THE LOST ATLANTIS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2311, 2 December 1925, Page 10

THE LOST ATLANTIS

STiORY OF A VANISHED CONTINENT. “There is perhaps no more fascinating- story than the record of investigation into the traditions surrounding the Antediluvian world, particularly a legend, so persistent and so powerful in its appeal to human imagination, which tells of a groat island continent sunk fathoms deep beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean,” remarked Mr. M. Cohen, in introducing his addre.ss on “The Lost Atlantis” at the meeting of the Luncheon Club yesterday. Mr. M. H. Oram presided. With the passing- of generations, said Mr. Cohen, belief in the former existence of such a region assumed a soicntilic probability. The folk lores of the opposing- European and American littorals were rich in memories of an ancient cataclysm which precipitated the destruction of an oceanic culture of great antiquity. However, there was one account which could be classed as strictly documentary evidence and that was the narrative of Plato, a scholar and one of the profoundest minds of the ancient world, who lived 400 years B.C. He recorded the - story of a mighty power that came forth from the Atlantic Ocean from islands situated in front of the straits of Gibraltar, one of which was greater than Northern Africa and Asia Minor put together. The largest body of land was called Atlantis and sustained a great and wonderful Empire. At a later period, violent earthquakes and floods occurred and in a single day and night Atlantis disappeared beneath the sea. Plato’s account also dealt with the rulers ou the land, its animals, its vegetation and its industries. The Atlantcans also constructed temples, palaces, harbours, bridges and canals. The country itself was lofty and precipitous, but the cl tv was built on a level plain, surrounded by mountains.

Of the many commentaries which ha.d appeared upon the subject, the two best-known were by Ignatius Donnelly, published in 1882 and b>‘ Lewis Spence, ipsued in 1924. Ol those, Spence's work was perhaps the most logical and convincing. Both writers agreed that the Atlantcan hypothesis did not rest on Plato’s account alone, but on the great mass of testimony, tradition and scientific argument which had accumulated throughout the ages on its behalf. Spence asked if it was possible that the memory of a great world catastrophe which caused such vast and far-reaching changes in human history should persist for thousands of years. The reply, g-iven out of a prolonged experience in dealing- with traditional material, was unhesitatingly in the affirmative; that Plato’s account ol Atlantis was founded on sources which could not be disproved.

Mr. Cohen stated that he could not attempt to deal in detail with the closely reasoned analysis made upon the probabilities of Plato’s story, but could only giv e a summary of Donnelly’s postulates, which were: (D There once existed in the Atlantic Ocean a large island, the remnant of an Atlantic Continent: (2) the description of that island given by Plato was not fable, but veritable history; (8) Atlantis was the region where man first ros e from barbarism to civilisation; (4) it became a populous and mighty nation, from whoso overflowings the Gulf of Mexico, the Amazon basin, the Mediterranean, and west const of Africa and Europe and other, places, wore populated by civilised nations; (f>) the gods of tho ancient Greeks, Phoenicians, Hindus and Scandinavians wore simply the kings, queens and heroes of Atlantis;-, (6) The mythology of Egypt and Peru represented the original religion of Atlantis, which was sun worship;- (7) the Phoenician alphabet, parent of all the European alphabets, was derived from the Atlautean alphabet, which wa.s also conveyed to the Mayas of Central America; (8) Atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature and that catastrophe has survived to the jiresent time in the flood and deluge legends of different nations. The flora and fauna ■ of the two hemispheres also supported the geological theory that there was a common centre in the Atlantic Ocean where life began and that once there was v great land bridge right across. With out stressing the biological evidence one matter of interest might be men tioned and that was the strange aim fatal habit of the lemmings of Norway. Those small rodents occasion ally received a migratory impulse which sent them southward in great numbers. Hosts of those animals left the Norwegian coast and swam far out into the Atlantic, as if expecting land. , The testimony of the sen. provided concrete evidence, for in mid-Atlantic the remains of an immense island, 1000 miles in width, and 3000 miles long, had been found by means of deep-sea soundings. This submerged inland rose about 9000 feet above Iho depths around it and in it the Azores, St. Paul’s rocks. Ascension and the Canaries, reached the surface. There was further evidence in tho testimony of the flora and fauna of the littorals on each side of the Atlantic, i The lecturer went on to refer to ! many similar customs and beliefs tliat existed on both sides of the ocean, suggesting an origin in a common centre. He also mentioned architectural similarity between monuments in Africa and America—likenesses that were startling and difficult to account for on the theory of accidental coincidence. The further one wont hack in time, the more the evidences multiplied that one was approaching the presence of a great, wise anil civilised race, which possessed a kingly government, had its courts, its j judges, its mines, foundries, looms, | sailing vessels, aqueducts, docks and i canals. They had pyramids, temples ! and obelisks. Tn short, they were in ithe enjoyment of a civilisation nearly jas high as our own, with an Empire ! which may have reached from tht i Andes to. Hindustan, if not China. ! On tho motion of Mr. C. F. Spooner,

a hearty vote of thanks was passed to Hr. Cohen.