LITERARY NOTICES. 



131 



Atlantis : The Antediluvian World. By 

 Ignatius Donnelly. Illustrated. New 

 York: Harper & Brothers. Pp.490. 



Mr. Donnelly, who writes with an en- 

 thusiasm which only an unquestioning faith 

 in his theory can beget, undertakes to es- 

 tablish in this book 



That there once existed in the Atlantic 

 Ocean, opposite the mouth of the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea, a large island, which was the 

 remnant of an Atlantic Continent, and 

 known to the ancients as Atlantis ; that 

 Plato's description of such an island was not 

 fable, but veritable history ; that it was the 

 region where man first rose to civilization, 

 and became a populous and mighty nation, 

 whence settlements were made, all around 

 the Mediterranean, and in Western Europe 

 and Africa, in the regions of the Baltic, 

 Black, and Caspian Seas, and in parts of 

 America ; that it was the true Antediluvian 

 world, the seat of the gods, and the happy 

 lands, under whatever name the ancients of 

 different nations called them ; that the gods 

 and goddesses of the ancient Greek and 

 other nations were the kings, queens, and 

 heroes of ancient Atlantis, and that the acts 

 attributed to them in mythology are con- 

 fused recollections of historical events ; that 

 the Peruvian and ancient Egyptian mytholo- 

 gies represented an original Atlantean sun- 

 worship ; that Egypt and Egyptian civiliza- 

 tion were derived directly from Atlantis ; 

 that the implements of the " Bronze age " 

 were also derived thence, and iron was first 

 used there ; that the Phoenician alphabet, the 

 parent of all the European alphabets, and 

 the Maya alphabet of Mexico, were derived 

 from there ; that this island was the origi- 

 nal seat of the Aryan and Semitic families 

 of nations, and possibly also of the Tura- 

 nians ; and that the nation perished in a 

 convulsion by which the whole island was 

 sunk into the ocean with most of its inhab- 

 itants, but that a few escaped in ships or 

 on rafts, and spread the news through the 

 world, whence the flood legends of the vari- 

 ous nations. 



A semi-historical support is claimed for 

 the principal feature of this theory in Pla- 

 to's record of what the Egyptian priests are 

 said to have told Solon of Atlantis and its 

 destruction, and in corroborative incidents 

 in other ancient literature. The possibility 



of such a catastrophe as the destruction of 

 the island is afBrmed upon geological evi- 

 dence. The deep-sea surveys have furnished 

 evidence of the existence of an immense 

 elevation in the bottom of the Atlantic 

 Ocean, the contour and profile of which are 

 in harmony with the descriptions of the an- 

 cient Atlantis. Some peculiarities of the 

 flora and fauna of the two continents which 

 have puzzled naturalists could be easily ac- 

 counted for if the existence of an interme- 

 diate continent as an original center of dis- 

 tribution could be predicated. The flood- 

 legends of all nations are quoted and ex- 

 amined by Mr. Donnelly, and shown to be 

 reconcilable with this theory, and through 

 it with each other. Numerous remarkable 

 features of community in the civilizations of 

 the Old World and the New seeming evi- 

 dences of former intercourse between the 

 two continents, which seem to be constant- 

 ly increasing and many now hard problems 

 in anthropology would no longer be difficult 

 to account for, but would appear quite nat- 

 ural if we were allowed to suppose that men 

 have radiated in all directions from a pri- 

 mary home in Atlantis. Numerous legends 

 in the mythologies of Eastern and Western 

 nations, curiously like each other in some 

 features, seem to point to such a place. 

 The Book of Genesis is found by Mr. Don- 

 nelly to be a fairly good history of Atlantis. 

 The origin of bronze has been an impenetra- 

 ble mystery. In the nature of things, cop- 

 per, and perhaps tin, must have been first 

 used separately ; yet no evidence of the use 

 of either has ever been found, except of 

 copper in the neighborhood of Lake Supe- 

 rior, where implements of that metal and 

 the marks of ancient workings of the mines 

 have been found. Mr. Donnelly postulates 

 as a solution of the mystery, that the At- 

 lanteans invented bronze and introduced it 

 into other parts of the world, and that they 

 may have been acquainted with Lake Su- 

 perior copper. Hundreds of coincidences 

 are traced between features of the monu- 

 ments, traditions, and customs of the an- 

 cient Eastern nations and of the ancient 

 Americans, and are referred to Atlantis for 

 explanation. Mr. Donnelly gives especial 

 attention to lingual and alphabetic analogies, 

 and devotes a whole chapter to tracing re- 

 semblances between the Maya alphabet, as 



