii., ch. xviii.]

the people. In the Timaeus he refers to "a mighty warlike power, 
rushing from the Atlantic sea and spreading itself with hostile fury 
over all Europe and Asia. For at that time the Atlantic sea was 
navigable and had an island before that mouth which is called by you 
the Pillars of Hercules. But this island was greater than both Libya 
and all Asia together, and afforded an easy passage to other 
neighbouring islands, as it was likewise easy to pass from those 
islands to all the continents which border on this Atlantic sea."

There is so much of value in the Critias that it is not easy to 
choose, but the following extract is given, as it bears on the 
material resources of the country: "They had likewise everything 
provided for them which both in a city and every other place is 
sought after as useful for the purposes of life. And they were 
supplied indeed with many things from foreign countries, on account 
of their extensive empire; but the island afforded them the greater 
part of everything of which they stood in need. In the first place 
the island supplied them with such things as are dug out of mines in 
a solid state, and with such as are melted: and orichalcum, which is 
now but seldom mentioned, but then was much celebrated, was dug out 
of the earth in many parts of the island, and was considered as the 
most honourable of all metals except gold. Whatever, too, the woods 
afforded for builders the island produced in abundance. There were 
likewise sufficient pastures there for tame and savage animals; 
together with a prodigious number of elephants. For there were 
pastures for all such animals as are fed in lakes and rivers; on 
mountains and in plains. And in like manner there was sufficient 
aliment for the largest and most voracious kind of animals. Besides 
this, whatever of odoriferous the earth nourishes at present, whether 
roots, or grass, or wood, or juices, or gums, flowers or fruits - 
these the island produced and produced them well."

The Gauls possessed traditions of Atlantis which were collected by 
the Roman historian, Timagenes, who lived in the first century, B.C. 
Three distinct peoples apparently dwelt in Gaul. First, the 
indigenous population (probably the remains of a Lemurian race), 
second, the invaders from the distant island of Atlantis, and third, 
the Aryan Gauls.*

The Toltecs of Mexico traced themselves back to a starting-point 
called Atlan or Aztlan; the Aztecs also claimed to come from Aztlan.
[2]

The Popul Vuh[3] speaks of a visit paid by three sons of the King of 
the Quiches to a land "in the east on the shores of the sea whence 
their fathers had come," from which they brought back amongst other 
things "a system of writing."[4]

Amongst the Indians of North America there is a very general legend 
that their forefathers came from a land "toward the sun-rising." The 
Iowa and Dakota Indians, according to Major J. Lind, believed 
that "all the tribes of Indians were formerly one and dwelt together 
on an island . . . towards the sunrise." They crossed the sea from 
thence "in huge

[1. See Pre-Adamites, p. 380.

2. See Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v. pp. 221 and 321.

3. Page 294.

4. See also Bancroft, Vol. V., p. 553.]

skiffs in which the Dakotas of old floated for weeks, finally gaining 
dry land."

The Central American books state that a part of the American 
continent extended far into the Atlantic Ocean, and that this region 
was destroyed by a series of frightful cataclysms at long intervals 
apart. Three of these are frequently referred to.[1] It is a curious 
confirmation that the Celts of Britain had a legend that part of 
their country once extended far into the Atlantic and was destroyed. 
Three catastrophes are mentioned in the Welsh traditions.

Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican Deity, is said to have come from "the 
distant east." He is described as a white man with a flowing beard. 
(N.B.- The Indians of North and South America are beardless.) He 
originated letters and regulated the Mexican calendar. After having 
taught them many peaceful arts and lessons he sailed away to the east 
in a canoe made of serpent skins.[2] The same story is told of Zamna, 
the author of civilization in Yucatan.

The marvellous uniformity of the flood legends on all parts of the 
globe, alone remains to be dealt with. Whether these are some archaic 
versions of the story of the lost Atlantis and its submergence, or 
whether they are echoes of a great cosmic parable once taught and 
held in reverence in some common centre whence they have reverberated 
throughout the world, does not immediately concern us. Sufficient for 
our purpose is it to show the universal acceptation of these legends. 
It would be needless waste of time and space

[1. See Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 176.

2. See Short's North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 268-271.]

to go over these flood stories one by one. Suffice it to say, that in 
India, Chaldea, Babylon, Media, Greece, Scandinavia, China, amongst 
the Jews and amongst the Celtic tribes of Britain, the legend is 
absolutely identical in all essentials. Now turn to the west and what 
do we find? The same story in its every detail preserved amongst the 
Mexicans (each tribe having its own version), the people of 
Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, and almost every tribe of North American 
Indians. It is puerile to suggest that mere coincidence can account 
for this fundamental identity.

The following quotation from Le Plongeon's translation of the famous 
Troano MS., which may be seen in the British Museum, will 
appropriately bring this part of the subject to a close. The Troano 
MS. appears to have been written about 3,500 years ago, among the 
Mayas of Yucatan, and the following is its description of the 
catastrophe that submerged the island of Poseidonis: -- "In the year 
6 Kan, on the 11th Muluc in the month Zac, there occurred terrible 
earthquakes, which continued without interruption until the 13th 
Chuen. The country of the hills of mud, the land of Mu was 
sacrificed: being twice upheaved it suddenly disappeared during the 
night, the basin being continually shaken by volcanic forces. Being 
confined, these caused the land to sink and to r' se several times 
and in various places. At last the surface gave way and ten countries 
were torn asunder and scattered. Unable to stand the force of the 
convulsions, they sank with their 64,000,000 of inhabitants 8060 
years before the writing of this book."

The Occult Records
But enough space has now been devoted to the fragments of evidence -- 
all more or less convincing -- which the world so far has been in 
possession of. Those interested in pursuing any special line of 
investigation are referred to the various works above named or quoted.

The subject in hand must now be dealt with. Drawn as they have been 
from contemporary records which were compiled in and handed down 
through the ages we have to deal with, the facts here collected are 
based upon no assumption or conjecture. The writer may have failed 
fully to comprehend the facts, and so may have partially misstated 
them. But the original records are open for investigation to the duly 
qualified, and those who are disposed to undertake the necessary 
training may obtain the powers to check and verify.

But even were all the occult records open to our inspection, it 
should be realized how fragmentary must be the sketch that attempts 
to summarize in a few pages the history of races and of nations 
extending over at least many hundreds of thousands of years. However, 
any details on such a subject -- disconnected though they are -- must 
be new, and should therefore be interesting to the world at large.

Among the records above referred to there are maps of the world at 
various periods of its history and it has been the great privilege of 
the writer to be allowed to obtain copies -- more or less complete -- 
of four of these. All four represent Atlantis and the surrounding 
lands at different epochs of their history.

These epochs correspond approximately with the periods that lay 
between the catastrophes referred to above, and into the periods thus 
represented by the four maps the records of the Atlantean Race will 
naturally group themselves.

First Map Period
Before beginning the history of the race, however, a few remarks may 
be made about the geography of the four different epochs.

The first map represents the land surface of the earth as it existed 
about a million years ago, when the Atlantean Race was at its height, 
and before the first great submergence took place about 800,000 years 
ago. The continent of Atlantis itself, it will be observed, extended 
from a point a few degrees east of Iceland to about the site now 
occupied by Rio de Janeiro, in South America. Embracing Texas and the 
Gulf of Mexico, the Southern and Eastern States of America, up to and 
including Labrador, it stretched across the ocean to our own islands -
- Scotland and Ireland, and a small portion of the north of England 
forming one of its promontories -- while its equatorial lands 
embraced Brazil and the whole stretch of ocean to the African Gold 
Coast. Scattered fragments of what eventually became the continents 
of Europe, Africa and America, as well as remains of the still older, 
and once widespread continent of Lemuria, are also shown on this map. 
The remains of the still older Hyperborean continent which was 
inhabited by the Second Root Race, are also given, and like Lemuria, 
coloured blue.

Second Map Period
As will be seen from the second map the catastrophe of 800,000 years 
ago caused very great changes in the land distribution of the globe. 
The great continent is now shorn of its northern regions, and its 
remaining portion has been still further rent. The now growing 
American continent is separated by a chasm from its parent continent 
of Atlantis, and this no longer comprises any of the lands now 
existing, but occupies the bulk of the Atlantic basin from about 50' 
north to a few degrees south of the equator. The subsidences and 
upheavals in other parts of the world have also been considerable -- 
the British Islands for example, now being part of a huge island 
which also embraces the Scandinavian peninsula, the North of France, 
and all the intervening and some of the surrounding seas. The 
dimensions of the remains of Lemuria it will be observed, have been 
further curtailed, while Europe, Africa and America have received 
accretions of territory.

Third Map Period
The third map shows the results of the catastrophe which took place 
about 200,000 years ago. With the exception of the rents in the 
continents both of Atlantis and America, and the submergence of 
Egypt, it will be seen how relatively unimportant were the 
subsidences and upheavals at this epoch, indeed the fact that this 
catastrophe has not always been considered as one of the great ones, 
is apparent from the quotation already given from the sacred book of 
the Guatemalans -- three great ones only being there mentioned. The 
Scandinavian island however, appears now as joined to the mainland. 
The two islands into which Atlantis was now split were known by the 
names of Ruta and Daitya.

Fourth Map Period
The stupendous character of the natural convulsion that took place 
about 80,000 years ago, will be apparent from the fourth map. Daitya, 
the smaller and more southerly of the islands, has almost entirely 
disappeared, while of Ruta there only remains the relatively small 
island of Poseidonis. This map was compiled about 75,000 years ago, 
and it no doubt fairly represents the land surface of the earth from 
that period onwards till the final submergence of Poseidonis in 9564 
B.C., though during that period minor changes must have taken place. 
It will be noted that the land outlines had then begun to assume 
roughly the same appearance they do to-day, though the British 
Islands were still joined to the European continent, while the Baltic 
Sea was nonexistent, and the Sahara desert then formed part of the 
ocean floor.

The Manus
Some reference to the very mystical subject of the Manus is a 
necessary preliminary to the consideration of the origin of a Root 
Race. In Transaction No. 26, of the London Lodge, reference was made 
to the work done by these very exalted Beings, which embraces not 
only the planning of the types of the whole Manvantara, but the 
superintending the formation and education of each Root Race in turn. 
The following quotation refers to these arrangements: "There are also 
Manus whose duty it is to act in a similar way for each Root Race on 
each Planet of the Round, the Seed Manu planning the improvement in 
type which each successive Root Race inaugurates, and the Root Manu 
actually incarnating amongst the new Race as a leader and teacher to 
direct the development and ensure the improvement."

The way in which the necessary segregation of the picked specimens is 
effected by the Manu in charge, and his subsequent care of the 
growing community, may be dealt with in a future Transaction. The 
merest reference to the mode of procedure is all that is necessary 
here.

It was of course from one of the sub-races of the Third Root Race on 
the continent which is spoken of as Lemuria, that the segregation was 
effected which was destined to produce the Fourth Root Race.

Following where necessary the history of the Race through the four 
periods represented by the four maps, it is proposed to divide the 
subject under the following headings:

1. Origin and territorial location of the different sub-races.

2. The political institutions they respectively evolved.

3. Their emigrations to other parts of the world.

4. The arts and sciences they developed.

5. The manners and customs they adopted.

6. The rise and decline amongst them of religious ideas.

The Sub-Races
The names of the different sub-races must first be given -- 

1. Rmoahal.

2. Tlavatli.

3. Toltec.

4. First Turanian.

5. Original Semite.

6. Akkadian.

7. Mongolian.

Some explanation is necessary as to the principle on which these 
names are chosen. Wherever modern ethnologists have discovered traces 
of one of these sub-races, or even identified a small part of one, 
the name they have given to it is used for the sake of simplicity, 
but in the case of the first two sub-races there are hardly any 
traces left for science to seize upon, so the names by which they 
called themselves have been adopted.

The Rmoahal Race
Now the period represented by Map No. 1 shows the land surface of the 
earth as it existed about one million years ago, but the Rmoahal race 
came into existence between four and five million years ago, at which 
period large portions of the great southern continent of Lemuria 
still existed, while the continent of Atlantis had not assumed the 
proportions it ultimately attained. It was upon a spur of this 
Lemurian land that the Rmoahal race was born. Roughly it may be 
located at latitude 7º north and longitude 5º west, which a reference 
to any modern atlas will show to lie on the Ashanti coast of to-day. 
It was a hot, moist country, where huge antediluvian animals lived in 
reedy swamps and dank forests. The Rmoahals were a dark race -- their 
complexion being a sort of mahogany black. Their height in these 
early days was about ten or twelve feet -- truly a race of giants -- 
but through the centuries their stature gradually dwindled, as did 
that of all the races in turn, and later on we shall find they had 
shrunk to the stature of the "Furfooz man." They ultimately migrated 
to the southern shores of Atlantis, were they were engaged in 
constant warfare with the sixth and seventh sub-races of the 
Lemurians then inhabiting that country. A large part of the tribe 
eventually moved north, while the remainder settled down and 
intermarried with these black Lemurian aborigines. The result was 
that at the period we are dealing with -- the first map period -- 
there was no pure blood left in the south, and as we shall see it was 
from these dark races who inhabited the equatorial provinces, and the 
extreme south of the continent, that the Toltec conquerors 
subsequently drew their supplies of slaves. The remainder of the 
race, however, reached the extreme north-eastern promontories 
contiguous with Iceland, and dwelling there for untold generations, 
they gradually became lighter in colour, until at the date of the 
first map period we find them a tolerably fair people. Their 
descendants eventually became subject, at least nominally, to the 
Semite kings.

That they dwelt there for untold generations is not meant to imply 
that their occupation was unbroken, for stress of circumstances at 
intervals of time drove them south. The cold of the glacial epochs of 
course operated alike with the other races, but the few words to be 
said on this subject may as well come in here.

Without going into the question of the different rotations which this 
earth performs, or the varying degrees of eccentricity of its orbit, 
a combination of which is sometimes held to be the cause of the 
glacial epochs, it is a fact -- and one already recognized by some 
astronomers -- that a minor glacial epoch occurs about every 30,000 
years. But in addition to these, there were two occasions in the 
history of Atlantis when the ice-belt desolated not merely the 
northern regions, but, invading the bulk of the continent, forced all 
life to migrate to equatorial lands. The first of these was in 
process during the Rmoahal days, about 3,000,000 years ago, while the 
second took place in the Toltec ascendency about 850,000 years ago.

With reference to all glacial epochs it should be stated that though 
the inhabitants of northern lands were forced to settle during the 
winter far south of the ice-belt, there yet were great districts to 
which in summer they could return, and where for the sake of the 
hunting they encamped until driven south again by the winter cold.

The Tlavatli Race
The place of origin of the Tlavatli or 2nd sub-race was an island off 
the west coast of Atlantis. The spot is marked on the 1st map with 
the figure 2. Thence they spread into Atlantis proper, chiefly across 
the middle of the continent, gradually however tending northwards 
towards the stretch of coast facing the promontory of Greenland. 
Physically they were a powerful and hardy race of a red-brown colour, 
but they were not quite so tall as the Rmoahals whom they drove still 
further north. They were always a mountain-loving people, and their 
chief settlements were in the mountainous districts of the interior, 
which a comparison of Maps 1 and 4 will show to be approximately 
coterminous with what ultimately became the island of Poseidonis. At 
this first map period they also -- as just stated -- peopled the 
northern coasts, whilst a mixture of Tlavatli and Toltec race 
inhabited the western islands, which subsequently formed part of the 
American continent.

The Toltec Race
We now come to the Toltec or 3rd sub-race. This was a magnificent 
development. It ruled the whole continent of Atlantis for thousands 
of years in great material power and glory. Indeed so dominant and so 
endowed with vitality was this race that intermarriages with the 
following sub-races failed to modify the type, which still remained 
essentially Toltec; and hundreds of thousands of years later we find 
one of their remote family races ruling magnificently in Mexico and 
Peru, long ages before their degenerate descendants were conquered by 
the fiercer Aztec tribes from the north. The complexion of this race 
was also a red-brown, but they were redder or more copper-coloured 
than the Tlavatli. They also were a tall race, averaging about eight 
feet during the period of their ascendency, but of course dwindling, 
as all races did, to the dimensions that are common to-day. The type 
was an improvement on the two previous sub-races, the features being 
straight and well marked, not unlike the ancient Greek. The 
approximate birthplace of this race may be seen, marked with the 
figure 3, on the first map. It lay near the west coast of Atlantis 
about latitude 30º North, and the whole of the surrounding country, 
embracing the bulk of the west coast of the continent, was peopled 
with a pure Toltec race. But as we shall see when dealing with the 
political organization, their territory eventually extended right 
across the continent, and it was from their great capital on the 
eastern coast that the Toltec emperors held their almost world-wide 
sway.

The First Turanian Race
The Turanian or 4th sub-race had their origin on the eastern side of 
the continent, south of the mountainous district inhabited by the 
Tlavatli people. This spot is marked 4 on Map No. 1. The Turanians 
were colonists from the earliest days, and great numbers migrated to 
the lands lying to the east of Atlantis. They were never a thoroughly 
dominant race on the mother- continent, though some of their tribes 
and family races became fairly powerful. The great central regions of 
the continent lying west and south of the Tlavatli mountainous 
district was their special though not their exclusive home, for they 
shared these lands with the Toltecs. The curious political and social 
experiments made by this sub-race will be dealt with later on.

The Original Semite Race
As regards the original Semite or 5th sub-race ethnologists have been 
somewhat confused, as indeed it is extremely natural they should be 
considering the very insufficient data they have to go upon. This sub-
race had its origin in the mountainous country which formed the more 
southerly of the two northeastern peninsulas which, as we have seen, 
is now represented by Scotland, Ireland, and some of the surrounding 
seas. The site is marked 5 in Map No. 1. in this least desirable 
portion of the great continent the race grew and flourished, for 
centuries maintaining its independence against aggressive southern 
kings, till the time came for it in turn to spread abroad and 
colonize. It must be remembered that by the time the Semites rose to 
power hundreds of thousands of years had passed and the 2nd map 
period had been reached. They were a turbulent, discontented race, 
always at war with their neighbours, especially with the then growing 
power of the Akkadians.

The Akkadian Race
The birthplace of the Akkadian or 6th sub-race will be found on Map 
No. 2 (marked there with the figure 6), for it was after the great 
catastrophe of 800,000 years ago that this race first came into 
existence. It took its rise in the land east of Atlantis, about the 
middle of the great peninsula whose southeastern extremity stretched 
out towards the old continent. The spot may be located approximately 
at latitude 42º North and longitude 10º East. They did not for long, 
however, confine themselves to the land of their birth, but overran 
the now diminished continent of Atlantis. They fought with the 
Semites in many battles both on land and sea, and very considerable 
fleets were used on both sides. Finally about 100,000 years ago they 
completely vanquished the Semites, and from that time onwards an 
Akkadian dynasty was set up in the old Semite capital, and ruled the 
country wisely for several hundred years. They were a great trading, 
sea-going and colonizing people, and they established many centres of 
communication with distant lands.

The Mongolian Race
The Mongolian or 7th sub-race seems to be the only one that had 
absolutely no touch with the mother-continent. Having its origin on 
the plains of Tartary (marked No. 7 on the second map) at about 
latitude 63º North and longitude 140º East, it was directly developed 
from descendants of the Turanian race, which it gradually supplanted 
over the greater part of Asia. This sub-race multiplied exceedingly, 
and even at the present day a majority of the earth's inhabitants 
technically belong to it, though many of its divisions are so deeply 
coloured with the blood of earlier races as to be scarcely 
distinguishable from them.

Political Institutions
In such a summary as this it would be impossible to describe how each 
sub-race was further sub-divided into nations, each having its 
distinct type and characteristics. All that can be here attempted is 
to sketch in broad outline the varying political institutions 
throughout the great epochs of the race.

While recognizing that each sub-race as well as each Root Race is 
destined to stand in some respects at a higher level than the one 
before it, the cyclic nature of the development must be recognized as 
leading the race like the man through the various phases of infancy, 
youth, and manhood back to the infancy of old age again. Evolution 
necessarily means ultimate progress, even though the turning back of 
Its ascending spiral may seem to make the history of politics or of 
religion a record not merely of development and progress but also of 
degradation and decay.

In making the statement therefore that the 1st sub-race started under 
the most perfect government conceivable, it must be understood that 
this was owing to the necessities of their childhood, not to the 
merits of their matured manhood. For the Rmoahals were incapable of 
developing any plan of settled government, nor did they ever reach 
even as high a point of civilization as the 6th and 7th Lemurian sub-
races. But the Manu who effected the segregation actually incarnated 
in the race and ruled it as king. Even when he no longer took visible 
part in the government of the race, Adept or Divine rulers were, when 
the times required it, still provided for the infant community. As 
students of The Secret Doctrine know, our humanity had not then 
reached the stage of development necessary to produce fully initiated 
Adepts. The rulers above referred to, including the Manu himself, 
were therefore necessarily the product of evolution on other systems 
of worlds.

The Tlavatli people showed some signs of advance in the art of 
government. Their various tribes or nations were ruled by chiefs or 
kings who generally received their authority by acclamation of the 
people. Naturally the most powerful individuals and greatest warriors 
were so chosen. A considerable empire was eventually established 
among them, in which one king became the nominal head, but his 
suzerainty consisted rather in titular honour than in actual 
authority.

It was the Toltec race who developed the highest civilization and 
organised the most powerful empire of any of the Atlantean peoples, 
and it was then that the principle of heredity succession was for the 
first time established. The race was at first divided into a number 
of petty independent kingdoms, constantly at war with each other, and 
all at war with the Lemurio-Rmoahals of the south. These were 
gradually conquered and made subject peoples -- many of their tribes 
being reduced to slavery. About one million years ago, however, these 
separate kingdoms united in a great federation with a recognized 
emperor at its head. This was of course inaugurated by great wars, 
but the outcome was peace and prosperity for the race.

It must be remembered that humanity was still for the most part 
possessed of psychic attributes, and by this time the most advanced 
had undergone the necessary training in the occult schools, and had 
attained various stages of initiation -- some even reaching to 
Adeptship. Now the second of these emperors was an Adept, and for 
thousands of years the Divine dynasty ruled not only all the kingdoms 
into which Atlantis was divided but the islands on the West and the 
southern portion of the adjacent land lying to the east. When 
necessary, this dynasty was recruited from the Lodge of Initiates, 
but as a rule the power was handed down from father to son, all being 
more or less qualified, and the son in some cases receiving a further 
degree at the hands of his father. During all this period these 
Initiate rulers retained connection with the Occult Hierarchy which 
governs the world, submitting to its laws, and acting in harmony with 
its plans. This was the golden age of the Toltec race. The government 
was just and beneficent; the arts and sciences were cultivated -- 
indeed the workers in these fields, guided as they were by occult 
knowledge, achieved tremendous results; religious belief and ritual 
were still comparatively pure -- in fact the civilization of Atlantis 
had by this time reached its height.

Sorcery versus the Good Law
After about 100,000 years of this golden age the degeneracy and decay 
of the race set in. Many of the tributary kings, and large numbers of 
the priests and people ceased to use their faculties and powers in 
accordance with the laws made by their Divine rulers, whose precepts 
and advice were now disregarded. Their connection with the Occult 
Hierarchy was broken. Personal aggrandisement, the attainment of 
wealth and authority, the humiliation and ruin of their enemies 
became more and more the objects towards which their occult powers 
were directed: and thus turned from their lawful use, and practised 
for all sorts of selfish and malevolent purposes, they inevitably led 
to what we must call by the name of sorcery.

Surrounded as this word is with the odium which credulity on the one 
hand and imposture on the other have, during many centuries of 
superstition and ignorance, gradually caused it to be associated, let 
us consider for a moment its real meaning, and the terrible effects 
which its practice is ever destined to bring on the world.

Partly through their psychic faculties, which were not yet quenched 
in the depths of materiality to which the race afterwards descended, 
and partly through their scientific attainments during this 
culmination of Atlantean civilization, the most intellectual and 
energetic members of the race gradually obtained more and more 
insight into the working of Nature's laws, and more and more control 
over some of her hidden forces. Now the desecration of this knowledge 
and its use for selfish ends is what constitutes sorcery. The awful 
effects, too, of such desecration are well enough exemplified in the 
terrible catastrophes that overtook the race. For when once the black 
practice was inaugurated it was destined to spread in ever-widening 
circles. The higher spiritual guidance being thus withdrawn, the 
Kamic principle, which being the fourth, naturally reached its zenith 
during the Fourth Root Race, asserted itself more and more in 
humanity. Lust, brutality and ferocity were all on the increase, and 
the animal nature in man was approaching its most degraded 
expression. It was a moral question which from the very earliest 
times divided the Atlantean Race into two hostile camps, and what was 
begun in the Rmoahal times was terribly accentuated in the Toltec 
era. The battle of Armageddon is fought over and over again in every 
age of the world's history.

No longer submitting to the wise rule of the Initiate emperors, the 
followers of the "black arts" rose in rebellion and set up a rival 
emperor, who after much struggle and fighting drove the white emperor 
from his capital, the "City of the Golden Gates," and established 
himself on his throne.

The white emperor, driven northward, re-established himself in a city 
originally founded by the Tlavatli on the southern edge of the 
mountainous district, but which was now the seat of one of the 
tributary Toltec kings. This king gladly welcomed the white emperor 
and placed the city at his disposal. A few more of the tributary 
kings also remained loyal to him, but most transferred their 
allegiance to the new emperor reigning at the old capital. These, 
however, did not long remain faithful. Constant assertions of 
independence were made by the tributary kings, and continual battles 
were fought in different parts of the empire, the practice of sorcery 
being largely resorted to, to supplement the powers of destruction 
possessed by the armies.

These events took place about 50,000 years before the first great 
catastrophe.

>From this time onwards things went from bad to worse. The sorcerers 
used their powers more and more recklessly, and greater and greater 
numbers of people acquired and practised these terrible "black arts."

Then came the awful retribution when millions upon millions perished. 
The great "City of the Golden Gates" had by this time become a 
perfect den of iniquity. The waves swept over it and destroyed its 
inhabitants, and the "black" emperor and his dynasty fell to rise no 
more. The emperor of the north as well as the initiated priests 
throughout the whole continent had long been fully aware of the evil 
days at hand, and subsequent pages will tell of the many priest-led 
emigrations which preceded this catastrophe, as well as those of 
later date.

The continent was now terribly rent. But the actual amount of 
territory submerged by no means represented the damage done, for 
tidal waves swept over great tracts of land and left them desolate 
swamps. Whole provinces were rendered barren, and remained for 
generations in an uncultivated and desert condition.

The remaining population too had received a terrible warning. It was 
taken to heart, and sorcery was for a time less prevalent among them. 
A long period elapsed before any new powerful rule was established. 
We shall eventually find a Semite dynasty of sorcerers enthroned in 
the "City of the Golden Gates," but no Toltec power rose to eminence 
during the second map period. There were considerable Toltec 
populations still, but little of the pure blood remained on the 
mother continent.

On the island of Ruta however, in the third map period, a Toltec 
dynasty again rose to power and ruled through its tributary kings a 
large portion of the island. This dynasty was addicted to the black 
craft, which it must be understood became more and more prevalent 
during all the four periods, until it culminated in the inevitable 
catastrophe, which to a great extent purified the earth of the 
monstrous evil. It must also be borne in mind that down to the very 
end when Poseidonis disappeared an Initiate emperor or king -- or at 
least one acknowledging the "good law" -- held sway in some part of 
the island continent, acting under the guidance of the Occult 
Hierarchy in controlling where possible the evil sorcerers, and in 
guiding and instructing the small minority who were still willing to 
lead pure and wholesome lives. In later days this "white" king was as 
a rule elected by the priests - the handful, that is, who still 
followed the "good law."

Little more remains to be said about the Toltecs. In Poseidonis the 
population of the whole island was more or less mixed. Two kingdoms 
and one small republic in the west divided the island between them. 
The northern portion was ruled by an Initiate king. In the south too 
the hereditary principle had given way to election by the people. 
Exclusive race-dynasties were at an end, but kings of Toltec blood 
occasionally rose to power both in the north and south, the northern 
kingdom being constantly encroached upon by its southern rival, and 
more and more of its territory annexed.

Having dealt at some length with the state of things under the 
Toltecs, the leading political characteristics of the four following 
sub-races need not long detain us, for none of them reached the 
heights of civilization that the Toltecs did -- in fact the 
degeneration of the race had set in.

It seems to have been some sort of feudal system that the natural 
bent of the Turanian race tended to develop. Each chief was supreme 
on his own territory, and the king was only primus inter pares. The 
chiefs who formed his council occasionally murdered their king and 
set up one of their own number in his place. They were a turbulent 
and lawless race -- brutal and cruel also. The fact that at some 
periods of their history regiments of women took part in their wars 
is significant of the last named characteristics.

But the strange experiment they made in social life which, but for 
its political origin, would more naturally have been dealt with 
under "manners and customs," is the most interesting fact in their 
record. Being continually worsted in war with their Toltec 
neighbours, knowing themselves to be greatly outnumbered, and 
desiring above all things increase of population, laws were passed, 
by which every man was relieved from the direct burden of maintaining 
his family. The State took charge of and provided for the children, 
and they were looked upon as its property. This naturally tended to 
increase the birth-rate amongst the Turanians, and the ceremony of 
marriage came to be disregarded. The ties of family life, and the 
feeling of parental love were of course destroyed, and the scheme 
having been found to be a failure, was ultimately given up. Other 
attempts at finding socialistic solutions of economical problems 
which still vex us to-day, were tried and abandoned by this race.

The original Semites, who were a quarrelsome marauding and energetic 
race, always leant towards a patriarchal form of government. Their 
colonists, who generally took to the nomadic life, almost exclusively 
adopted this form, but as we have seen they developed a considerable 
empire in the days of the second map period, and possessed the 
great "City of the Golden Gates." They ultimately, however, had to 
give way before the growing power of the Akkadians.

It was in the third map period, about 100,000 years ago, that the 
Akkadians finally overthrew the Semite power. The 6th sub-race were a 
much more law-abiding people than their predecessors. Traders and 
sailors, they lived in settled communities, and naturally produced an 
oligarchical form of government. A peculiarity of theirs, of which 
Sparta is the only modern example, was the dual system of two kings 
reigning in one city. As a result probably of their sea-going taste, 
the study of the stars became a characteristic pursuit, and this race 
made great advances both in astronomy and astrology.

The Mongolian people were an improvement on their immediate ancestors 
of the brutal Turanian stock. Born as they were on the wide steppes 
of Eastern Siberia, they never had any touch with the mother-
continent, and owing, doubtless, to their environment, they became a 
nomadic people. More psychic and more religious than the Turanians 
from whom they sprang, the form of government towards which they 
gravitated required a suzerain in the background who should be 
supreme both as a territorial ruler and as a chief high priest.

Emigrations
Three causes contributed to produce emigrations. The Turanian race, 
as we have seen, was from its very start imbued with the spirit of 
colonizing, which it carried out on a considerable scale. The Semites 
and Akkadians were also to a certain extent colonizing races.

Then, as time went on and population tended more and more to outrun 
the limits of subsistence, necessity operated with the least well-to-
do in every race alike, and drove them to seek for a livelihood in 
less thickly populated countries. For it should be realized that when 
the Atlanteans reached their zenith in the Toltec era, the proportion 
of population to the square mile on the continent of Atlantis 
probably equalled, even if it did not exceed, our modern experience 
in England and Belgium. It is at all events certain that the vacant 
spaces available for colonizing were very much larger in that age 
than in ours, while the total population of the world, which at the 
present moment is probably not more than twelve hundred to fifteen 
hundred millions, amounted in those days to the big figure of about 
two thousand millions.

Lastly, there were the priest-led emigrations which took place prior 
to each catastrophe -- and there were many more of these than the 
four great ones referred to above. The initiated kings and priests 
who followed the "good law" were aware beforehand of the impending 
calamities. Each one, therefore, naturally became a centre of 
prophetic warning, and ultimately a leader of a band of colonists. It 
may be noted here that in later days the rulers of the country deeply 
resented these priest-led emigrations, as tending to impoverish and 
depopulate their kingdoms, and it became necessary for the emigrants 
to get on board ship secretly during the night.

In roughly tracing the lines of emigration followed by each sub-race 
in turn, we shall of necessity ultimately reach the lands which their 
respective descendants to-day occupy.

For the earliest emigrations we must go back to the Rmoahal days. It 
will be remembered that that portion of the race which inhabited the 
northeastern coasts alone retained its purity of blood. Harried on 
their southern borders and driven further north by the Tlavatli 
warriors, they began to overflow to the neighbouring land to the 
east, and to the still nearer promontory of Greenland. In the second 
map period no pure Rmoahals were left on the then reduced mother-
continent but the northern promontory of the continent then rising on 
the west was occupied by them, as well as the Greenland cape already 
mentioned, and the western shores of the great Scandinavian island. 
There was also a colony on the land lying north of the central Asian 
sea.

Brittany and Picardy then formed part of the Scandinavian island, 
while the island itself became in the third map period part of the 
growing continent of Europe. Now it is in France that remains of this 
race have been found in the quaternary strata, and the 
brachycephalous, or round-headed specimen known as the "Furfooz man," 
may be taken as a fair average of the type of the race in its decay.

Many times forced to move south by the rigours of a glacial epoch, 
many times driven north by the greed of their more powerful 
neighbours, the scattered and degraded remnants of this race may be 
found to-day in the modern Lapps, though even here there was some 
infusion of other blood. And so it comes to pass that these faded and 
stunted specimens of humanity are the lineal descendants of the black 
race of giants who arose on the equatorial lands of Lemuria well nigh 
five million years ago.

The Tlavatli colonists seem to have spread out towards every point of 
the compass. By the time of the second map period their descendants 
were settled on the western shores of the then growing American 
continent (California) as well as on its extreme southern coasts (Rio 
de Janeiro). We also find them occupying the eastern shores of the 
Scandinavian island, while numbers of them sailed across the ocean, 
rounded the coast of Africa, and reached India. There, mixing with 
the indigenous Lemurian population, they formed the Dravidian race. 
In later days this in its turn received an infusion of Aryan or Fifth 
Race blood, from which results the complexity of type found in India 
to-day. In fact we have here a very fair example of the extreme 
difficulty of deciding any question of race upon merely physical 
evidence, for it would be quite possible to have Fifth Race egos 
incarnate among the Brahmans, Fourth Race egos among the lower 
castes, and some lingering Third Race among the hill tribes.

By the time of the fourth map period we find a Tlavatli people 
occupying the southern parts of South America, from which it may be 
inferred that the Patagonians probably had remote Tlavatli ancestry.

Remains of this race, as of the Rmoahals, have been found in the 
quaternary strata of Central Europe, and the dolichocephalous "Cro-
Magnon man"[1] may be taken as an average specimen of the race in its 
decadence, while the "Lake-Dwellers" of Switzerland formed an even 
earlier and not quite pure offshoot. The only people who can be cited 
as fairly pure-blooded specimens of the race at the present day are 
some of the brown tribes of Indians of South America. The Burmese and 
Siamese have also Tlavatli blood in their veins, but in their case it 
was

[1. Students of' geology and palaeontology {sic} will know that these 
sciences regard the "Cro-Magnon man'' as prior to the "Furfooz," and 
seeing that the two races ran alongside each other for vast periods 
of time, it may quite well be that the individual ''Cro-Magnon" 
skeleton, though representative of the second race, was deposited in 
the quarternary {sic} strata thousands of years before the individual 
Furfooz man lived on the earth.]

mixed with, and therefore dominated by, the nobler stock of one of 
the Aryan sub-races.

We now come to the Toltecs. It was chiefly to the West that their 
emigrations tended, and the neighbouring coasts of the American 
continent were in the second map period peopled by a pure Toltec 
race, the greater part of those left on the mother-continent being 
then of very mixed blood. It was on the continents of North and South 
America that this race spread abroad and flourished, and on which 
thousands of years later were established the empires of Mexico and 
Peru. The greatness of these empires is a matter of history, or at 
least of tradition supplemented by such evidence as is afforded by 
magnificent architectural remains. It may here be noted that while 
the Mexican empire was for centuries great and powerful in all that 
is usually regarded as power and greatness in our civilization of to-
day, it never reached the height attained by the Peruvians about 
14,000 years ago under their Inca sovereigns, for as regards the 
general well-being of the people, the justice and beneficence of the 
government, the equitable nature of the land tenure, and the pure and 
religious life of the inhabitants, the Peruvian empire of those days 
might be considered a traditional though faint echo of the golden age 
of the Toltecs on the mother-continent of Atlantis.

The average Red Indian of North or South America is the best 
representative to-day of the Toltec people, but of course bears no 
comparison with the highly civilized individual of the race at its 
zenith.

First Settlement in Egypt
Egypt must now be referred to, and the consideration of this subject 
should let in a flood of light upon its early history. Although the 
first settlement in that country was not in the strict sense of the 
term a colony , it was from the Toltec race that was subsequently 
drawn the first great body of emigrants intended to mix with and 
dominate the aboriginal people.

In the first instance it was the transfer of a great Lodge of 
Initiates. This took place about 100,000 years ago. The golden age of 
the Toltecs was long past. The first great catastrophe had taken 
place. The moral degradation of the people and the consequent 
practice of the "black arts" were becoming more accentuated and 
widely spread. Purer surroundings for the White Lodge were needed. 
Egypt was isolated and was thinly peopled, and therefore Egypt was 
chosen. The settlement so made answered its purpose, and undisturbed 
by adverse conditions the Lodge of Initiates for nearly 200,000 years 
did its work.

About 210,000 years ago, when the time was ripe, the Occult Lodge 
founded an empire -- the first "Divine Dynasty" of Egypt -- and began 
to teach the people. Then it was that the first great body of 
colonists was brought from Atlantis, and some time during the ten 
thousand years that led up to the second catastrophe, the two great 
Pyramids of Gizeh were built, partly to provide permanent Halls of 
Initiation, but also to act as treasure-house and shrine for some 
great talisman of power during the submergence which the Initiates 
knew to be impending. Map No. 3 shows Egypt at that date as under 
water. It remained so for a considerable period, but on its re-
emergence it was again peopled by the descendants of many of its old 
inhabitants who had retired to the Abyssinian mountains (shown in Map 
No. 3 as an island) as well as by fresh bands of Atlantean colonists 
from various parts of the world. A considerable immigration of 
Akkadians then helped to modify the Egyptian type. This is the era of 
the second "Divine Dynasty" of Egypt -- the rulers of the country 
being again Initiated Adepts.

The catastrophe of 80,000 years ago again laid the country under 
water, but this time it was only a temporary wave. When it receded 
the third "Divine Dynasty" -- that mentioned by Manetho -- began its 
rule, and it was under the early kings of this dynasty that the great 
Temple of Karnak and many of the more ancient buildings still 
standing in Egypt were constructed. In fact with the exception of the 
two pyramids no building in Egypt predates the catastrophe of 80,000 
years ago.

The final submergence of Poseidonis sent another tidal wave over 
Egypt. This too, was only a temporary calamity, but it brought the 
Divine Dynasties to an end, for the Lodge of Initiates had 
transferred its quarters to other lands.

Various points here left untouched have already been dealt with in 
the Transaction of the London Lodge, "The Pyramids and Stonehenge."

The Turanians who in the first map period had colonized the northern 
parts of the land lying immediately to the east of Atlantis, occupied 
in the second map period its southern shores (which included the 
present Morocco and Algeria). We also find them wandering eastwards, 
and both the east and west coasts of the central Asian sea were 
Peopled by them. Bands of them ultimately moved still further east, 
and the nearest approximation to the type of this race is to-day to 
be found in the inland Chinese. A curious freak of destiny must be 
recorded about one of their western offshoots. Dominated all through 
the centuries by their more powerful Toltec neighbours, it was yet 
reserved for a small branch of the Turanian stock to conquer and 
replace the last great empire that the Toltecs raised, for the brutal 
and barely civilized Aztecs were of pure Turanian blood.

The Semite emigrations were of two kinds, first, those which were 
controlled by the natural impulse of the race: second, that special 
emigration which was effected under the direct guidance of the Manu; 
for, strange as it may seem, it was not from the Toltecs but from 
this lawless and turbulent, though vigorous and energetic, sub-race 
that was chosen the nucleus destined to be developed into our great 
Fifth or Aryan Race. The reason, no doubt, lay in the Mânasic 
characteristic with which the number five is always associated. The 
sub-race of that number was inevitably developing its physical brain 
power and intellect, although at the expense of the psychic 
perceptions, while that same development of intellect to infinitely 
higher levels is at once the glory and the destined goal of our Fifth 
Root Race.

Dealing first with the natural emigrations we find that in the second 
map period while still leaving powerful nations on the mother 
continent, the Semites had spread both west and east -- west to the 
lands now forming the United States, and thus accounting for the 
Semitic type to be found in some of the Indian races, and east to the 
northern shores of the neighbouring continent, which combined all 
there then was of Europe, Africa and Asia. The type of the ancient 
Egyptians, as well as of other neighbouring nations, was to some 
extent modified by this original Semite blood; but with the exception 
of the Jews, the only representatives of comparatively unmixed race 
at the present day are the lighter coloured Kabyles of the Algerian 
mountain.

The tribes resulting from the segregation effected by the Manu for 
the formation of the new Root Race eventually found their way to the 
southern shores of the Central Asian sea, and there the first great 
Aryan kingdom was established. When the Transaction dealing with the 
origin of a Root Race comes to be written, it will be seen that many 
of the peoples we are accustomed to call Semitic are really Aryan in 
blood. The world will also be enlightened as to what constitutes the 
claim of the Hebrews to be considered a "chosen people." Shortly it 
may be stated that they constitute an abnormal and unnatural link 
between the Fourth and Fifth Root Races {sic}.[1]

The Akkadians, though eventually becoming supreme rulers on the 
mother continent of Atlantis, owed their birthplace as we have seen 
in the second map period, to the neighbouring continent - that part 
occupied by the basin of the Mediterranean

[1. See W. Williamson's The Great Law, pp. 243-5.]

about the present island of Sardinia being their special home. From 
this centre they spread eastwards, occupying what eventually became 
the shores of the Levant, and reaching as far as Persia and Arabia. 
As we have seen, they also helped to people Egypt. The early 
Etruscans, the Phoenicians, including the Carthaginians and the 
Shumero-Akkads, were branches of this race, while the Basques of to-
day have probably more of the Akkadian than of any other blood which 
flows in their veins.

Stonehenge
A reference to the early inhabitants of our own islands may 
appropriately be made here, for it was in the early Akkadian days, 
about 100,000 years ago, that the colony of Initiates who founded 
Stonehenge landed on these shores -- "these shores" being, of course, 
the shores of the Scandinavian part of the continent of Europe, as 
shown in Map No. 3. The initiated priests and their followers appear 
to have belonged to a very early strain of the Akkadian race -- they 
were taller, fairer, and longer headed than the aborigines of the 
country, who were a very mixed race, but mostly degenerate remnants 
of the Rmoahals. As readers of the Transaction of the London Lodge on 
the "Pyramids and Stonehenge," will know, the rude simplicity of 
Stonehenge was intended as a protest against the extravagant ornament 
and over-decoration of the existing temples in Atlantis, where the 
debased worship of their own images was being carried on by the 
inhabitants.

The Mongolians, as we have seen, never had any touch with the mother-
continent. Born on the wide plains of Tartary, their emigrations for 
long found ample scope within those regions; but more than once 
tribes of Mongol descent have overflowed from northern Asia to 
America, across Behring's Straits, and the last of such emigrations --
 that of the Kitans, some 1,300 years ago -- has left traces which 
some western savants have been able to follow. The presence of 
Mongolian blood in some tribes of North American Indians has also 
been recognized by various writers on ethnology. The Hungarians and 
Malays are both known to be offshoots of this race, ennobled in the 
one case by a strain of Aryan blood, degraded in the other by mixture 
with the effete Lemurians. But the interesting fact about the 
Mongolians is that its last family race is still in full force - it 
has not in fact yet reached its zenith -- and the Japanese nation has 
still got history to give to the world. [1]

Arts and Sciences
It must primarily be recognized that our own Aryan race has naturally 
achieved far greater results in almost every direction than did the 
Atlanteans, but even where they failed to reach our level, the 
records of what they accomplished are of interest as representing the 
high water mark which their tide of

[1. Since the above was written the Russo-Japanese war has taken 
place.]

civilization reached. On the other hand, the character of the 
scientific achievements in which they did outstrip us are of so 
dazzling a nature, that bewilderment at such unequal development is 
apt to be the feeling left.

The arts and sciences, as practised by the first two races, were, of 
course, crude in the extreme, but we do not propose to follow the 
progress achieved by each sub-race separately. The history of the 
Atlantean, as of the Aryan race, was interspersed with periods of 
progress and of decay. Eras of culture were followed by times of 
lawlessness, during which all artistic and scientific development was 
lost, these again being succeeded by civilizations reaching to still 
higher levels. It must naturally be with the periods of culture that 
the following remarks will deal, chief among which stands out the 
great Toltec era.

Architecture and sculpture, painting and music were all practised in 
Atlantis. The music even at the best of times was crude, and the 
instruments of the most primitive type. All the Atlantean races were 
fond of colour, and brilliant hues decorated both the insides and the 
outsides of their houses, but painting as a fine art was never well 
established, though in the later days some kind of drawing and 
painting was taught in the schools. Sculpture, on the other hand, 
which was also taught in the schools, was widely practised, and 
reached great excellence. As we shall see later on under the head 
of "Religion" it became customary for every man who could afford it 
to place in one of the temples an image of himself. These were 
sometimes carved in wood or in hard black stone like basalt, but 
among the wealthy it became the fashion to have their statues cast in 
one of the precious metals, aurichalcum, gold or silver. A very fair 
resemblance of the individual usually resulted, while in some cases a 
striking likeness was achieved.

Architecture
Architecture, however, was naturally the most widely practised of the 
arts. Their buildings were massive structures of gigantic 
proportions. The dwelling houses in the cities were not, as ours are, 
closely crowded together in streets. Like their country houses some 
stood in their own garden grounds, others were separated by plots of 
common land, but all were isolated structures. In the case of houses 
of any importance four blocks of building surrounded a central 
courtyard, in the centre of which generally stood one of the 
fountains whose number in the "City of the Golden Gates" gained for 
it the second appellation of the "City of Waters." There was no 
exhibition of goods for sale as in modern streets. All transactions 
of buying and selling took place privately, except at stated times, 
when large public fairs were held in the open spaces of the cities. 
But the characteristic feature of the Toltec house was the tower that 
rose from one of its corners or from the centre of one of the blocks. 
A spiral staircase built outside led to the upper stories, and a 
pointed dome terminated the tower -- this upper portion being very 
commonly used as an observatory. As already stated the houses were 
decorated with bright colours. Some were ornamented with carvings, 
others with frescoes or painted patterns. The window-spaces were 
filled with some manufactured article similar to, but less 
transparent than, glass. The interiors were not furnished with the 
elaborate detail of our modern dwellings, but the life was highly 
civilized of its kind.

The temples were huge halls resembling more than anything else the 
gigantic piles of Egypt, but built on a still more stupendous scale. 
The pillars supporting the roof were generally square, seldom 
circular. In the days of the decadence the aisles were surrounded 
with innumerable chapels in which were enshrined the statues of the 
more important inhabitants. These side shrines indeed were 
occasionally of such considerable size as to admit a whole retinue of 
priests, whom some specially great man might have in his service for 
the ceremonial worship of his image. Like the private houses the 
temples too were never complete without the dome-capped towers, which 
of course were of corresponding size and magnificence. These were 
used for astronomical observations and for sun-worship.

The precious metals were largely used in the adornment of the 
temples, the interiors being often not merely inlaid but plated with 
gold. Gold and silver were highly valued, but as we shall see later 
on when the subject of the currency is dealt with, the uses to which 
they were put were entirely artistic and had nothing to do with 
coinage, while the great quantities that were then produced by the 
chemists -- or as we should now-a-days call them alchemists -- may be 
said to have taken them out of the category of the precious metals. 
This power of transmutation of metals was not universal, but it was 
so widely possessed that enormous quantities were made. In fact the 
production of the wished-for metals may be regarded as one of the 
industrial enterprises of those days by which these alchemists gained 
their living. Gold was admired even more than silver, and was 
consequently produced in much greater quantity.

Education
A few words on the subject of language will fitly prelude a 
consideration of the training in the schools and colleges of 
Atlantis. During the first map period Toltec was the universal 
language, not only throughout the continent but in the western 
islands and that part of the eastern continent which recognized the 
emperor's rule. Remains of the Rmoahal and Tlavath speech survived it 
is true in out-of-the-way parts, just as the Celtic and Cymric speech 
survives to-day among us in Ireland and Wales. The Tlavatli tongue 
was the basis used by the Turanians, who introduced such 
modifications that an entirely different language was in time 
produced; while the Semites and Akkadians, adopting a Toltec ground-
work, modified it in their respective ways, and so produced two 
divergent varieties. Thus in the later days of Poseidonis there were 
several entirely different languages -- all however belonging to the 
agglutinative type -- for it was not till Fifth Race days that the 
descendants of the Semites and Akkadians developed inflectional 
speech. All through the ages, however, the Toltec language fairly 
maintained its purity, and the same tongue that was spoken in 
Atlantis in the days of its splendour was used, with but slight 
alteration, thousands of years later in Mexico and Peru.

The schools and colleges of Atlantis in the great Toltec days, as 
well as in subsequent eras of culture, were all endowed by the State. 
Though every child was required to pass through the primary schools, 
the subsequent training differed very widely. The primary schools 
formed a sort of winnowing ground. Those who showed real aptitude for 
study were, along with the children of the dominant classes who 
naturally had greater abilities, drafted into the higher schools at 
about the age of twelve. Reading and writing, which were regarded as 
mere preliminaries, had already been taught them in the primary 
schools.

But reading and writing were not considered necessary for the great 
masses of the inhabitants who had to spend their lives in tilling the 
land, or in handicrafts, the practice of which was required by the 
community. The great majority of the children therefore were at once 
passed on to the technical schools best suited to their various 
abilities. Chief among these were the agricultural schools. Some 
branches of mechanics also formed part of the training, while in 
outlying districts and by the sea-side hunting and fishing were 
naturally included. And so the children all received the education or 
training which was most appropriate for them.

The children of superior abilities, who as we have seen had been 
taught to read and write, had a much more elaborate education. The 
properties of plants and their healing qualities formed an important 
branch of study. There were no recognized physicians in those days -- 
every educated man knew more or less of medicine as well as of 
magnetic healing. Chemistry, mathematics and astronomy were also 
taught. The training in such studies finds its analogy among 
ourselves, but the object towards which the teachers' efforts were 
mainly directed, was the development of the pupil's psychic faculties 
and his instruction in the more hidden forces of nature. The occult 
properties of plants, metals, and precious stones, as well as the 
alchemical processes of transmutation, were included in this 
category. But as time went on it became more and more the personal 
power, which Bulwer Lytton calls vril, and the operation of which he 
has fairly accurately described in his Coming Race, that the colleges 
for the higher training of the youth of Atlantis were specially 
occupied in developing. The marked change which took place when the 
decadence of the race set in was, that instead of merit and aptitude 
being regarded as warrants for advancement to the higher grades of 
instruction, the dominant classes becoming more and more exclusive 
allowed none but their own children to graduate in the higher 
knowledge which gave so much power.

Agriculture
In such an empire as the Toltec, agriculture naturally received much 
attention. Not only were the labourers taught their duties in 
technical schools, but colleges were established in which the 
knowledge necessary for carrying out experiments in the crossing both 
of animals and plants, was taught to fitting students.

It is said that wheat was not evolved on this planet at all. It was 
the gift of the Manu who brought it from another globe outside our 
chain of worlds. But oats and some of our other cereals are the 
results of crosses between wheat and the wild grasses of the earth. 
Now the experiments which gave these results were carried out in the 
agricultural schools of Atlantis. Of course such experiments were 
guided by high knowledge. But the most notable achievement to be 
recorded of the Atlantean agriculturists was the evolution of the 
plantain or banana. In the original wild state it was like an 
elongated melon with scarcely any pulp, but full of seeds as a melon 
is. It was of course only by centuries (if not thousands of years) of 
continuous selection and elimination that the present almost seedless 
plant was evolved.

Among the domesticated animals of the Toltec days were creatures that 
looked like very small tapirs. They naturally fed upon roots or 
herbage, but like the pigs of to-day, which they resembled in more 
than one particular, they were not over cleanly, and ate whatever 
came in their way. Large cat-like animals and the wolf-like ancestors 
of the dog might also be met about human habitations. The Toltec 
carts appear to have been drawn by creatures somewhat resembling 
small camels. The Peruvian llamas of today are probably their 
descendants. The ancestors of the Irish elk, too, roamed in herds 
about the hill sides in much the same way as our Highland cattle do 
now -- too wild to allow of easy approach, but still under the 
control of man.

Constant experiments were made in breeding and cross-breeding 
different kinds of animals, and, curious though it may seem to us, 
artificial heat was largely used to force their development, so that 
the results of crossing and interbreeding might be more quickly 
apparent. The use, too, of different coloured lights in the chambers 
where such experiments were carried on were adopted in order to 
obtain varying results.

This control and moulding at will by man of the animal forms brings 
us to a rather startling and very mysterious subject. Reference has 
been made above to the work done by the Manus. Now it is in the mind 
of the Manu that originates all improvements in type and the 
potentialities latent in every form of being. In order to work out in 
detail the improvements in the animal forms, the help and co-
operation of man were required. The amphibian and reptile forms which 
then abounded had about run their course, and were ready to assume 
the more advanced type of bird or mammal. These forms constituted the 
inchoate material placed at man's disposal, and the clay was ready to 
assume whatever shape the potter's hands might mould it into. It was 
specially with animals in the intermediate stage that so many of the 
experiments above referred to were tried, and doubtless the 
domesticated animals like the horse, which are now of such service to 
man, are the result of these experiments in which the men of those 
days acted in co-operation with the Manu and his ministers. But the 
co-operation was too soon withdrawn. Selfishness obtained the upper 
hand, and war and discord brought the Golden Age of the Toltecs to a 
close. When instead of working loyally for a common end, under the 
guidance of their Initiate kings, men began to prey upon each other, 
the beasts which might gradually have assumed, under the care of man, 
more and more useful and domesticated forms, being left to the 
guidance of their own instincts naturally followed the example of 
their monarch, and began to prey more and more upon each other. Some 
indeed had actually already been trained and used by men in their 
hunting expeditions, and thus the semi-domesticated cat-like animals 
above referred to naturally became the ancestors of the leopards and 
jaguars.

City of the Golden Gates
The "City of the Golden Gates" and its surroundings must be described 
before we come to consider the remarkable system by which its 
inhabitants were supplied with water. It lay, as we have seen, on the 
east coast of the continent close to the sea, and about 15º north of 
the equator. A beautifully wooded park-like country surrounded the 
city. Scattered over a large area of this were the villa residences 
of the wealthier classes. To the west lay a range of mountains, from 
which the water supply of the city was drawn. The city itself was 
built on the slopes of a hill, which rose from the plain about 500 
feet. On the summit of this hill lay the emperor's palace and 
gardens, in the centre of which welled up from the earth a never-
ending stream of water, supplying first the palace and the fountains 
in the gardens, thence flowing in the four directions and falling in 
cascades into a canal or moat which encompassed the palace grounds, 
and thus separated them from the city which lay below on every side. 
>From this canal four channels led the water through four quarters of 
the city to cascades which in their turn supplied another encircling 
canal at a lower level. There were three such canals forming 
concentric circles, the outermost and lowest of which was still above 
the level of the plain. A fourth canal at this lowest level, but on a 
rectangular plan, received the constantly flowing waters, and in its 
turn discharged them into the sea. The city extended over part of the 
plain, up to the edge of this great outermost moat, which surrounded 
and defended it with a line of waterways extending about twelve miles 
by ten miles square.

It will thus be seen that the city was divided into three great 
belts, each hemmed in by its canals. The characteristic feature of 
the upper belt that lay Just below the palace grounds, was a circular 
racecourse and large public gardens. Most of the houses of the court 
officials also lay on this belt, and here also was an institution of 
which we have no parallel in modern times. The term "Strangers' Home" 
amongst us suggests a mean appearance and sordid surroundings, but 
this was a palace where all strangers who might come to the city were 
entertained as long as they might choose to stay -- being treated all 
the time as guests of the Government. The detached houses of the 
inhabitants and the various temples scattered throughout the city 
occupied the other two belts. In the days of the Toltec greatness 
there seems to have been no real poverty -- even the retinue of 
slaves attached to most houses being well fed and clothed -- but 
there were a number of comparatively poor houses in the lowest belt 
to the north, as well as outside the outermost canal towards the sea. 
The inhabitants of this part were mostly connected with the shipping, 
and their houses, though detached, were built closer together than in 
other districts.

It will be seen from the above that the inhabitants had thus a never-
failing supply of pure clear water constantly coursing through the 
city, while the upper belts and the emperor's palace were protected 
by lines of moats, each one at a higher level as the centre was 
approached. It was from a lake which lay among the mountains to the 
west of the city, at an elevation of about 2,600 feet, that the 
supply was drawn.

Now it does not require much mechanical knowledge in order to realise 
how stupendous must have been the works needed to provide this 
supply, for in the days of its greatness the "City of the Golden 
Gates" embraced within its four circles of moats over two million 
inhabitants. No such system of water supply has ever been attempted 
in Greek, Roman or modern times -- indeed it is very doubtful whether 
our ablest engineers, even at the expenditure of untold wealth, could 
produce such a result.

Air-Ships
If the system of water supply in the "City of the Golden Gates" was 
wonderful, the Atlantean methods of locomotion must be recognised as 
still more marvellous, for the air-ship or flying-machine which Keely 
in America, and Maxim in this country are now attempting to produce, 
was then a realised fact. It was not at any time a common means of 
transport. The slaves, the servants, and the masses who laboured with 
their hands, had to trudge along the country tracks, or travel in 
rude carts with solid wheels drawn by uncouth animals. The air-boats 
may be considered as the private carriages of those days, or rather 
the private yachts, if we regard the relative number of those who 
possessed them, for they must have been at all times difficult and 
costly to produce. They were not as a rule built to accommodate many 
persons. Numbers were constructed for only two, some allowed for six 
or eight passengers. In the later days when war and strife had 
brought the Golden Age to an end, battle ships that could navigate 
the air had to a great extent replaced the battle ships at sea -- 
having naturally proved far more powerful engines of destruction. 
These were constructed to carry as many as fifty, and in some cases 
even up to a hundred fighting men.

The material of which the air-boats were constructed was either wood 
or metal. The earlier ones were built of wood - the boards used being 
exceedingly thin, but the injection of some substance which did not 
add materially to the weight, while it gave leather-like toughness, 
provided the necessary combination of lightness and strength. When 
metal was used it was generally an alloy -- two white-coloured metals 
and one red one entering into its composition. The resultant was 
white-coloured, like aluminium {sic}, and even lighter in weight. 
Over the rough framework of the air-boat was extended a large sheet 
of this metal, which was then beaten into shape, and electrically 
welded where necessary. But whether built of metal or wood their 
outside surface was apparently seamless and perfectly smooth, and 
they shone in the dark as if coated with luminous paint.

In shape they were boat-like, but they were invariably decked over, 
for when at full speed it could not have been convenient, even if 
safe, for any on board to remain on the upper deck. Their propelling 
and steering gear could be brought into use at either end.

But the all-interesting question is that relating to the power by 
which they were propelled. In the earlier times it seems to have been 
personal vril that supplied the motive power -- whether used in 
conjunction with any mechanical contrivance matters not much -- but 
in the later days this was replaced by a force which, though 
generated in what is to us an unknown manner, operated nevertheless 
through definite mechanical arrangements. This force, though not yet 
discovered by science, more nearly approached that which Keely in 
America used to handle than the electric power used by Maxim. It was 
in fact of an etheric nature, but though we are no nearer to the 
solution of this problem, its method of operation can be described. 
The mechanical arrangements no doubt differed somewhat in different 
vessels. The following description is taken from an air-boat in which 
on one occasion three ambassadors from the king who ruled over the 
northern part of Poseidonis made the journey to the court of the 
southern kingdom. A strong heavy metal chest which lay in the centre 
of the boat was the generator. Thence the force flowed through two 
large flexible tubes to either end of the vessel, as well as through 
eight subsidiary tubes fixed fore and aft to the bulwarks. These had 
double openings pointing vertically both up and down. When the 
journey was about to begin the valves of the eight bulwark tubes 
which pointed downwards were opened -- all the other valves being 
closed. The current rushing through these impinged on the earth with 
such force as to drive the boat upwards, while the air itself 
continued to supply the necessary fulcrum. When a sufficient 
elevation was reached the flexible tube at that end of the vessel 
which pointed away from the desired destination, was brought into 
action, while by the partial closing of the valves the current 
rushing through the eight vertical tubes was reduced to the small 
amount required to maintain the elevation reached. The great volume 
of current, being now directed through the large tube pointing 
downwards from the stern at an angle of about forty-five degrees, 
while helping to maintain the elevation, provided also the great 
motive power to propel the vessel through the air. The steering was 
accomplished by the discharge of the current through this tube, for 
the slightest change in its direction at once caused an alteration in 
the vessel's course. But constant supervision was not required. When 
a long journey had to be taken the tube could be fixed so as to need 
no handling till the destination was almost reached. The maximum 
speed attained was about one hundred miles an hour, the course of 
flight never being a straight line, but always in the form of long 
waves, now approaching and now receding from the earth. The elevation 
at which the vessels travelled was only a few hundred feet -- indeed, 
when high mountains lay in the line of their track it was necessary 
to change their course and go round them -- the more rarefied air no 
longer supplying the necessary fulcrum. Hills of about one thousand 
feet were the highest they could cross. The means by which the vessel 
was brought to a stop on reaching its destination -- and this could 
be done equally well in mid-air -- was to give escape to some of the 
current force through the tube at that end of the boat which pointed 
towards its destination, and the current impinging on the land or air 
in front, acted as a drag, while the propelling force behind was 
gradually reduced by the closing of the valve. The reason has still 
to be given for the existence of the eight tubes pointing upwards 
from the bulwarks. This had more especially to do with the aerial 
warfare. Having so powerful a force at their disposal, the warships 
naturally directed the current against each other. Now this was apt 
to destroy the equilibrium of the ship so struck and to turn it 
upside down -- a situation sure to be taken advantage of by the 
enemy's vessel to make an attack with her ram. There was also the 
further danger of being precipitated to the ground, unless the 
shutting and opening of the necessary valves were quickly attended 
to. In whatever position the vessel might be, the tubes pointing 
towards the earth were naturally those through which the current 
should be rushing, while the tubes pointing upwards should be closed. 
The means by which a vessel turned upside down, might be righted and 
placed again on a level keel, was accomplished by using the four 
tubes pointing downwards at one side of the vessel only, while the 
four at the other side were kept closed.

The Atlanteans had also sea-going vessels which were propelled by 
some power analogous to that above mentioned, but the current force 
which was eventually found to be most effective in this case was 
denser than that used in the air-boats.

Manners and Custom
There was doubtless as much variety in the manners and customs of the 
Atlanteans at different epochs of their history, as there has been 
among the various nations which compose our Aryan race. With the 
fluctuating fashion of the centuries we are not concerned. The 
following remarks will attempt to deal merely with the leading 
characteristics which differentiate their habits from our own, and 
these will be chosen as much as possible from the great Toltec area.

With regard to marriage and the relations of the sexes the 
experiments made by the Turanians have already been referred to. 
Polygamous customs were prevalent at different times among all the 
sub-races, but in the Toltec days while two wives were allowed by the 
law, great numbers of men had only one wife. Nor were the women -- as 
in countries now-a-days where polygamy prevails -- regarded as 
inferiors, or in the least oppressed. Their position was quite equal 
to that of the men, while the aptitude many of them displayed in 
acquiring the vril-power made them fully the equals if not the 
superiors of the other sex. This equality indeed was recognised from 
infancy, and there was no separation of the sexes in schools or 
colleges. Boys and girls were taught together. It was the rule, too, 
and not the exception, for complete harmony to prevail in the dual 
households, and the mothers taught their children to look equally to 
their father's wives for love and protection. Nor were women debarred 
from taking part in the government. Sometimes they were members of 
the councils, and occasionally even were chosen by the Adept emperor 
to represent him in the various provinces as the local sovereigns.

The writing material of the Atlanteans consisted of thin sheets of 
metal, on the white porcelain-like surface of which the words were 
written. They also had the means of reproducing the written text by 
placing on the inscribed sheet another thin metal plate which had 
previously been dipped in some liquid. The text thus graven on the 
second plate could be reproduced at will on other sheets, a great 
number of which fastened together constituted a book.

Food
A custom which differs considerably from our own must be instanced 
next, in their choice of food. It is an unpleasant subject, but can 
scarcely be passed over . The flesh of the animals they usually 
discarded, while the parts which among us are avoided as food, were 
by them devoured. The blood also they drank -- often hot from the 
animal -- and various cooked dishes were also made of it.

It must not, however, be thought that they were without the lighter, 
and to us, more palatable, kinds of food. The seas and rivers 
provided them with fish, the flesh of which they ate, though often in 
such an advanced stage of decomposition as would be to us revolting. 
The different grains were largely cultivated, of which were made 
bread and cakes. They also had milk, fruit and vegetables.

A small minority of the inhabitants, it is true, never adopted the 
revolting customs above referred to. This was the case with the Adept 
kings and emperors and the initiated priesthood throughout the whole 
empire. They were entirely vegetarian in their habits, but though 
many of the emperor's counsellors and the officials about the court 
affected to prefer the purer diet, they often indulged in secret 
their grosser tastes.

Nor were strong drinks unknown in those days. Fermented liquor of a 
very potent sort was at one time much in vogue. But it was so apt to 
make those who drank it dangerously excited that a law was passed 
absolutely forbidding its consumption.

Weapons
The weapons of warfare and the chase differed considerably at 
different epochs. Swords and spears, bows and arrows sufficed as a 
rule for the Rmoahals and the Tlavatli. The beasts which they hunted 
at that very early period were mammoths with long woolly hair, 
elephants and hippopotami. Marsupials also abounded as well as 
survivals of intermediate types -- some being half reptile and half 
mammal, others half reptile and half bird.

The use of explosives was adopted at an early period, and carried to 
great perfection in later times. Some appear to have been made to 
explode on concussion, others after a certain interval of time, but 
in either case the destruction to life seems to have resulted from 
the release of some poisonous vapour, not from the impact of bullets. 
So powerful indeed must have become these explosives in later 
Atlantean times, that we hear of whole companies of men being 
destroyed in battle by the noxious gas generated by the explosion of 
one of these bombs above their heads, thrown there by some sort of 
lever.

Money
The monetary system must now be considered. During the first three 
sub-races at all events, such a thing as a State coinage was unknown. 
Small pieces of metal or leather stamped with some given value were, 
it is true, used as tokens. Having a perforation in the centre they 
were strung together, and were usually carried at the girdle. But 
each man was, as it were, his own coiner, and the leather or metal 
token fabricated by him and exchanged with another for value 
received, was but a personal acknowledgment of indebtedness, such as 
a promissory note is among us. No man was entitled to fabricate more 
of these tokens than he was able to redeem by the transfer of goods 
in his possession. The tokens did not circulate as coinage does, 
while the holder of the token had the means to estimate with perfect 
accuracy the resources of his debtor by the clairvoyant faculty which 
all then possessed to a greater or less degree, and which in any case 
of doubt was instantly directed to ascertain the actual state of the 
facts.

It must be stated, however, that in the later days of Poseidonis, a 
system approximating to our own currency was adopted, and the triple 
mountain visible from the great southern capital was the favourite 
representation on the State coinage.

Land Tenure
But the system of land tenure is the most important subject under 
this heading. Among the Rmoahal and Tlavatli, who lived chiefly by 
hunting and fishing, the question naturally did not arise, though 
some system of village cultivation was recognized in the Tlavatli 
days.

It was with the increase of population and civilization in the early 
Toltec times that land first became worth fighting for. It is not 
proposed to trace the system or want of system prevalent in the 
troublous times anterior to the advent of the Golden Age. But the 
records of that epoch present to the consideration, not only of 
political economists, but of all who regard the welfare of the race, 
subject of the utmost interest and importance.

The population, it must be remembered, had been steadily increasing, 
and under the government of the Adept emperors it had reached the 
very large figure already quoted; nevertheless poverty and want were 
things undreamt of in those days, and this social well-being was no 
doubt partly due to the system of land tenure.

Not only was all the land and its produce regarded as belonging to 
the emperor, but all the flocks and herds upon it were his as well. 
The country was divided into different provinces or districts, each 
province having at its head one of the subsidiary kings or viceroys 
appointed by the emperor. Each of these viceroys was held responsible 
for the government and well-being of all the inhabitants under his 
rule. The tillage of the land, the harvesting of the crops, and the 
pasturage of the herds lay within his sphere of superintendence as 
well as the conducting of such agricultural experiments as have been 
already referred to.

Each viceroy had round him a council of agricultural advisers and 
coadjutors, who had amongst their other duties to be well versed in 
astronomy, for it was not a barren science in those days. The occult 
influences on plant and animal life were then studied and taken 
advantage of. The power, too, of producing rain at will was not 
uncommon then, while the effects of a glacial epoch were on more than 
one occasion partly neutralized in the northern parts of the 
continent by occult science. The right day for beginning every 
agricultural operation was of course duly calculated, and the work 
carried into effect by the officials whose duty it was to supervise 
every detail. The produce raised in each district or kingdom was as a 
rule consumed in it, but an exchange of agricultural commodities was 
sometimes arranged between the rulers.

After a small share had been put aside for the emperor and the 
central government at the "City of the Golden Gates," the produce of 
the whole district or kingdom was divided among the inhabitants - the 
local viceroy and his retinue of officials naturally receiving the 
larger portions, but the meanest agricultural labourer getting enough 
to secure him competence and comfort. Any increase in the productive 
capacity of the land, or in the mineral wealth which it yielded, was 
divided proportionately amongst all concerned -- all, therefore, were 
interested in making the result of their combined labour as lucrative 
as possible.

This system worked admirably for a very long period. But as time went 
on negligence and self-seeking crept in. Those whose duty it was to 
superintend, threw more and more responsibility on their inferiors in 
office, and in time it became rare for the rulers to interfere or to 
interest themselves in any of the operations. This was the beginning 
of the evil days. The members of the dominant class who had 
previously given all their time to the state duties began to think 
about making their own lives more pleasant. The elaboration of luxury 
was setting in.

There was one cause in particular which produced great discontent 
amongst the lower classes. The system under which the youth of the 
nation was drafted into the technical schools has already been 
referred to. Now it was always one of the superior class whose 
psychic faculties had been duly cultivated, to whom the duty was 
assigned of selecting the children so that each one should receive 
the training, and ultimately be devoted to the occupation, for which 
he was naturally most fitted. But when those possessed of the 
clairvoyant vision, by which alone such choice could be made, 
delegated their duties to inferiors who were wanting in such psychic 
attributes, the results ensuing were that the children were often 
thrust into wrong grooves, and those whose capacity and taste lay in 
one direction often found themselves tied for life to an occupation 
which they disliked, and in which, therefore, they were rarely 
successful.

The systems of land tenure which ensued in different parts of the 
empire on the breaking tip of the great Toltec dynasty were many and 
various. But it is not necessary to follow them. In the later days of 
Poseidonis they had, as a rule, given place to the system of 
individual ownership which we know so well.

Reference has already been made, under the head of "Emigrations," to 
the system of land tenure which prevailed during that glorious period 
of Peruvian history when the Incas held sway about 14,000 years ago. 
A short summary of this may be of interest as demonstrating the 
source from which its groundwork was doubtless derived, as well as 
instancing the variations which had been adopted in this somewhat 
more complicated system.

All title to land was derived in the first instance from the Inca, 
but half of it was assigned to the cultivators, who of course 
constituted the great bulk of the population. The other half was 
divided between the Inca and the priesthood who celebrated the 
worship of the sun.

Out of the proceeds of his specially allotted lands the Inca had to 
keep up the army, the roads throughout the whole empire, and all the 
machinery of government. This was conducted by a special governing 
class, all more or less closely related to the Inca himself, and 
representing a civilization and a culture much in advance of the 
great masses of the population.

The remaining fourth -- "the lands of the sun" -- provided not only 
for the priests who conducted the public worship throughout the 
empire, but for the entire education of the people in schools and 
colleges, for all sick and infirm persons, and finally, for every 
inhabitant (exclusive, of course, of the governing class for whom 
there was no cessation of work) on reaching the age of forty-five, 
that being the age arranged for the hard work of life to cease, and 
for leisure and enjoyment to begin.

Religion
The only subject that now remains to be dealt with is the evolution 
of religious ideas. Between the spiritual aspiration of a rude but 
simple race and the degraded ritual of an intellectually cultured but 
spiritually dead people, lies a gulf which only the term religion, 
used in its widest acceptation, can span. Nevertheless, it is this 
consecutive process of generation and degeneration which has to be 
traced in the history of the Atlantean people.

It will be remembered that the government under which the Rmoahals 
came into existence, was described as the most perfect conceivable, 
for it was the Manu himself who acted as their king. The memory of 
this divine ruler was naturally preserved in the annals of the race, 
and in due time he came to be regarded as a god, among a people who 
were naturally psychic, and had consequently glimpses of those states 
of consciousness which transcend our ordinary waking condition. 
Retaining these higher attributes it was only natural that this 
primitive people should adopt a religion which, though in no way 
representative of any exalted philosophy, was of a type far from 
ignoble. In later days this phase of religious belief passed into a 
kind of ancestor-worship.

The Tlavatli, while inheriting the traditional reverence and worship 
for the Manu, were taught by Adept instructors of the existence of a 
Supreme Being whose symbol was recognised as the sun. They thus 
developed a sort of sun worship, for the practice of which they 
repaired to the hill-tops. There they built great circles of upright 
monoliths. These were intended to be symbolical of the sun's yearly 
course, but they were also used for astronomical purposes -- being 
placed so that, to one standing at the high altar, the sun would rise 
at the winter solstice behind one of these monoliths, at the vernal 
equinox behind another, and so on throughout the year. Astronomical 
observations of a still more complex character connected with the 
more distant constellations were also helped by these stone circles.

We have already seen under the head of emigrations how a later sub-
race -- the Akkadians -- in the erection of Stonehenge, reverted to 
this primitive building of monoliths.

Endowed though the Tlavatli were with somewhat greater capacity for 
intellectual development than the previous sub-race, their cult was 
still of a very primitive type.

With the wider diffusion of knowledge in the days of the Toltecs, and 
more especially with the establishment later on of an initiated 
priesthood and an Adept emperor, increased opportunities were offered 
to the people for the attainment of a truer conception of the divine. 
The few who were ready to take full advantage of the teaching 
offered, after having been tried and tested, were doubtless admitted 
into the ranks of the priesthood, which then constituted an immense 
occult fraternity. With these, however, who had so outstripped the 
mass of humanity, as to be ready to begin the progress of the occult 
path, we are not here concerned, the religions practised by the 
inhabitants of Atlantis generally being the subject of our 
investigation.

The power to rise to philosophic heights of thought was of course 
wanting to the masses of those days, as it is similarly wanting to 
the great majority of the inhabitants of the world to-day. The 
nearest approach which the most gifted teacher could make in 
attempting to convey any idea of the nameless and all-pervading 
essence of the Cosmos was necessarily imparted in the form of 
symbols, and the sun naturally enough was the first symbol adopted. 
As in our own days too, the more cultivated and spiritually-minded 
would see through the symbol, and might sometimes rise on the wings 
of devotion to the Father of our spirits, that

"Motive and centre of our soul's desire,
Object and refuge of our journey's end," 
while the grosser multitude would see nothing but the symbol, and 
would worship it, as the carved Madonna or the wooden image of the 
Crucified One is to-day worshipped throughout Catholic Europe.

Sun and fire worship then became the cult for the celebration of 
which magnificent temples were reared throughout the length and 
breadth of the continent of Atlantis, but more especially in the 
great "City of the Golden Gates" -- the temple-service being 
performed by retinues of priests endowed by the State for that 
purpose.

In those early days no image of the Deity was permitted. The sun-disk 
was considered the only appropriate emblem of the godhead, and as 
such was used in every temple, a golden disk being generally placed 
so as to catch the first rays of the rising sun at the vernal equinox 
or at the summer solstice.

An interesting example of the almost unalloyed survival of this 
worship of the sun-disk may be instanced in the Shinto ceremonies of 
Japan. All other representation of Deity is, in this faith, regarded 
as impious, and even the circular mirror of polished metal is hidden 
from the vulgar gaze save on ceremonial occasions. Unlike the 
gorgeous temple decorations of Atlantis, however, the Shinto temples 
are characterized by an entire absence of decoration -- the exquisite 
finish of the plain wood-work being unrelieved by any carving, paint 
or varnish.

But the sun-disk did not always remain the only permissible emblem of 
Deity. The image of a man -- an archetypal man -- was in after days 
placed in the temples and adored as the highest representation of the 
divine. In some ways this might be considered a reversion to the 
Rmoahal worship of the Manu. Even then the religion was comparatively 
pure, and the occult fraternity of the "Good Law" of course did their 
utmost to keep alive in the hearts of the people the spiritual life.

The evil days, however, were drawing near when no altruistic idea 
should remain to redeem the race from the abyss of selfishness in 
which it was destined to be overwhelmed. The decay of the ethical 
idea was the necessary prelude to the perversion of the spiritual. 
The hand of every man fought for himself alone, and his knowledge was 
used for purely selfish ends, till it became an established belief 
that there was nothing in the universe greater or higher than 
themselves. Each man was his own "Law, and Lord and God," and the 
very worship of the temples ceased to be the worship of any ideal, 
but became the mere adoration of man as he was known and seen to be. 
As is written in the Book of Dzyan, "Then the Fourth became tall with 
pride. We are the kings it was said; we are the Gods.... They built 
huge cities. Of rare earths and metals they built, and out of the 
fires vomited, out of the white stone of the mountains and of the 
black stone, they cut their own images in their size and likeness, 
and worshipped them." Shrines were placed in temples in which the 
statue of each man, wrought in gold or silver, or carved in stone or 
wood, was adored by himself. The richer men kept whole trains of 
priests in their employ for the cult and care of their shrines, and 
offerings were made to these statues as to gods. The apotheosis of 
self could go no further.

It must be remembered that every true religious idea that has ever 
entered into the mind of man, has been consciously suggested to him 
by the divine Instructors or the Initiates of the White Lodge, who 
throughout all the ages have been the guardians of the divine 
mysteries, and of the facts of the supersensual states of 
consciousness.

Mankind generally has but slowly become capable of assimilating a few 
of these divine ideas, while the monstrous growths and hideous 
distortions to which every religion on earth stands as witness, must 
be traced to man's own lower nature. It would seem indeed that he has 
not always even been fit to be entrusted with knowledge as to the 
mere symbols under which were veiled the light of Deity, for in the 
days of the Turanian Supremacy some of this knowledge was wrongfully 
divulged.

We have seen how the life and light giving attributes of the sun were 
in early times used as the symbol to bring before the minds of the 
people all that they were capable of conceiving of the great First 
Cause. But other symbols of far deeper and more real significance 
were known and guarded within the ranks of the priesthood. One of 
these was the conception of a Trinity in Unity. The Trinities of most 
sacred significance were never divulged to the people, but the 
Trinity personifying the cosmic powers of the universe as Creator, 
Preserver, and Destroyer, became publicly known in some irregular 
manner in the Turanian days. This idea was still further materialized 
and degraded by the Semites into a strictly anthropomorphic Trinity 
consisting of father, mother and child.

A further and rather terrible development of the Turanian times must 
still be referred to. With the practice of sorcery many of the 
inhabitants had, of course, become aware of the existence of powerful 
elementals -- creatures who had been called into being, or at least 
animated by their own powerful wills, which being directed towards 
maleficent ends, naturally produced elementals of power and 
malignity. So degraded had then become man's feelings of reverence 
and worship, that they actually began to adore these semi-conscious 
creations of their own malignant thought. The ritual with which these 
beings were worshipped was bloodstained from the very start, and of 
course every sacrifice offered at their shrines gave vitality and 
persistence to these vampire-like creations -- so much so, that even 
to the present day in various parts of the world, the elementals 
formed by the powerful will of these old Atlantean sorcerers still 
continue to exact their tribute from unoffending village communities.

Though inaugurated and widely practised by the brutal Turanians, this 
blood-stained ritual seems never to have spread to any extent among 
the other sub-races, though human sacrifices appear to have been not 
uncommon among some branches of the Semites.

In the great Toltec empire of Mexico the sun-worship of their 
forefathers was still the national religion, while the bloodless 
offerings to their beneficent Deity, Quetzalcoatl, consisted merely 
of flowers and fruit. It was only with the coming of the savage 
Aztecs that the harmless Mexican ritual was supplemented with the 
blood of human sacrifices, which drenched the altars of their war-
god, Huitzilopochtli, and the tearing out of the hearts of the 
victims on the summit of the Teocali may be regarded as a direct 
survival of the elemental -worship of their Turanian ancestors in 
Atlantis.

It will be seen then that as in our own days, the religious life of 
the people embraced the most varied forms of belief and worship. From 
the small minority who aspired to initiation, and had touch with the 
higher spiritual life -- who knew that good will towards all men, 
control of thought, and purity of life and action were the necessary 
preliminaries to the attainment of the highest states of 
consciousness and the widest realms of vision -- innumerable phases 
led down through the more or less blind worship of cosmic powers, or 
of anthropomorphic gods, to the degraded but most widely extended 
ritual in which each man adored his own image, and to the blood 
stained rites of the elemental worship.

It must be remembered throughout that we are dealing with the 
Atlantean race only, so that any reference would be out of place that 
bore on the still more degraded fetish-worship that even then 
existed -- as it still does -- amongst the debased representatives of 
the Lemurian peoples.

All through the centuries then, the various rituals composed to 
celebrate these various forms of worship were carried on, till the 
final submergence of Poseidonis, by which time the countless hosts of 
Atlantean emigrants had already established on foreign lands the 
various cults of the mother-continent.

To trace the rise and follow the progress in detail of the archaic 
religions, which in historic times have blossomed into such diverse 
and antagonistic forms, would be an undertaking of great difficulty, 
but the illumination it would throw on matters of transcendent 
importance may some day induce the attempt.

In conclusion, it would be vain to attempt to summarize what is 
already too much of a summary. Rather let us hope that the foregoing 
may lend itself as the text from which may be developed histories of 
the many offshoots of the various sub-races - histories which may 
analytically examine political and social developments which have 
been here touched on in the most fragmentary manner.

One word, however, may still be said about that evolution of the 
race -- that progress which all creation, with mankind at its head, 
is ever destined to achieve century by century, millennium by 
millennium, manvantara by manvantara, and kalpa by kalpa.

The descent of spirit into matter -- those two poles of the one 
eternal substance -- is the process which occupies the first half of 
every cycle. Now the period we have been contemplating in the 
foregoing pages -- the period during which the Atlantean race was 
running its course -- was the very middle or turning point of this 
present manvantara.

The process of evolution which in our present Fifth Race has now set 
in -- the return, that is, of matter into spirit -- had in those days 
revealed itself in but a few isolated individual cases -- forerunners 
of the resurrection of the spirit.

But the problem, which all who have given the subject any amount of 
consideration must have felt to be still awaiting a solution, is the 
surprising contrast in the attributes of the Atlantean race. Side by 
side with their brutal passions, their degraded animal propensities, 
were their psychic faculties, their godlike intuition.

Now the solution of this apparently insoluble enigma lies in the fact 
that the building of the bridge had only then been begun -- the 
bridge of Manas, or mind, destined to unite in the perfected 
individual the upward surging forces of the animal and the downward 
cycling spirit of the God. The animal kingdom of to-day exhibits a 
field of nature where the building of that bridge has not yet been 
begun, and even among mankind in the days of Atlantis the connection 
was so slight that the spiritual attributes had but little 
controlling power over the lower animal nature. The touch of mind 
they had was sufficient to add zest to the gratification of the 
senses, but was not enough to vitalize the still dormant spiritual 
faculties, which in the perfected individual will have to become the 
absolute monarch. Our metaphor of the bridge may carry us a little 
further if we consider it as now in process of construction, but as 
destined to remain incomplete for mankind in general for untold 
millenniums -- in fact, until Humanity has completed another circle 
of the seven planets and the great Fifth Round is half way through 
its course.

Though it was during the latter half of the Third Root Race and the 
beginning of the Fourth that the Manasaputra descended to endow with 
mind the bulk of Humanity who were still without the spark, yet so 
feebly burned the light all through the Atlantean days that few could 
be said to have attained to the powers of abstract thought. On the 
other hand, the functioning of the mind on concrete things came well 
within their grasp, and as we have seen it was in the practical 
concerns of their every-day life, especially when their psychic 
faculties were directed towards the same objects, that they achieved 
such remarkable and stupendous results.

It must also be remembered that Kama, the fourth principle, naturally 
obtained its culminating development in the Fourth Race. This would 
account for the depths of animal grossness to which they sank, whilst 
the approach of the cycle to its nadir inevitably accentuated this 
downward movement, so that there is little to be surprised at in the 
gradual loss by the race of the psychic faculties, and in its descent 
to selfishness and materialism.

Rather should all this be regarded as part of the great cyclic 
process in obedience to the eternal law.

We have all gone through those evil days, and the experiences we then 
accumulated go to make up the characters we now possess.

But a brighter sun now shines on the Aryan race than that which lit 
the path of their Atlantean forefathers. Less dominated by the 
passions of the senses, more open to the influence of mind, the men 
of our race have obtained and are obtaining a firmer grasp of 
knowledge, a wider range of intellect. This upward arc of the great 
manvantaric cycle will naturally lead increasing numbers towards the 
entrance of the Path, and will lend more and more attraction to the 
transcendent opportunities it offers for the continued strengthening 
and purification of the character- strengthening and purification no 
longer directed by mere spasmodic effort, and continually interrupted 
by misleading attractions, but guided and guarded at every step by 
the Masters of Wisdom, so that the upward climb when once begun 
should no longer be halting and uncertain, but lead direct to the 
glorious goal.

The psychic faculties too, and the godlike intuition, lost for a time 
but still the rightful heritage of the race, only await the 
individual effort of reattainment, to give to the character still 
deeper insight and more transcendent powers. So shall the ranks of 
the Adept instructors -- the Masters of Wisdom -- be ever 
strengthened and recruited, and even amongst us today there must 
certainly be some, indistinguishable save by the deathless enthusiasm 
with which they are animated, who will, before the next Root Race is 
established on this planet, stand themselves as Masters of Wisdom to 
help the race in its upward progress. 

END