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diff --git a/21796.txt b/21796.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85aac48 --- /dev/null +++ b/21796.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4540 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria, +by W. Scott-Elliot + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Story of Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria + + +Author: W. Scott-Elliot + + + +Release Date: June 10, 2007 [eBook #21796] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF ATLANTIS AND THE LOST +LEMURIA*** + + +E-text prepared by Julie Barkley, J. B. Hare, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 21796-h.htm or 21796-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/7/9/21796/21796-h/21796-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/7/9/21796/21796-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + The Table of Contents is not part of the original book. + + + + + +THE STORY OF ATLANTIS & THE LOST LEMURIA + +by + +W. SCOTT-ELLIOT + +With Six Maps + + + + + + + +The Theosophical Publishing House Ltd +68 Great Russell Street +London, W.C.2 + +THE STORY OF ATLANTIS _first printed_ 1896 +THE LOST LEMURIA _first printed_ 1904 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE STORY OF ATLANTIS + +THE LOST LEMURIA + +MAPS + + + + +THE STORY OF ATLANTIS + + + + +PREFACE. + + +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 civilisation +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, as +even 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 non-physical 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 +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 him +self 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 +endeavouring 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 connexion 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 civilised 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 +civilisation 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 civilisation 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 +listeners I am now addressing, that result could hardly be +accomplished by further recommendations of mine. + +A. P. SINNETT. + + + + +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 Keltic 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 colonial 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 Keltic or 4th +sub-race we have no records at all. It is only with the rise of the +last family shoots of this Keltic 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, 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 must +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 have 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 +of 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 9,564 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 soundings. + +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. + +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 gunboats, "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 shewn to exist in +mid-Atlantic. This ridge stretches in a south-westerly 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 +_debris_ 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 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" (_Pop. +Sc. Review_, July, 1878). + +_Second._--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 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 tree-like. 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, have 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. + +_Third._--From the fauna and flora we now turn to man. + +_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" (_Families +of Speech_, p. 132). + +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 amongst the +Mayas 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 off-spring 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. A list of these +words is given in _North Americans of Antiquity_, p. 475. + +The similarity of language among the various savages races of the +Pacific islands has been used as an argument by writers on this +subject. The existence 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. + +_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 negros, 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." (See +Bancroft's _Native Races_, p. 547.) 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 other travelled +west (to Central America). + +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. (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.) +We shall see by and by how the diversity of complexion on the American +continent is accounted for by the original race-tints on the parent +continent of Atlantis. + +_Fourth._--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 into 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 (see Humboldt's _Mexican +Researches_ and Prescott's _Mexico_). + +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 these adored a +Deity "omnipresent, who knoweth all things ... invisible, incorporeal, +one God of perfect perfection" (see Sahagun's _Historia de Nueva +Espana_, lib. vi.). + +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 Kelts 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 Keltic peoples. Lord +Kingsborough in his _Mexican Antiquities_ (vol. viii. p. 250) 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 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 Medourn. 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. + +_Fifth._--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_ (lib. iii. ch. xviii.), 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 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 (see _Pre-Adamites_, p. 380). + +The Toltecs of Mexico traced themselves back to a starting-point +called Atlan or Aztlan; the Aztecs also claimed to come from Aztlan +(see Bancroft's _Native Races_, vol. v. pp. 221 and 321). + +The Popul Vuh (p. 294) 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" (see also Bancroft, vol. v. p. +553). + +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 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 (see Baldwin's _Ancient +America_, p. 176). It is a curious confirmation that the Kelts 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 of serpent skins (see Short's _North Americans of +Antiquity_, pp. 268-271). 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 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 Keltic 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 rise 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." + +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. + +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 wide-spread 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. + +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 +deg. 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. + +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. + +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 +non-existent, and the Sahara desert then formed part of the ocean +floor. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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 7 deg. north and longitude 5 deg. 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 fossil remains of such +plants are to-day found in the coal measures. 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, where 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 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 +conterminous 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. + +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 30 deg. 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. + +These first three sub-races are spoken of as the "red races," between +whom and the four following there was not at first much mixture of +blood. These four, though differing considerably from each other, have +been called "yellow," and this colour may appropriately define the +complexion of the Turanian and Mongolian, but the Semite and Akkadian +were comparatively white. + +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. + +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 north-eastern 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 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 south-eastern extremity stretched +out towards the old continent. The spot may be located approximately +at latitude 42 deg. North and longitude 10 deg. 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 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 63 deg. North and longitude 140 deg. 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 Theosophy 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 +organized the most powerful empire of any of the Atlantean peoples, +and it was then that the principle of hereditary 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 was still +comparatively pure--in fact the civilization of Atlantis had by this +time reached its height. + +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. He 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 Intitiate 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. This 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 colonization 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 +north-eastern 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 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 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 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. + +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 400,000 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 Manasic 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 mountains. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +_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 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, however, was naturally the most widely practised of +these 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 Tlavatli speech survived it is true +in out-of-the-way parts, just as the Keltic 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 alterations, 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. + +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, were taught to fitting students. + +As readers of Theosophic literature may know, _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 +indigenous 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 +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 to-day 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 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. + +One illustration of what some may be tempted to call a fantastic +theory, though it may not elucidate the problem, will at least point +the moral contained in this supplement to our knowledge regarding the +mysterious manner in which our evolution has proceeded. The lion it +would appear might have had a gentler nature and a less fierce aspect +had the men of those days completed the task that was given them to +perform. Whether or not he is fated eventually "to lie down with the +lamb and eat straw like the ox," the destiny in store for him as +pictured in the mind of the Manu has not yet been realized, for the +picture was that of a powerful but domesticated animal--a strong +level-backed creature, with large intelligent eyes, intended to act as +man's most powerful servant for purposes of traction. + +The "City of the Golden Gates" and its surroundings must be described +before we come to consider the marvellous 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 15 deg. 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 +race-course 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. + +Now it does not require much mechanical knowledge in order to realize +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. + +A description of some of its leading features will be of interest. 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. The +main aqueduct which was of oval section, measuring fifty feet by +thirty feet, led underground to an enormous heart-shaped reservoir. +This lay deep below the palace, in fact at the very base of the hill +on which the palace and the city stood. From this reservoir a +perpendicular shaft of about 500 feet up through the solid rock gave +passage to the water which welled up in the palace grounds, and thence +was distributed throughout the city. Various pipes from the central +reservoir also led to different parts of the city to supply drinking +water and the public fountains. Systems of sluices of course also +existed to control or cut off the supply of the different districts. + +From the above it will be apparent to any one possessed of some little +knowledge of mechanics that the pressure in the subterranean aqueduct +and the central reservoir from which the water naturally rose to the +basin in the palace gardens, must have been enormous, and the +resisting power of the material used in their construction +consequently prodigious. + +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 realized 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, 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 is learning 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 the 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 the 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 specially 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 had a denser +appearance than that used in the air-boats. + +_Manners and Customs._--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 +era. + +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. + +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 these who drank it dangerously excited that a law was passed +absolutely forbidding its consumption. + +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. + +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. + +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, a +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 up 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 ground-work 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 recognized 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 +Kosmos 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 Occult Lodges, 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 the 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 blood-stained from the very start, and of +course every sacrifice offered at their shrine 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--these 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 Occult 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 re-attainment, 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 to-day 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Students of geology and palaeontology 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 +quaternary strata thousands of years before the individual Furfooz man +lived on the earth.] + + + + +THE LOST LEMURIA + + + + +FOREWORD. + + +The object of this paper is not so much to bring forward new and +startling information about the lost continent of Lemuria and its +inhabitants, as to establish by the evidence obtainable from geology +and from the study of the relative distribution of living and extinct +animals and plants, as well as from the observed processes of physical +evolution in the lower kingdoms, the facts stated in the "Secret +Doctrine" and in other works with reference to these now submerged +lands. + + + + +The Lost Lemuria. + + +It is generally recognised by science that what is now dry land, on +the surface of our globe, was once the ocean floor, and that what is +now the ocean floor was once dry land. Geologists have in some cases +been able to specify the exact portions of the earth's surface where +these subsidences and upheavals have taken place, and although the +lost continent of Atlantis has so far received scant recognition from +the world of science, the general concensus of opinion has for long +pointed to the existence, at some prehistoric time, of a vast southern +continent to which the name of Lemuria has been assigned. + +[Sidenote: Evidence supplied by Geology and by the relative +distribution of living and extinct Animals and Plants.] + +"The history of the earth's development shows us that the distribution +of land and water on its surface is ever and continually changing. In +consequence of geological changes of the earth's crust, _elevations_ +and _depressions_ of the ground take place everywhere, sometimes more +strongly marked in one place, sometimes in another. Even if they +happen so slowly that in the course of centuries the seashore rises or +sinks only a few inches, or even only a few lines, still they +nevertheless effect great results in the course of long periods of +time. And long--immeasurably long--periods of time have not been +wanting in the earth's history. During the course of many millions of +years, ever since organic life existed on the earth, land and water +have perpetually struggled for supremacy. Continents and islands have +sunk into the sea, and new ones have arisen out of its bosom. Lakes +and seas have been slowly raised and dried up, and new water basins +have arisen by the sinking of the ground. Peninsulas have become +islands by the narrow neck of land which connected them with the +mainland sinking into the water. The islands of an archipelago have +become the peaks of a continuous chain of mountains by the whole floor +of their sea being considerably raised. + +"Thus the Mediterranean at one time was an inland sea, when in the +place of the Straits of Gibraltar, an isthmus connected Africa with +Spain. England even during the more recent history of the earth, when +man already existed, has repeatedly been connected with the European +continent and been repeatedly separated from it. Nay, even Europe and +North America have been directly connected. The South Sea at one time +formed a large Pacific Continent, and the numerous little islands +which now lie scattered in it were simply the highest peaks of the +mountains covering that continent. The Indian Ocean formed a continent +which extended from the Sunda Islands along the southern coast of Asia +to the east coast of Africa. This large continent of former times +Sclater, an Englishman, has called _Lemuria_, from the monkey-like +animals which inhabited it, and it is at the same time of great +importance from being the probable cradle of the human race, which in +all likelihood here first developed out of anthropoid apes.[2] The +important proof which Alfred Wallace has furnished, by the help of +chorological facts, that the present Malayan Archipelago consists in +reality of two completely different divisions, is particularly +interesting. The western division, the Indo-Malayan Archipelago, +comprising the large islands of Borneo, Java and Sumatra, was +formerly connected by Malacca with the Asiatic continent, and probably +also with the Lemurian continent just mentioned. The eastern division +on the other hand, the Austro-Malayan Archipelago, comprising Celebes, +the Moluccas, New Guinea, Solomon's Islands, etc., was formerly +directly connected with Australia. Both divisions were formerly two +continents separated by a strait, but they have now for the most part +sunk below the level of the sea. Wallace, solely on the ground of his +accurate chorological observations, has been able in the most accurate +manner to determine the position of this former strait, the south end +of which passes between Balij and Lombok. + +"Thus, ever since liquid water existed on the earth, the boundaries of +water and land have eternally changed, and we may assert that the +outlines of continents and islands have never remained for an hour, +nay, even for a minute, exactly the same. For the waves eternally and +perpetually break on the edge of the coast, and whatever the land in +these places loses in extent, it gains in other places by the +accumulation of mud, which condenses into solid stone and again rises +above the level of the sea as new land. Nothing can be more erroneous +than the idea of a firm and unchangeable outline of our continents, +such as is impressed upon us in early youth by defective lessons on +geography, which are devoid of a geological basis."[3] + +The name Lemuria, as above stated, was originally adopted by Mr. +Sclater in recognition of the fact that it was probably on this +continent that animals of the Lemuroid type were developed. + +"This," writes A. R. Wallace, "is undoubtedly a legitimate and highly +probable supposition, and it is an example of the way in which a study +of the geographical distribution of animals may enable us to +reconstruct the geography of a bygone age.... + +"It [this continent] represents what was probably a primary zoological +region in some past geological epoch; but what that epoch was and what +were the limits of the region in question, we are quite unable to say. +If we are to suppose that it comprised the whole area now inhabited by +Lemuroid animals, we must make it extend from West Africa to Burmah, +South China and Celebes, an area which it possibly did once +occupy."[4] + +"We have already had occasion," he elsewhere writes, "to refer to an +ancient connection between this sub-region (the Ethiopian) and +Madagascar, in order to explain the distribution of the Lemurine type, +and some other curious affinities between the two countries. This view +is supported by the geology of India, which shows us Ceylon and South +India consisting mainly of granite and old-metamorphic rocks, while +the greater part of the peninsula is of tertiary formation, with a few +isolated patches of secondary rocks. It is evident, therefore, that +during much of the tertiary period,[5] Ceylon and South India were +bounded on the north by a considerable extent of sea, and probably +formed part of an extensive Southern Continent or great island. The +very numerous and remarkable cases of affinity with Malaya, require, +however, some closer approximation with these islands, which probably +occurred at a later period. When, still later, the great plains and +tablelands of Hindostan were formed, and a permanent land +communication effected with the rich and highly developed +Himalo-Chinese fauna, a rapid immigration of new types took place, and +many of the less specialised forms of mammalia and birds became +extinct. Among reptiles and insects the competition was less severe, +or the older forms were too well adapted to local conditions to be +expelled; so that it is among these groups alone that we find any +considerable number of what are probably the remains of the ancient +fauna of a now submerged Southern Continent."[6] + +After stating that during the whole of the tertiary and perhaps during +much of the secondary periods, the great land masses of the earth were +probably situated in the Northern Hemisphere, Wallace proceeds, "In +the Southern Hemisphere there appear to have been three considerable +and very ancient land masses, varying in extent from time to time, but +always keeping distinct from each other, and represented more or less +completely by Australia, South Africa and South America of our time. +Into these flowed successive waves of life as they each in turn became +temporarily united with some part of the Northern land."[7] + +Although, apparently in vindication of some conclusions of his which +had been criticised by Dr. Hartlaub, Wallace subsequently denied the +necessity of postulating the existence of such a continent, his +general recognition of the facts of subsidences and upheavals of great +portions of the earth's surface, as well as the inferences which he +draws from the acknowledged relations of living and extinct faunas as +above stated, remain of course unaltered. + +The following extracts from Mr. H. F. Blandford's most interesting +paper read before a meeting of the Geological Society deals with the +subject in still greater detail:--[8] + +"The affinities between the fossils of both animals and plants of the +Beaufort group of Africa and those of the Indian Panchets and Kathmis +are such as to suggest the former existence of a land connexion +between the two areas. But the resemblance of the African and Indian +fossil faunas does not cease with Permian and Triassic times. The +plant beds of the Uitenhage group have furnished eleven forms of +plants, two of which Mr. Tate has identified with Indian Rajmahal +plants. The Indian Jurassic fossils have yet to be described (with a +few exceptions), but it has been stated that Dr. Stoliezka was much +struck with the affinities of certain of the Cutch fossils to African +forms; and Dr. Stoliezka and Mr. Griesbach have shown that of the +Cretaceous fossils of the Umtafuni river in Natal, the majority (22 +out of 35 described forms) are identical with species from Southern +India. Now the plant-bearing series of India and the Karoo and part of +the Uitenhage formation of Africa are in all probability of +fresh-water origin, both indicating the existence of a large land area +around, from the waste of which these deposits are derived. Was this +land continuous between the two regions? And is there anything in the +present physical geography of the Indian Ocean which would suggest its +probable position? Further, what was the connexion between this land +and Australia which we must equally assume to have existed in Permian +times? And, lastly, are there any peculiarities in the existing fauna +and flora of India, Africa and the intervening islands which would +lend support to the idea of a former connexion more direct than that +which now exists between Africa and South India and the Malay +peninsula? The speculation here put forward is no new one. It has long +been a subject of thought in the minds of some Indian and European +naturalists, among the former of whom I may mention my brother [Mr. +Blandford] and Dr. Stoliezka, their speculations being grounded on the +relationship and partial identity of the faunas and floras of past +times, not less than on that existing community of forms which has led +Mr. Andrew Murray, Mr. Searles, V. Wood, jun., and Professor Huxley to +infer the existence of a Miocene continent occupying a part of the +Indian Ocean. Indeed, all that I can pretend to aim at in this paper +is to endeavour to give some additional definition and extension to +the conception of its geological aspect. + +"With regard to the geographical evidence, a glance at the map will +show that from the neighbourhood of the West Coast of India to that of +the Seychelles, Madagascar, and the Mauritius, extends a line of coral +atolls and banks, including Adas bank, the Laccadives, Maldives, the +Chagos group and the Saya de Mulha, all indicating the existence of a +submerged mountain range or ranges. The Seychelles, too, are mentioned +by Mr. Darwin as rising from an extensive and tolerably level bank +having a depth of between 30 and 40 fathoms; so that, although now +partly encircled by fringing reefs, they may be regarded as a virtual +extension of the same submerged axis. Further west the Cosmoledo and +Comoro Islands consist of atolls and islands surrounded by barrier +reefs; and these bring us pretty close to the present shores of Africa +and Madagascar. It seems at least probable that in this chain of +atolls, banks, and barrier reefs we have indicated the position of an +ancient mountain chain, which possibly formed the back-bone of a tract +of later Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and early Tertiary land, being related +to it much as the Alpine and Himalayan system is to the +Europaeo-Asiatic continent, and the Rocky Mountains and Andes to the +two Americas. As it is desirable to designate this Mesozoic land by a +name, I would propose that of Indo-Oceana. [The name given to it by +Mr. Sclater, _viz._, Lemuria, is, however, the one which has been most +generally adopted.] Professor Huxley has suggested on palaeontological +grounds that a land connexion existed in this region (or rather +between Abyssinia and India) during the Miocene epoch. From what has +been said above it will be seen that I infer its existence from a far +earlier date.[9] With regard to its depression, the only present +evidence relates to its northern extremity, and shows that it was in +this region, later than the great trap-flows of the Dakhan. These +enormous sheets of volcanic rock are remarkably horizontal to the east +of the Ghats and the Sakyadri range, but to the west of this they +begin to dip seawards, so that the island of Bombay is composed of the +higher parts of the formation. This indicates only that the depression +to the westward has taken place in Tertiary times; and to that extent +Professor Huxley's inference, that it was after the Miocene period, is +quite consistent with the geological evidence." + +After proceeding at some length to instance the close relationship of +many of the fauna in the lands under consideration (Lion, Hyaena, +Jackal, Leopard, Antelope, Gazelle, Sand-grouse, Indian Bustard, many +Land Molusca, and notably the Lemur and the Scaly Anteater) the writer +proceeds as follows:-- + +"Palaeontology, physical geography and geology, equally with the +ascertained distribution of living animals and plants, offer thus +their concurrent testimony to the former close connexion of Africa and +India, including the tropical islands of the Indian Ocean. This +Indo-Oceanic land appears to have existed from at least early Permian +times, probably (as Professor Huxley has pointed out) up to the close +of the Miocene epoch;[10] and South Africa and Peninsular India are +the existing remnants of that ancient land. It may not have been +absolutely continuous during the whole of this long period. Indeed, +the Cretaceous rocks of Southern India and Southern Africa, and the +marine Jurassic beds of the same regions, prove that some portions of +it were, for longer or shorter periods, invaded by the sea; but any +break of continuity was probably not prolonged; for Mr. Wallace's +investigations in the Eastern Archipelago have shown how narrow a sea +may offer an insuperable barrier to the migration of land animals. In +Palaeozoic times this land must have been connected with Australia, and +in Tertiary times with Malayana, since the Malayan forms with African +alliances are in several cases distinct from those of India. We know +as yet too little of the geology of the eastern peninsula to say from +what epoch dates its connexion with Indo-Oceanic land. Mr. Theobald +has ascertained the existence of Triassic, Cretaceous, and Nummulitic +rocks in the Arabian coast range; and Carboniferous limestone is known +to occur from Moulmein southward, while the range east of the Irrawadi +is formed of younger Tertiary rocks. From this it would appear that a +considerable part of the Malay peninsula must have been occupied by +the sea during the greater part of the Mesozoic and Eocene periods. +Plant-bearing rocks of Raniganj age have been identified as forming +the outer spurs of the Sikkim Himalaya; the ancient land must +therefore have extended some distance to the north of the present +Gangetic delta. Coal both of Cretaceous and Tertiary age occurs in the +Khasi hills, and also in Upper Assam, but in both cases associated +with marine beds; so that it would appear that in this region the +boundaries of land and sea oscillated somewhat during Cretaceous and +Eocene times. To the north-west of India the existence of great +formations of Cretaceous and Nummulitic age, stretching far through +Baluchistan and Persia, and entering into the structure of the +north-west Himalaya, prove that in the later Mesozoic and Eocene ages +India had no direct communication with western Asia; while the +Jurassic rocks of Cutch, the Salt range, and the northern Himalaya, +show that in the preceding period the sea covered a large part of the +present Indus basin; and the Triassic, Carboniferous, and still more +recent marine formations of the Himalaya, indicate that from very +early times till the upheaval of that great chain, much of its present +site was for ages covered by the sea. + +"To sum up the views advanced in this paper. + +"1st. The plant-bearing series of India ranges from early Permian to +the latest Jurassic times, indicating (except in a few cases and +locally) the uninterrupted continuity of land and fresh water +conditions. These may have prevailed from much earlier times. + +"2nd. In the early Permian, as in the Postpliocene age, a cold climate +prevailed down to low latitudes, and I am inclined to believe in both +hemispheres simultaneously. With the decrease of cold the flora and +reptilian fauna of Permian times were diffused to Africa, India, and +possibly Australia; or the flora may have existed in Australia +somewhat earlier, and have been diffused thence. + +"3rd. India, South Africa and Australia were connected by an +Indo-Oceanic Continent in the Permian epoch; and the two former +countries remained connected (with at the utmost only short +interruptions) up to the end of the Miocene period. During the latter +part of the time this land was also connected with Malayana. + +"4th. In common with some previous writers, I consider that the +position of this land was defined by the range of coral reefs and +banks that now exist between the Arabian sea and East Africa. + +"5th. Up to the end of the Nummulitic epoch no direct connexion +(except possibly for short periods) existed between India and Western +Asia." + +In the discussion which followed the reading of the paper, Professor +Ramsay "agreed with the author in the belief in the junction of Africa +with India and Australia in geological times." + +Mr. Woodward "was pleased to find that the author had added further +evidence, derived from the fossil flora of the mesozoic series of +India, in corroboration of the views of Huxley, Sclater and others as +to the former existence of an old submerged continent ('Lemuria') +which Darwin's researches on coral reefs had long since foreshadowed." + +"Of the five now existing continents," writes Ernst Haeckel, in his +great work "The History of Creation,"[11] "neither Australia, nor +America, nor Europe can have been this primaeval home [of man], or the +so-called 'Paradise,' the 'cradle of the human race.' Most +circumstances indicate Southern Asia as the locality in question. +Besides Southern Asia, the only other of the now existing continents +which might be viewed in this light is Africa. But there are a number +of circumstances (especially chorological facts) which suggest that +the primeval home of man was a continent now sunk below the surface of +the Indian Ocean, which extended along the south of Asia, as it is at +present (and probably in direct connection with it), towards the east, +as far as Further India and the Sunda Islands; towards the west, as +far as Madagascar and the south-eastern shores of Africa. We have +already mentioned that many facts in animal and vegetable geography +render the former existence of such a South Indian continent very +probable. Sclater has given this continent the name of Lemuria, from +the semi-apes which were characteristic of it. By assuming this +Lemuria to have been man's primaeval home, we greatly facilitate the +explanation of the geographical distribution of the human species by +migration." + +In a subsequent work, "The Pedigree of Man," Haeckel asserts the +existence of Lemuria at some early epoch of the earth's history as an +acknowledged fact. + +The following quotation from Dr. Hartlaub's writings may bring to a +close this portion of the evidence in favour of the existence of the +lost Lemuria:--[12] + +"Five and thirty years ago, Isidore Geoffrey St. Hilaire remarked +that, if one had to classify the Island of Madagascar exclusively on +zoological considerations, and without reference to its geographical +situation, it could be shown to be neither Asiatic nor African, but +quite different from either, and almost a fourth continent. And this +fourth continent could be further proved to be, as regards its fauna, +much more different from Africa, which lies so near to it, than from +India which is so far away. With these words the correctness and +pregnancy of which later investigations tend to bring into their full +light, the French naturalist first stated the interesting problem for +the solution of which an hypothesis based on scientific knowledge has +recently been propounded, for this fourth continent of Isidore +Geoffrey is Sclater's 'Lemuria'--that sunken land which, containing +parts of Africa, must have extended far eastwards over Southern India +and Ceylon, and the highest points of which we recognise in the +volcanic peaks of Bourbon and Mauritius, and in the central range of +Madagascar itself--the last resorts of the almost extinct Lemurine +race which formerly peopled it." + +[Sidenote: Evidence obtained from Archaic Records.] + +The further evidence we have with regard to Lemuria and its +inhabitants has been obtained from the same source and in the same +manner as that which resulted in the writing of the _Story of +Atlantis_. In this case also the author has been privileged to obtain +copies of two maps, one representing Lemuria (and the adjoining +lands) during the period of that continent's greatest expansion, the +other exhibiting its outlines after its dismemberment by great +catastrophes, but long before its final destruction. + +It was never professed that the maps of Atlantis were correct _to a +single degree_ of latitude, or longitude, but, with the far greater +difficulty of obtaining the information in the present case, it must +be stated that still less must these maps of Lemuria be taken as +absolutely accurate. In the former case there was a globe, a good +bas-relief in terra-cotta, and a well-preserved map on parchment, or +skin of some sort, to copy from. In the present case there was only a +broken terra-cotta model and a very badly preserved and crumpled map, +so that the difficulty of carrying back the remembrance of all the +details, and consequently of reproducing exact copies, has been far +greater. + +We were told that it was by mighty Adepts in the days of Atlantis that +the Atlantean maps were produced, but we are not aware whether the +Lemurian maps were fashioned by some of the divine instructors in the +days when Lemuria still existed, or in still later days of the +Atlantean epoch. + +But while guarding against over-confidence in the absolute accuracy of +the maps in question, the transcriber of the archaic originals +believes that they may in all important particulars, be taken as +approximately correct. + +[Sidenote: Probable Duration of the Continent of Lemuria.] + +A period--speaking roughly--of between four and five million years +probably represents the life of the continent of Atlantis, for it is +about that time since the Rmoahals, the first sub-race of the Fourth +Root Race who inhabited Atlantis, arose on a portion of the Lemurian +Continent which at that time still existed. Remembering that in the +evolutionary process the figure four invariably represents not only +the nadir of the cycle, but the period of shortest duration, whether +in the case of a Manvantara or of a race, it may be assumed that the +number of millions of years assignable as the life-limit of the +continent of Lemuria must be very much greater than that representing +the life of Atlantis, the continent of the Fourth Root Race. But in +the case of Lemuria no dates can be stated with even approximate +accuracy. Geological epochs, so far as they are known to modern +science, will be a better medium for contemporary reference, and they +alone will be dealt with. + +[Sidenote: The Maps.] + +But not even geological epochs, it will be observed, are assigned to +the maps. If, however, an inference may be drawn from all the evidence +before us, it would seem probable that the older of the two Lemurian +maps represented the earth's configuration from the Permian, through +the Triassic and into the Jurassic epoch, while the second map +probably represents the earth's configuration through the Cretaceous +and into the Eocene period. + +From the older of the two maps it may be seen that the equatorial +continent of Lemuria at the time of its greatest expansion nearly +girdled the globe, extending as it then did from the site of the +present Cape Verd Islands a few miles from the coast of Sierra Leone, +in a south-easterly direction through Africa, Australia, the Society +Islands and all the intervening seas, to a point but a few miles +distant from a great island continent (about the size of the present +South America) which spread over the remainder of the Pacific Ocean, +and included Cape Horn and parts of Patagonia. + +A remarkable feature in the second map of Lemuria is the great length, +and at parts the extreme narrowness, of the straits which separated +the two great blocks of land into which the continent had by this time +been split, and it will be observed that the straits at present +existing between the islands of Bali and Lomboc coincide with a +portion of the straits which then divided these two continents. It +will also be seen that these straits continued in a northerly +direction by the west, not by the east coast of Borneo, as conjectured +by Ernst Haeckel. + +With reference to the distribution of fauna and flora, and the +existence of so many types common to India and Africa alike, pointed +out by Mr. Blandford, it will be observed that between parts of India +and great tracts of Africa there was direct land communication during +the first map period, and that similar communication was partially +maintained in the second map period also; while a comparison of the +maps of Atlantis with those of Lemuria will demonstrate that +continuous land communication existed, now at one epoch, and now at +another, between so many different parts of the earth's surface, at +present separated by sea, that the existing distribution of fauna and +flora in the two Americas, in Europe and in Eastern lands, which has +been such a puzzle to naturalists, may with perfect ease be accounted +for. + +The island indicated in the earlier Lemurian map as existing to the +north-west of the extreme promontory of that continent, and due west +of the present coast of Spain, was probably a centre from which +proceeded, during long ages, the distribution of fauna and flora above +referred to. For--and this is a most interesting fact--it will be seen +that this island must have been the nucleus, from first to last, of +the subsequent great continent of Atlantis. It existed, as we see, in +these earliest Lemurian times. It was joined in the second map period +to land which had previously formed part of the great Lemurian +continent; and indeed, so many accretions of territory had it by this +time received that it might more appropriately be called a continent +than an island. It was the great mountainous region of Atlantis at its +prime, when Atlantis embraced great tracts of land which have now +become North and South America. It remained the mountainous region of +Atlantis in its decadence, and of Ruta in the Ruta and Daitya epoch, +and it practically constituted the island of Poseidonis--the last +remnant of the continent of Atlantis--the final submergence of which +took place in the year 9564 B.C. + +A comparison of the two maps here given, along with the four maps of +Atlantis, will also show that Australia and New Zealand, Madagascar, +parts of Somaliland, the south of Africa, and the extreme southern +portion of Patagonia are lands which have _probably_ existed through +all the intervening catastrophes since the early days of the Lemurian +period. The same may be said of the southern parts of India and +Ceylon, with the exception in the case of Ceylon, of a temporary +submergence in the Ruta and Daitya epoch. + +It is true there are also remains still existing of the even earlier +Hyperborean continent, and they of course are the oldest known lands +on the face of the earth. These are Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, +the most northerly parts of Norway and Sweden, and the extreme north +cape of Siberia. + +Japan is shown by the maps to have been above water, whether as an +island, or as part of a continent, since the date of the second +Lemurian map. Spain, too, has doubtless existed since that time. Spain +is, therefore, with the exception of the most northerly parts of +Norway and Sweden, _probably_ the oldest land in Europe. + +The indeterminate character of the statements just made is rendered +necessary by our knowledge that there _did_ occur subsidences and +upheavals of different portions of the earth's surface during the ages +which lay between the periods represented by the maps. + +For example, soon after the date of the second Lemurian map we are +informed that the whole Malay Peninsula was submerged and remained so +for a long time, but a subsequent upheaval of that region must have +taken place before the date of the first Atlantean map, for, what is +now the Malay Peninsula is there exhibited as part of a great +continent. Similarly there have been repeated minor subsidences and +upheavals nearer home in more recent times, and Haeckel is perfectly +correct in saying that England--he might with greater accuracy have +said the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, which were then joined +together--"has repeatedly been connected with the European continent, +and been repeatedly separated from it." + +In order to bring the subject more dearly before the mind, a tabular +statement is here annexed which supplies a condensed history of the +animal and plant life on our globe, bracketed--according to +Haeckel--with the contemporary rock strata. Two other columns give the +contemporary races of man, and such of the great cataclysms as are +known to occult students. + +[Sidenote: Reptiles and Pine Forests.] + +From this statement it will be seen that Lemurian man lived in the age +of Reptiles and Pine Forests. The amphibious monsters and the gigantic +tree-ferns of the Permian age still flourished in the warm damp +climates. Plesiosauri and Icthyosauri swarmed in the tepid marshes of +the Mesolithic epoch, but, with the drying up of many of the inland +seas, the Dinosauria--the monstrous land reptiles--gradually became +the dominant type, while the Pterodactyls--the Saurians which +developed bat-like wings--not only crawled on the earth, but flew +through the air. The smallest of these latter were about the size of a +sparrow; the largest, however, with a breadth of wing of more than +sixteen feet, exceeding the largest of our living birds of to-day; +while most of the Dinosauria--the Dragons--were terrible beasts of +prey, colossal reptiles which attained a length of from forty to fifty +feet.[13] Subsequent excavations have laid bare skeletons of an even +larger size. Professor Ray Lankester, at a meeting of the Royal +Institution on 7th January, 1904, is reported to have referred to a +brontosaurus skeleton of sixty-five feet long, which had been +discovered in the Oolite deposit in the southern part of the United +States of America. + + |Depth of| | | | | + Rock Strata. | Strata.| Races of Men. | Cataclysms. | Animals. | Plants. | + | Feet. | | | | | +-------------------------+--------+------------------+-----------------------+--------------+------------------| +Laurentian } | |First Root Race | | | | + } Archilithic | |which being Astra | |Skull-less |Forest of gigantic| +Cambrian } or | 70,000|could leave | |Animals. |Tangle and other | + } Primordial | |no fossil remains.| | |Thallus Plants. | +Silurian } | | | | | | + | | | | | | +Devonian } | | | | | | + }Palaeolithic | |Second Root Race | | | | +Coal } or | 42,000|which was Etheric.| |Fish. |Fern Forests. | + } Primary. | | | | | | +Permian } | | | | | | + | | | | | | +Triassic } | | |Lemuria is said to have| | | + } Mesolithic | |Third Root Race |perished before the | |Pine and Palm | +Jurassic } or | 15,000|or Lemurian. |beginning of the Eocene|Reptiles. |Forests. | + } Secondary | | |age. | | | +Cretaceous } | | | | | | + | | |The main Continent of | | | +Eocene } | | |Atlantis was destroyed | | | + } Cenolithic | |Fourth Root Race |in the Miocene period | | | +Miocene } or | 5,000|or Atlantean. |about 800,000 years |Mammals. |Forests of | + } Tertiary. | | |ago. Second great | |Deciduous Trees. | +Pliocene } | | |catastrophe? about | | | + | | |200,000 years ago. | | | +Diluvial or} | | |Third great catastrophe| | | +Pleistocene} Quarternary | |Fifth Root Race |about 80,000 years ago.|More |Cultivated | + } or | 500|or Aryan. |Final submergence of |differentiated|Forests. | +Alluvial }Anthopolithic| | |Poseidonis 9564 B.C. |Mammals. | | + +As it is written in the stanzas of the archaic Book of Dzyan, "Animals +with bones, dragons of the deep, and flying sarpas were added to the +creeping things. They that creep on the ground got wings. They of the +long necks in the water became the progenitors of the fowls of the +air." Modern science records her endorsement. "The class of birds as +already remarked is so closely allied to Reptiles in internal +structure and by embryonal development that they undoubtedly +originated out of a branch of this class.... The derivation of birds +from reptiles first took place in the Mesolithic epoch, and this +moreover probably during the Trias."[14] + +In the vegetable kingdom this epoch also saw the pine and the +palm-tree gradually displace the giant tree ferns. In the later days +of the Mesolithic epoch, mammals for the first time came into +existence, but the fossil remains of the mammoth and mastodon, which +were their earliest representatives, are chiefly found in the +subsequent strata of the Eocene and Miocene times. + +[Sidenote: The Human Kingdom.] + +Before making any reference to what must, even at this early date, be +called the human kingdom, it must be stated that none of those who, at +the present day, can lay claim to even a moderate amount of mental or +spiritual culture _can_ have lived in these ages. It was only with the +advent of the last three sub-races of this Third Root Race that the +least progressed of the first group of the Lunar Pitris began to +return to incarnation, while the most advanced among them did not take +birth till the early sub-races of the Atlantean period. + +Indeed, Lemurian man, during at least the first half of the race, must +be regarded rather as an animal destined to reach humanity than as +human according to our understanding of the term; for though the +second and third groups of Pitris, who constituted the inhabitants of +Lemuria during its first four sub-races, had achieved sufficient +self-consciousness in the Lunar Manvantara to differentiate them from +the animal kingdom, they had not yet received the Divine Spark which +should endow them with mind and individuality--in other words, make +them truly human. + +[Sidenote: Size and Consistency of Man's Body.] + +The evolution of this Lemurian race, therefore, constitutes one of the +most obscure, as well as one of the most interesting, chapters of +man's development, for during this period not only did he reach true +humanity, but his body underwent the greatest physical changes, while +the processes of reproduction were twice altered. + +In explanation of the surprising statements which will have to be made +in regard to the size and consistency of man's body at this early +period it must be remembered that while the animal, vegetable and +mineral kingdoms pursued the normal course, on this the fourth globe, +during the Fourth Round of this Manvantara, it was ordained that +humanity should run over in rapid succession the various stages +through which its evolution had passed during the previous rounds of +the present Manvantara. Thus the bodies of the First Root Race in +which these almost mindless beings were destined to gain experience, +would have appeared to us as gigantic phantoms--if indeed we could +have seen them at all, for their bodies were formed of astral matter. +The astral forms of the First Root Race were then gradually enveloped +in a more physical casing. But though the Second Root Race may be +called physical--their bodies being composed of ether--they would have +been equally invisible to eyesight as it at present exists. + +It was, we are told, in order that the Manu, and the Beings who aided +him, might take means for improving the physical type of humanity +that this epitome of the process of evolution was ordained. The +highest development which the type had so far reached was the huge +ape-like creature which had existed on the three physical planets, +Mars, the Earth and Mercury in the Third Round. On the arrival of the +human life-wave on the Earth in this the Fourth Round, a certain +number, naturally, of these ape-like creatures were found in +occupation--the residuum left on the planet during its period of +obscuration. These, of course, joined the in-coming human stream as +soon as the race became fully physical. Their bodies may not then have +been absolutely discarded; they may have been utilized for purposes of +reincarnation for the most backward entities, but it was an +improvement on this type which was required, and this was most easily +achieved by the Manu, through working out on the astral plane in the +first instance, the architype originally formed in the mind of the +Logos. + +From the Etheric Second Race, then, was evolved the Third--the +Lemurian. Their bodies had become material, being composed of the +gases, liquids and solids which constitute the three lowest +sub-divisions of the physical plane, but the gases and liquids still +predominated, for as yet their vertebrate structure had not solidified +into bones such as ours, and they could not, therefore, stand erect. +Their bones in fact were pliable as the bones of young infants now +are. It was not until the middle of the Lemurian period that man +developed a solid bony structure. + +To explain the possibility of the process by which the etheric form +evolved into a more physical form, and the soft-boned physical form +ultimately developed into a structure such as man possesses to-day, it +is only necessary to refer to the permanent physical atom.[15] +Containing as it does the essence of all the forms through which man +has passed on the physical plane, it contained consequently the +potentiality of a hard-boned physical structure such as had been +attained during the course of the Third Round, as well as the +potentiality of an etheric form and all the phases which lie between, +for it must be remembered that the physical plane consists of four +grades of ether as well as the gases, liquids and solids which so many +are apt to regard as alone constituting the physical. Thus, every +stage of the development was a natural process, for it was a process +which had been accomplished in ages long past, and all that was needed +was for the Manu and the Beings who aided him, to gather round the +permanent atom the appropriate kind of matter. + +[Sidenote: Organs of Vision.] + +The organs of vision of these creatures before they developed bones +were of a rudimentary nature, at least such was the condition of the +two eyes in front with which they sought for their food upon the +ground. But there was a third eye at the back of the head, the +atrophied remnant of which is now known as the _pineal gland_. This, +as we know, is _now_ a centre solely of astral vision, but at the +epoch of which we are speaking it was the chief centre not only of +astral but of physical sight. Referring to reptiles which had become +extinct, Professor Ray Lankester, in a recent lecture at the Royal +Institution, is reported to have drawn special attention "to the size +of the parietal foramen in the skull which showed that in the +ichthyosaurs the parietal or pineal eye on the top of the head must +have been very large." In this respect he went on to say mankind were +inferior to these big sea lizards, "for we had lost the third eye +which might be studied in the common lizard, or better in the great +blue lizard of the South of France."[16] + +Somewhat before the middle of the Lemurian period, probably during the +evolution of the third sub-race, the gigantic gelatinous body began +slowly to solidify and the soft-boned limbs developed into a bony +structure. These primitive creatures were now able to stand upright, +and the two eyes in the face gradually became the chief organs of +physical sight, though the third eye still remained to some extent an +organ of physical sight also, and this it did till the very end of the +Lemurian epoch. It, of course, remained an actual organ, as it still +is a potential focus, of psychic vision. This psychic vision continued +to be an attribute of the race not only throughout the whole Lemurian +period, but well into the days of Atlantis. + +A curious fact to note is that when the race first attained the power +of standing and moving in an upright position, they could walk +backwards with almost as great ease as forwards. This may be accounted +for not only by the capacity for vision possessed by the third eye, +but doubtless also by the curious projection at the heels which will +presently be referred to. + +[Sidenote: Description of Lemurian Man.] + +The following is a description of a man who belonged to one of the +later sub-races--probably the fifth. "His stature was gigantic, +somewhere between twelve and fifteen feet. His skin was very dark, +being of a yellowish brown colour. He had a long lower jaw, a +strangely flattened face, eyes small but piercing and set curiously +far apart, so that he could see sideways as well as in front, while +the eye at the back of the head--on which part of the head no hair, of +course, grew--enabled him to see in that direction also. He had no +forehead, but there seemed to be a roll of flesh where it should have +been. The head sloped backwards and upwards in a rather curious way. +The arms and legs (especially the former) were longer in proportion +than ours, and could not be perfectly straightened either at elbows or +knees; the hands and feet were enormous, and the heels projected +backwards in an ungainly way. The figure was draped in a loose robe of +skin, something like rhinoceros hide, but more scaly, probably the +skin of some animal of which we now know only through its fossil +remains. Round his head, on which the hair was quite short, was +twisted another piece of skin to which were attached tassels of bright +red, blue and other colours. In his left hand he held a sharpened +staff, which was doubtless used for defence or attack. It was about +the height of his own body, _viz._, twelve to fifteen feet. In his +right hand was twisted the end of a long rope made of some sort of +creeping plant, by which he led a huge and hideous reptile, somewhat +resembling the Plesiosaurus. The Lemurians actually domesticated these +creatures, and trained them to employ their strength in hunting other +animals. The appearance of the man gave an unpleasant sensation, but +he was not entirely uncivilised, being an average common-place +specimen of his day." + +Many were even less human in appearance than the individual here +described, but the seventh sub-race developed a superior type, though +very unlike any living men of the present time. While retaining the +projecting lower jaw, the thick heavy lips, the flattened face, and +the uncanny looking eyes, they had by this time developed something +which might be called a forehead, while the curious projection of the +heel had been considerably reduced. In one branch of this seventh +sub-race, the head might be described as almost egg-shaped--the small +end of the egg being uppermost, with the eyes wide apart and very near +the top. The stature had perceptibly decreased, and the appearance of +the hands, feet and limbs generally had become more like those of the +negroes of to-day. These people developed an important and +long-lasting civilisation, and for thousands of years dominated most +of the other tribes who dwelt on the vast Lemurian continent, and even +at the end, when racial decay seemed to be overtaking them, they +secured another long lease of life and power by inter-marriage with +the Rmoahals--the first sub-race of the Atlanteans. The progeny, +while retaining many Third Race characteristics, of course, really +belonged to the Fourth Race, and thus naturally acquired fresh power +of development. Their general appearance now became not unlike that of +some American Indians, except that their skin had a curious bluish +tinge not now to be seen. + +But surprising as were the changes in the size, consistency, and +appearance of man's body during this period, the alterations in the +process of reproduction are still more astounding. A reference to the +systems which now obtain among the lower kingdoms of nature may help +us in the consideration of the subject. + +[Sidenote: Processes of Reproduction.] + +After instancing the simplest processes of propagation by self-division, +and by the formation of buds (Gemmatio), Haeckel proceeds, "A third mode +of non-sexual propagation, that of the formation of germ-buds +(Polysporogonia) is intimately connected with the formation of buds. In +the case of the lower, imperfect organisms, among animals, especially in +the case of the plant-like animals and worms, we very frequently find +that in the interior of an individual composed of many cells, a small +group of cells separates itself from those surrounding it, and that this +small isolated group gradually develops itself into an individual, which +becomes like the parent and sooner or later comes out of it.... The +formation of germ buds is evidently but little different from real +budding. But, on the other hand, it is connected with a fourth kind of +non-sexual propagation, which almost forms a transition to sexual +reproduction, namely, the formation of germ cells (Monosporogonia). In +this case it is no longer a group of cells but a single cell, which +separates itself from the surrounding cells in the interior of the +producing organism, and which becomes further developed after it has +come out of its parent.... Sexual or amphigonic propagation +(Amphigonia) is the usual method of propagation among all higher animals +and plants. It is evident that it has only developed at a very late +period of the earth's history, from non-sexual propagation, and +apparently in the first instance from the method of propagation by +germ-cells.... In all the chief forms of non-sexual propagation +mentioned above--in fission, in the formation of buds, germ-buds, and +germ-cells--the separated cell or group of cells was able by itself to +develop into a new individual, but in the case of sexual propagation, +the cell must first be fructified by another generative substance. The +fructifying sperm must first mix with the germ-cell (the egg) before the +latter can develop into a new individual. These two generative +substances, the sperm and the egg, are either produced by one and the +same individual hermaphrodite (Hermaphroditismus) or by two different +individuals (sexual-separation). + +"The simpler and more ancient form of sexual propagation is through +double-sexed individuals. It occurs in the great majority of plants, +but only in a minority of animals, for example, in the garden snails, +leeches, earth-worms, and many other worms. Every single individual +among hermaphrodites produces within itself materials of both +sexes--eggs and sperm. In most of the higher plants every blossom +contains both the male organ (stamens and anther) and the female organ +(style and germ). Every garden snail produces in one part of its +sexual gland eggs, and in another part sperm. Many hermaphrodites can +fructify themselves; in others, however, reciprocal fructification of +both hermaphrodites is necessary for causing the development of the +eggs. This latter case is evidently a transition to sexual separation. + +"Sexual separation, which characterises the more complicated of the +two kinds of sexual reproduction, has evidently been developed from +the condition of hermaphroditism at a late period of the organic +history of the world. It is at present the universal method of +propagation of the higher animals.... The so-called virginal +reproduction (Parthenogenesis) offers an interesting form of +transition from sexual reproduction to the non-sexual formation of +germ-cells which most resembles it.... In this case germ-cells which +otherwise appear and are formed exactly like egg-cells, become capable +of developing themselves into new individuals without requiring the +fructifying seed. The most remarkable and the most instructive of the +different parthenogenetic phenomena are furnished by those cases in +which the same germ-cells, according as they are fructified or not, +produce different kinds of individuals. Among our common honey bees, a +male individual (a drone) arises out of the eggs of the queen, if the +egg has not been fructified; a female (a queen, or working bee) if the +egg has been fructified. It is evident from this, that in reality +there exists no wide chasm between sexual and non-sexual reproduction, +but that both modes of reproduction are directly connected."[17] + +Now, the interesting fact in connection with the evolution of Third +Race man on Lemuria, is that his mode of reproduction ran through +phases which were closely analogous with some of the processes above +described. Sweat-born, egg-born and Androgyne are the terms used in +the Secret Doctrine. + +"Almost sexless, in its early beginnings, it became bisexual or +androgynous; very gradually, of course. The passage from the former to +the latter transformation required numberless generations, during +which the simple cell that issued from the earliest parent (the two in +one), first developed into a bisexual being; and then the cell, +becoming a regular egg, gave forth a unisexual creature. The Third +Race mankind is the most mysterious of all the hitherto developed +five Races. The mystery of the 'How' of the generation of the distinct +sexes must, of course, be very obscure here, as it is the business of +an embryologist and a specialist, the present work giving only faint +outlines of the process. But it is evident that the units of the Third +Race humanity began to separate in their pre-natal shells, or eggs, +and to issue out of them as distinct male and female babes, ages after +the appearance of its early progenitors. And, as time rolled on its +geological periods, the newly born sub-races began to lose their natal +capacities. Toward the end of the fourth _sub-race_, the babe lost its +faculty of walking as soon as liberated from its shell, and by the end +of the fifth, mankind was born under the same conditions and by the +same identical process as our historical generations. This required, +of course, millions of years."[18] + +[Sidenote: Lemurian Races still Inhabiting the Earth.] + +It may be as well again to repeat that the almost mindless creatures +who inhabited such bodies as have been above described during the +early sub-races of the Lemurian period can scarcely be regarded as +completely human. It was only after the separation of the sexes, when +their bodies had become densely physical, that they became human even +in appearance. It must be remembered that the beings we are speaking +of, though embracing the second and third groups of the Lunar Pitris, +must also have been largely recruited from the animal kingdom of that +(the Lunar) Manvantara. The degraded remnants of the Third Root Race +who still inhabit the earth may be recognised in the aborigines of +Australia, the Andaman Islanders, some hill tribes of India, the +Tierra-del-Fuegans, the Bushmen of Africa, and some other savage +tribes. The entities now inhabiting these bodies must have belonged to +the animal kingdom in the early part of _this_ Manvantara. It was +probably during the evolution of the Lemurian race and before the +"door was shut" on the entities thronging up from below, that these +attained the human kingdom. + +[Sidenote: Sin of the Mindless.] + +The shameful acts of the mindless men at the first separation of the +sexes had best be referred to in the words of the stanzas of the +archaic Book of Dzyan. No commentary is needed. + +"During the Third Race the boneless animals grew and changed, they +became animals with bones, their chayas became solid. + +"The animals separated first. They began to breed. The two-fold man +separated also. He said, 'Let us as they; let us unite and make +creatures.' They did. + +"And those that had no spark took huge she-animals unto them. They +begat upon them dumb races. Dumb they were themselves. But their +tongues untied. The tongues of their progeny remained still. Monsters +they bred. A race of crooked red-hair-covered monsters going on all +fours. A dumb race to keep the shame untold." (And an ancient +commentary adds 'when the Third separated and fell into sin by +breeding men-animals, these (the animals) became ferocious, and men +and they mutually destructive. Till then, there was no sin, no life +taken.'). + +"Seeing which the Lhas who had not built men, wept, saying. 'The +Amanasa [mindless] have defiled our future abodes. This is Karma. Let +us dwell in the others. Let us teach them better lest worse should +happen.' They did. + +"Then all men became endowed with Manas. They saw the sin of the +mindless." + +[Sidenote: Origin of the Pithecoid and the Anthropoid Apes.] + +The anatomical resemblance between Man and the higher Ape, so +frequently cited by Darwinists as pointing to some ancestors common to +both, presents an interesting problem, the proper solution of which is +to be sought for in the esoteric explanation of the genesis of the +pithecoid stocks. + +Now, we gather from the Secret Doctrine[19] that the descendants of +these semi-human monsters described above as originating in the sin of +the "mindless," having through long centuries dwindled in size and +become more densely physical, culminated in a race of Apes at the time +of the Miocene period, from which in their turn are descended the +pithecoids of to-day. With these Apes of the Miocene period, however, +the Atlanteans of that age renewed the sin of the "mindless"--this +time with full responsibility, and the resultants of their crime are +the species of Apes now known as Anthropoid. + +We are given to understand that in the coming Sixth Root Race, these +anthropoids will obtain human incarnation, in the bodies doubtless of +the lowest races then existing upon earth. + +That part of the Lemurian continent where the separation of the sexes +took place, and where both the fourth and the fifth sub-races +flourished, is to be found in the earlier of the two maps. It lay to +the east of the mountainous region of which the present Island of +Madagascar formed a part, and thus occupied a central position around +the smaller of the two great lakes. + +[Sidenote: Origin of Language.] + +As stated in the stanzas of Dzyan above quoted, the men of that epoch, +even though they had become completely physical, still remained +speechless. Naturally the astral and etherial ancestors of this Third +Root Race had no need to produce a series of sounds in order to convey +their thoughts, living as they did in astral and etherial conditions, +but when man became physical he could not for long remain dumb. We are +told that the sounds which these primitive men made to express their +thoughts were at first composed entirely of vowels. In the slow course +of evolution the consonant sounds gradually came into use, but the +development of language from first to last on the continent of Lemuria +never reached beyond the monosyllabic phase. The Chinese language of +to-day is the sole great lineal descendant of ancient Lemurian +speech[20] for "the whole human race was at that time of one language +and of one lip."[21] + +In Humboldt's classification of language, the Chinese, as we know, is +called the _isolating_ as distinguished from the more highly evolved +_agglutinative_, and the still more highly evolved _inflectional_. +Readers of the _Story of Atlantis_ may remember that many different +languages were developed on that continent, but all belonged to the +_agglutinative_, or, as Max Mueller prefers to call it, the +_combinatory_ type, while the still higher development of +_inflectional_ speech, in the Aryan and Semitic tongues, was reserved +for our own era of the Fifth Root Race. + +[Sidenote: The First Taking of Life.] + +The first instance of sin, the first taking of life--quoted above from +an old commentary on the stanzas of Dzyan, may be taken as indicative +of the attitude which was then inaugurated between the human and the +animal kingdom, and which has since attained such awful proportions, +not only between men and animals, but between the different races of +men themselves. And this opens up a most interesting avenue of +thought. + +The fact that Kings and Emperors consider it necessary or appropriate, +on all state occasions, to appear in the garb of one of the fighting +branches of their service, is a significant indication of the +apotheosis reached by the combative qualities in man! The custom +doubtless comes down from a time when the King was the warrior-chief, +and when his kingship was acknowledged solely in virtue of his being +the chief warrior. But now that the Fifth Root Race is in ascendency, +whose chief characteristic and function is the development of +intellect, it might have been expected that the dominant attribute of +the Fourth Root Race would have been a little less conspicuously +paraded. But the era of one race overlaps another, and though, as we +know, the leading races of the world all belong to the Fifth Root +Race, the vast majority of its inhabitants still belong to the Fourth, +and it would appear that the Fifth Root Race has not yet outstripped +Fourth Race characteristics, for it is by infinitely slow degrees that +man's evolution is accomplished. + +It will be interesting here to summarise the history of this strife +and bloodshed from its genesis during these far-off ages on Lemuria. + +From the information placed before the writer it would seem that the +antagonism between men and animals was developed first. With the +evolution of man's physical body, suitable food for that body +naturally became an urgent need, so that in addition to the antagonism +brought about by the necessity of self-defence against the now +ferocious animals, the desire of food also urged men to their +slaughter, and as we have seen above, one of the first uses they made +of their budding mentality was to train animals to act as hunters in +the chase. + +The element of strife having once been kindled, men soon began to use +weapons of offence against each other. The causes of aggression were +naturally the same as those which exist to-day among savage +communities. The possession of any desirable object by one of his +fellows was sufficient inducement for a man to attempt to take it by +force. Nor was strife limited to single acts of aggression. As among +savages to-day, bands of marauders would attack and pillage the +communities who dwelt at a distance from their own village. But to +this extent only, we are told, was warfare organised on Lemuria, even +down to the end of its seventh sub-race. + +It was reserved for the Atlanteans to develop the principle of strife +on organised lines--to collect and to drill armies and to build +navies. This principle of strife was indeed the fundamental +characteristic of the Fourth Root Race. All through the Atlantean +period, as we know, warfare was the order of the day, and battles were +constantly fought on land and sea. And so deeply rooted in man's +nature during the Atlantean period did this principle of strife +become, that even now the most intellectually developed of the Aryan +races are ready to war upon each other. + +[Sidenote: The Arts.] + +To trace the development of the Arts among the Lemurians, we must +start with the history of the fifth sub-race. The separation of the +sexes was now fully accomplished, and man inhabited a completely +physical body, though it was still of gigantic stature. The offensive +and defensive war with the monstrous beasts of prey had already begun, +and men had taken to living in huts. To build their huts they tore +down trees, and piled them up in a rude fashion. At first each +separate family lived in its own clearing in the jungle, but they soon +found it safer, as a defence against the wild beasts, to draw together +and live in small communities. Their huts, too, which had been formed +of rude trunks of trees, they now learnt to build with boulders of +stone, while the weapons with which they attacked, or defended +themselves against the Dinosauria and other wild beasts, were spears +of sharpened wood, similar to the staff held by the man whose +appearance is described above. + +Up to this time agriculture was unknown, and the uses of fire had not +been discovered. The food of their boneless ancestors who crawled on +the earth were such things as they could find on the surface of the +ground or just below it. Now that they walked erect many of the wild +forest trees provided them with nuts and berries, but their chief +article of food was the flesh of the beasts and reptiles which they +slew, tore in pieces, and devoured. + +[Sidenote: Teachers of the Lemurian Race.] + +But now there occurred an event pregnant with consequences the most +momentous in the history of the human race. An event too full of +mystical import, for its narration brings into view Beings who +belonged to entirely different systems of evolution, and who +nevertheless came at this epoch to be associated with our humanity. + +The lament of the Lhas "who had not built men" at seeing their future +abodes defiled, is at first sight far from intelligible. Though the +descent of these Beings into human bodies is not the chief event to +which we have to refer, some explanation of its cause and its result +must first be attempted. Now, we are given to understand that these +Lhas were the highly evolved humanity of some system of evolution +which had run its course at a period in the infinitely far-off past. +They had reached a high stage of development on their chain of worlds, +and since its dissolution had passed the intervening ages in the bliss +of some Nirvanic condition. But their karma now necessitated a return +to some field of action and of physical causes, and as they had not +yet fully learnt the lesson of compassion, their temporary task now +lay in becoming guides and teachers of the Lemurian race, who then +required all the help and guidance they could get. + +But other Beings also took up the task--in this case voluntarily. +These came from the scheme of evolution which has Venus as its one +physical planet. That scheme has already reached the Seventh Round of +its planets in its Fifth Manvantara; its humanity therefore stands at +a far higher level than ordinary mankind on this earth has yet +attained. They are "divine" while we are only "human." The Lemurians, +as we have seen, were then merely on the verge of attaining true +manhood. It was to supply a temporary need--the education of our +infant humanity--that these divine Beings came--as we possibly, long +ages hence, may similarly be called to give a helping hand to the +beings struggling up to manhood on the Jupiter or the Saturn chain. +Under their guidance and influence the Lemurians rapidly advanced in +mental growth. The stirring of their minds with feelings of love and +reverence for those whom they felt to be infinitely wiser and greater +than themselves naturally resulted in efforts of imitation, and so the +necessary advance in mental growth was achieved which transformed the +higher mental sheath into a vehicle capable of carrying over the human +characteristics from life to life, thus warranting that outpouring of +the Divine Life which endowed the recipient with individual +immortality. As expressed in the archaic stanzas of Dzyan, "Then all +men became endowed with Manas." + +A great distinction, however, must be noted between the coming of the +exalted Beings from the Venus scheme and that of those described as +the highly evolved humanity of some previous system of evolution. The +former, as we have seen, were under no karmic impulse. They came as +men to live and work among them, but they were not required to assume +their physical limitations, being in a position to provide appropriate +vehicles for themselves. + +The Lhas on the other hand had actually to be born in the bodies of +the race as it then existed. Better would it have been both for them +and for the race if there had been no hesitation or delay on their +part in taking up their Karmic task, for the sin of the mindless and +all its consequences would have been avoided. Their task, too, would +have been an easier one, for it consisted not only in acting as guides +and teachers, but in improving the racial type--in short, in evolving +out of the half-human, half-animal form then existing, the physical +body of the man to be. + +It must be remembered that up to this time the Lemurian race consisted +of the second and third groups of the Lunar Pitris. But now that they +were approaching the level reached on the Lunar chain by the first +group of Pitris, it became necessary for these again to return to +incarnation, and this they did all through the fifth, sixth and +seventh sub-races (indeed, some did not take birth till the Atlantean +period), so that the impetus given to the progress of the race was a +cumulative force. + +The positions occupied by the divine beings from the Venus chain were +naturally those of rulers, instructors in religion, and teachers of +the arts, and it is in this latter capacity that a reference to the +arts taught by them comes to our aid in the consideration of the +history of this early race. + +[Sidenote: The Arts continued.] + +Under the guidance of their divine teachers the people began to learn +the use of fire, and the means by which it could be obtained, at first +by friction, and later on by the use of flints and iron. They were +taught to explore for metals, to smelt and to mould them, and instead +of spears of sharpened wood they now began to use spears tipped with +sharpened metal. + +They were also taught to dig and till the ground and to cultivate the +seeds of wild grain till it improved in type. This cultivation carried +on through the vast ages which have since elapsed has resulted in the +evolution of the various cereals which we now possess--barley, oats, +maize, millet, etc. But an exception must here be noted. Wheat was not +evolved upon this planet like the other cereals. It was a gift of the +divine beings who brought it from Venus ready for the food of man. Nor +was wheat their only gift. The one animal form whose type has not been +evolved on our chain of worlds is that of the bee. It, too, was +brought from Venus. + +The Lemurians now also began to learn the art of spinning and weaving +fabrics with which to clothe themselves. These were made of the coarse +hair of a species of animal now extinct, but which bore some +resemblance to the llamas of to-day, the ancestors of which they may +possibly have been. We have seen above that the earliest articles of +clothing of Lemurian man were robes of skin stripped from the beasts +he had slain. These skins he still continued to wear on the colder +parts of the continent, but he now learnt to cure and dress the skin +in some rude fashion. + +One of the first things the people were taught was the use of fire in +the preparation of their food, and whether it was the flesh of animals +they slew or the pounded grains of wheat, their modes of cooking were +closely analogous to those we hear of as existing to-day among savage +communities. With reference to the gift of wheat so marvellously +brought from Venus, the divine rulers doubtless realised the +advisability of at once procuring such food for the people, for they +must have known that it would take many generations before the +cultivation of the wild seeds could provide an adequate supply. + +Rude and barbarous as were the people during the period of the fifth +and sixth sub-races, such of them as had the privilege of coming in +contact with their divine teachers were naturally inspired with such +feelings of reverence and worship as helped to lift them out of their +savage condition. The constant influx, too, of more intelligent beings +from the first group of the Lunar Pitris, who were then beginning to +return to incarnation, helped the attainment of a more civilised +state. + +[Sidenote: Great Cities and Statues.] + +During the later part of the sixth, and the seventh sub-race they +learnt to build great cities. These appear to have been of cyclopean +architecture, corresponding with the gigantic bodies of the race. The +first cities were built on that extended mountainous region of the +continent which included, as will be seen in the first map, the +present Island of Madagascar. Another great city is described in the +"Secret Doctrine"[22] as having been entirely built of blocks of lava. +It lay some 30 miles west of the present Easter Island, and it was +subsequently destroyed by a series of volcanic eruptions. The gigantic +statues of Easter Island--measuring as most of them do about 27 feet +in height by 8 feet across the shoulders--were probably intended to be +representative not only of the features, but of the height of those +who carved them, or it may be of their ancestors, for it was probably +in the later ages of the Lemuro-Atlanteans that the statues were +erected. It will be observed that by the second map period, the +continent of which Easter Island formed a part had been broken up and +Easter Island itself had become a comparatively small island, though +of considerably greater dimensions than it retains to-day. + +Civilisations of comparative importance arose on different parts of +the continent and the great islands where the inhabitants built cities +and dwelt in settled communities, but large tribes who were also +partially civilised continued to lead a nomadic and patriarchial life; +while other parts of the land--in many cases the least accessible, as +in our own times--were peopled by tribes of extremely low type. + +[Sidenote: Religion.] + +With so primitive a race of men, at the best, there was but little in +the shape of religion that they could be taught. Simple rules of +conduct and the most elementary precepts of morality were all that +they were fitted to understand or to practise. During the evolution of +the seventh sub-race, it is true that their divine instructors taught +them some primitive form of worship and imparted the knowledge of a +Supreme Being whose symbol was represented as the Sun. + +[Sidenote: Destruction of the Continent.] + +Unlike the subsequent fate of Atlantis, which was submerged by great +tidal waves, the continent of Lemuria perished by volcanic action. It +was raked by the burning ashes and the red-hot dust from numberless +volcanoes. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, it is true, heralded +each of the great catastrophes which overtook Atlantis, but when the +land had been shaken and rent, the sea rushed in and completed the +work, and most of the inhabitants perished by drowning. The Lemurians, +on the other hand, met their doom chiefly by fire or suffocation. +Another marked contrast between the fate of Lemuria and Atlantis was +that while four great catastrophes completed the destruction of the +latter, the former was slowly eaten away by internal fires, for, from +the time when the disintegrating process began towards the end of the +first map period, there was no cessation from the fiery activity, and +whether in one part of the continent or another, the volcanic action +was incessant, while the invariable sequence was the subsidence and +total disappearance of the land, just as in the case of Krakatoa in +1883. + +So closely analogous was the eruption of Mount Pelee, which caused the +destruction of St. Pierre, the capital of Martinique, about two years +ago, to the whole series of volcanic catastrophes on the continent of +Lemuria, that the description of the former given by some of the +survivors may be of interest. "An immense black cloud had suddenly +burst forth from the crater of Mont Pelee and rushed with terrific +velocity upon the city, destroying everything--inhabitants, houses and +vegetation alike--that it found in its path. In two or three minutes +it passed over, and the city was a blazing pyre of ruins. In both +islands [Martinique and St. Vincent] the eruptions were characterised +by the sudden discharge of immense quantities of red-hot dust, mixed +with steam, which flowed down the steep hillsides with an +ever-increasing velocity. In St. Vincent this had filled many valleys +to a depth of between 100 feet and 200 feet, and months after the +eruptions was still very hot, and the heavy rains which then fell +thereon caused enormous explosions, producing clouds of steam and dust +that shot upwards to a height of from 1500 feet to 2000 feet, and +filled the rivers with black boiling mud." Captain Freeman, of the +"Roddam," then described "a thrilling experience which he and his +party had at Martinique. One night, when they were lying at anchor in +a little sloop about a mile from St. Pierre, the mountain exploded in +a way that was apparently an exact repetition of the original +eruption. It was not entirely without warning; hence they were enabled +to sail at once a mile or two further away, and thus probably saved +their lives. In the darkness they saw the summit glow with a bright +red light; then soon, with loud detonations, great red-hot stones were +projected into the air and rolled down the slopes. A few minutes later +a prolonged rumbling noise was heard, and in an instant was followed +by a red-hot avalanche of dust, which rushed out of the crater and +rolled down the side with a terrific speed, which they estimated at +about 100 miles an hour, with a temperature of 1000 deg. centigrade. As +to the probable explanation of these phenomena, no lava, he said, had +been seen to flow from either of the volcanoes, but only steam and +fine hot dust. The volcanoes were, therefore, of the explosive type; +and from all his observations he had concluded that the absence of +lava-flows was due to the material within the crater being partly +solid, or at least highly viscous, so that it could not flow like an +ordinary lava-stream. Since his return this theory had received +striking confirmation, for it was now known that within the crater of +Mont Pelee there was no lake of molten lava, but that a solid pillar +of red-hot rock was slowly rising upwards in a great conical, +sharp-pointed hill, until it might finally overtop the old summit of +the mountain. It was nearly 1000 feet high, and slowly grew as it was +forced upwards by pressure from beneath, while every now and then +explosions of steam took place, dislodging large pieces from its +summit or its sides. Steam was set free within this mass as it cooled, +and the rock then passed into a dangerous and highly explosive +condition, such that an explosion must sooner or later take place, +which shivered a great part of the mass into fine red-hot dust."[23] + +A reference to the first Lemurian map will show that in the lake lying +to the south-east of the extensive mountainous region there was an +island which consisted of little more than one great mountain. This +mountain was a very active volcano. The four mountains which lay to +the south-west of the lake were also active volcanoes, and in this +region it was that the disruption of the continent began. The seismic +cataclysms which followed the volcanic eruptions caused such +wide-spread damage that by the second map period a large portion of +the southern part of the continent had been submerged. + +A marked characteristic of the land surface in early Lemurian times +was the great number of lakes and marshes, as well as the innumerable +volcanoes. Of course, all these are not shown on the map. Only some of +the great mountains which were volcanoes, and only some of the largest +lakes are there indicated. + +Another volcano on the north-east coast of the continent began its +destructive work at an early date. Earthquakes completed the +disruption, and it seems probable that the sea shown in the second map +as dotted with small islands to the south-east of the present Japan, +indicates the area of seismic disturbance. + +In the first map it will be seen that there were lakes in the centre +of what is now the island-continent of Australia--lakes where the land +is at present exceedingly dry and parched. By the second map period +those lakes had disappeared, and it seems natural to conjecture that +the districts where those lakes lay, must, during the eruptions of the +great volcanoes which lay to the south-east (between the present +Australia and New Zealand), have been so raked with red-hot volcanic +dust that the very water-springs were dried up. + +[Sidenote: Founding of the Atlantean Race.] + +In concluding this sketch, a reference to the process by which the +Fourth Root Race was brought into existence, will appropriately bring +to an end what we know of the story of Lemuria and link it on to that +of Atlantis. + +It may be remembered from previous writings on the subject that it was +from the _fifth_ or Semitic sub-race of the Fourth Root Race that was +chosen the nucleus destined to become our great Fifth or Aryan Root +Race. It was not, however, until the time of the _seventh_ sub-race on +Lemuria that humanity was sufficiently developed physiologically to +warrant the choice of individuals fit to become the parents of a new +Root Race. So it was from the seventh sub-race that the segregation +was effected. The colony was first settled on land which occupied the +site of the present Ashantee and Western Nigeria. A reference to the +second map will show this as a promontory lying to the north-west of +the island-continent which embraced the Cape of Good Hope and parts of +western Africa. Having been guarded for generations from any admixture +with a lower type, the colony gradually increased in numbers, and the +time came when it was ready to receive and to hand on the new impulse +to physical heredity which the Manu was destined to impart. + +Students of Theosophy are aware that, up to the present day, no one +belonging to our humanity has been in a position to undertake the +exalted office of Manu, though it is stated that the founding of the +coming Sixth Root Race will be entrusted to the guidance of one of our +Masters of Wisdom--one who, while belonging to our humanity, has +nevertheless reached a most exalted level in the Divine Hierarchy. + +In the case we are considering--the founding of the Fourth Root +Race--it was one of the Adepts from Venus who undertook the duties of +the Manu. Naturally he belonged to a very high order, for it must be +understood that the Beings who came from the Venus system as rulers +and teachers of our infant humanity did _not_ all stand at the same +level. It is this circumstance which furnishes a reason for the +remarkable fact that may, in conclusion, be stated--namely, that there +existed in Lemuria a Lodge of Initiation. + +[Sidenote: A Lodge of Initiation.] + +Naturally it was not for the benefit of the Lemurian race that the +Lodge was founded. Such of them as were sufficiently advanced were, it +is true, taught by the Adept Gurus, but the instruction they required +was limited to the explanation of a few physical phenomena, such as +the fact that the earth moves round the sun, or to the explanation of +the different appearance which physical objects assumed for them when +subjected alternately to their physical sight and their astral vision. + +It was, of course, for the sake of those who, while endowed with the +stupendous powers of transferring their consciousness from the planet +Venus to this our earth, and of providing for their use and their work +while here appropriate vehicles in which to function, were yet +pursuing the course of their own evolution.[24] For their sake it +was--for the sake of those who, having entered the Path, had only +reached the lower grades, that this Lodge of Initiation was founded. + +Though, as we know, the goal of normal evolution is greater and more +glorious than can, from our present standpoint, be well imagined, it +is by no means synonymous with that expansion of consciousness which, +combined with and alone made possible by, the purification and +ennoblement of character, constitute the heights to which the Pathway +of Initiation leads. + +The investigation into what constitutes this purification and +ennoblement of character, and the endeavour to realise what that +expansion of consciousness really means are subjects which have been +written of elsewhere. + +Suffice it now to point out that the founding of a Lodge of Initiation +for the sake of Beings who came from another scheme of evolution is an +indication of the unity of object and of aim in the government and the +guidance of _all_ the schemes of evolution brought into existence by +our Solar Logos. Apart from the normal course in our own scheme, there +is, we know, a Path by which He may be directly reached, which every +son of man in his progress through the ages is privileged to hear of, +and to tread, if he so chooses. We find that this was so in the Venus +scheme also, and we may presume it is or will be so in all the schemes +which form part of our Solar system. This Path is the Path of +Initiation, and the end to which leads is the same for all, and that +end is Union with God. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: Haeckel is correct enough in his surmise that Lemuria was +the cradle of the human race as it now exists, but it was not out of +Anthropoid apes that mankind developed. A reference will be made later +on to the position in nature which the Anthropoid apes really occupy.] + +[Footnote 3: Ernst Haeckel's "Hist. of Creation," 2nd ed., 1876, Vol. +1., pp. 360-62.] + +[Footnote 4: Alfred Russell Wallace's "The Geographical Distribution +of Animals--with a study of the relations of living and extinct Faunas +as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's Surface." London: +Macmillan & Co., 1876. Vol. 1., pp. 76-7.] + +[Footnote 5: Ceylon and South India, it is true, have been bounded on +the north by a considerable extent of sea, but that was at a much +earlier date than the Tertiary period.] + +[Footnote 6: Wallace's "Geographical Distribution, etc." Vol. 1., pp. +328-9.] + +[Footnote 7: Wallace's "Geographical Distribution, etc.," Vol. ii., p. +155.] + +[Footnote 8: H. F. Blandford "On the age and correlations of the +Plant-bearing series of India and the former existence of an +Indo-Oceanic Continent," see Quarterly Journal of the Geological +Society, Vol. xxxi., 1875, pp. 534-540.] + +[Footnote 9: A reference to the maps will show that Mr. Blandford's +estimate of date is the more correct of the two.] + +[Footnote 10: Parts of the continent of course endured, but the +dismemberment of Lemuria is said to have taken place before the +beginning of the Eocene Age.] + +[Footnote 11: Vol ii., pp. 325-6.] + +[Footnote 12: Dr. G. Hartlaub "On the Avifauna of Madagascar and the +Mascarene Islands," see "The Ibis," a Quarterly Journal of +Ornithology. Fourth Series, Vol. i., 1877, p. 334.] + +[Footnote 13: Ernst Haeckel's "History of Creation," Vol. ii., pp. +22-56.] + +[Footnote 14: Ernst Haeckel's "History of Creation," Vol. ii., pp. +226-7.] + +[Footnote 15: For a further account of the permanent atoms on all the +planes, and the potentialities contained in them with reference to the +processes of death and re-birth, see "Man's Place in Universe." pp. +76-80.] + +[Footnote 16: The "Standard," 8th Jan., 1904.] + +[Footnote 17: Ernst Haeckel's "The History of Creation," 2nd ed., Vol. +i., pp. 193-8.] + +[Footnote 18: "The Secret Doctrine," Vol. ii., p. 197.] + +[Footnote 19: Vol. ii., pp. 683 and 689.] + +[Footnote 20: It must, however, be noted that the Chinese _people_ are +mainly descended from the fourth or Turanian sub-race of the Fourth +Root Race.] + +[Footnote 21: "Secret Doctrine," Vol. ii., p. 198.] + +[Footnote 22: Vol. ii., p. 317.] + +[Footnote 23: The "Times," 14th Sept., 1903.] + +[Footnote 24: The heights reached by them will find their parallel +when our humanity will, countless aeons hence, have reached the Sixth +Round of our chain of worlds, and the same transcendent powers will be +the possession of ordinary mankind in those far-off ages.] + + + + +MAPS + + +[Illustration: NO. 1 THE WORLD ABOUT 1,000,000 YEARS AGO, DURING MANY +PREVIOUS AGES, AND UP TO THE CATASTROPHE OF ABOUT 800, 000 YEARS AGO. + +ATLANTIS AT ITS PRIME] + +[Illustration: NO 2 THE WORLD AFTER THE CATASTROPHE OF 800,000 YEARS AGO +AND UP TO THE CATASTROPHE OF ABOUT 200,000 YEARS AGO. + +ATLANTIS IN ITS DECADENCE] + +[Illustration: NO 3 THE WORLD AFTER THE CATASTROPHE OF 200,000 YEARS AGO +AND UP TO THE CATASTROPHE OF ABOUT 80,000 YEARS AGO. + +RUTA & DAITYA] + +[Illustration: NO 4 THE WORLD AFTER THE CATASTROPHE OF 80000 YEARS AGO +AND UP TO THE FINAL SUBMERGENCE OF POSEIDONIS IN 9,564 B.C. + +POSEIDONIS] + +[Illustration: No.1 LEMURIA at its greatest extent.] + +[Illustration: No.2 LEMURIA at a later period.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF ATLANTIS AND THE LOST +LEMURIA*** + + +******* This file should be named 21796.txt or 21796.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/7/9/21796 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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