Atlantis. 195 



Charapollion discovered the key to the hieroglyphics, no scholar has 

 thrown such a broad and clear light upon Egyptian life and history as 

 Mariette." Scholars have universally discredited the antiquity claimed 

 by the early Egyptian priesthood for their nation and civilization ; but 

 the researches of Mariette, so far as they extend, corroborate the chrono- 

 logical table of the priest Manetho back to a period 5,000 years B. C. 

 when the art remains indicate a proficiency equaled at no later date, 

 and clearly "the result of a long stage of unrecorded development." 

 Archaeological inquiry upon the remains scattered over this continent 

 has reached, as yet, no definite or satisfactory result. Thus far the 

 interpretation of these records of antiquity has practically bafiled the 

 closest scrutiny. Yet whoever attempts to unravel the mystery in 

 which the history and ethnology of the builders of the ancient mound- 

 structures of this continent are involved, can hardly fail to become 

 satisfied : 



1. That the ]Mound Builders and the ancient inhabitants of Mexico 

 and Central America were substantially one people, partaking of the 

 same culture ; and 



2. That the earliest civilization of tropical America, so far as we 

 can comprehend it through the medium of the Aztec and kindred 

 races, presents features which negative the supposition of indigenous 

 and unaided growth. 



In view of these conclusions in which investigators have very 

 generally concurred, the inquiry naturally arises, whence obtained 

 these ancient nations these peculiar features of their civilization? 

 Leaving out of view the claim, so strongly urged half a century ago, 

 respecting the original unity and subsequent dispersion of the human 

 race, by which all analogies between ancient civilizations were sought 

 to be explained, as a fact removed by modern investigation to a period 

 of human history too remote to enter as a profitable element into 

 present consideration, we may inquire what evidence, if any, exists, to 

 show that the early American civilization was influenced by external 

 communication. 



In response to this inquiry, our attention has been at various times 

 directed by classic antiquaries to the tradition of the Atlantic isles, 

 narrated by Plato in the Timoeus as received by Solon from the 

 Egyptian priests of the Delta, during a visit thither by the Athenian 

 law-giver. These priests, as we are informed by Plato, claimed for 

 their country and race a great antiquity, with written records ex- 

 tending back 8,000 years, and traditions of events 1,000 years earlier. 



" These writings," said they to Solon, " relate what a prodigious force 



