"W. Scott-Elliot - Atlantis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elliot W Scott)

civilizations. Of the 1st sub-race of our Aryan Race who inhabited India and
colonized Egypt in prehistoric times we know practically nothing, and the same
may be said of the Chaldean, Babylonian, and Assyrian nations who composed the
2nd sub-race--for the fragments of knowledge obtained from the recently
deciphered hieroglyphs or cuneiform inscriptions on Egyptian tombs or Babylonian
tablets can scarcely be said to constitute history. The Persians who belonged to
the 3rd or Iranian sub-race have, it is true, left a few more traces, but of the
earlier civilizations of the Celtic or 4th sub-race we have no records at all.
It is only with the rise of the last family shoots of this Celtic stock, viz.,
the Greek and Roman peoples, that we come upon historic times.
In addition also to the blank period in the past, there is the blank period in
the future. For of the seven sub-races required to complete the history of a
great Root Race, five only have so far come into existence. Our own Teutonic or
5th sub-race has already developed many nations, but has not yet run its course,
while the 6th and 7th sub-races, who will be developed on the continents of
North and South America, respectively, will have thousands of years of history
to give to the world.
In attempting, therefore, to summarize in a few pages information about the
world's progress during a period which must have occupied at least as great a
stretch of years as that above referred to, it should be realized how slight a
sketch this must inevitably be.
A record of the world's progress during the period of the Fourth or Atlantean
Race must embrace the history of many nations, and register the rise and fall of
many civilizations.
Catastrophes, too, on a scale such as has not yet been experienced during the
life of our present Fifth Race, took place on more than one occasion during the
progress of the Fourth. The destruction of Atlantis was accomplished by a series
of catastrophes varying in character from great cataclysms in which whole
territories and populations perished, to comparatively unimportant landslips
such as occur on our own coasts to-day. When the destruction was once
inaugurated by the first great catastrophe there was no intermission in the
minor landslips which continued slowly but steadily to eat away the continent.
Four of the great catastrophes stand out above the rest in magnitude. The first
took place in the Miocene age, about 800,000 years ago. The second, which was of
minor importance, occurred about 200,000 years ago. The third--about 80,000
years ago--was a very great one. It destroyed all that remained of the Atlantean
continent, with the exception of the island to which Plato gave the name of
Poseidonis, which in its turn was submerged in the fourth and final great
catastrophe of 9564 B.C.
Now the testimony of the oldest writers and of modern scientific research alike
bear witness to the existence of an ancient continent occupying the site of the
lost Atlantis.
Before proceeding to the consideration of the subject itself, it is proposed
cursorily to glance at the generally known sources which supply corroborative
evidence. These may be grouped into the five following classes:
First, the testimony of the deep-sea surroundings.
Second, the distribution of fauna and flora.
Third, the similarity of language and of ethnological type.
Fourth, the similarity of religious belief, ritual, and architecture.
Fifth, the testimony of ancient writers, of early race traditions, and of