SECTION IL. 1886. [| 1058] Trans. Roy. Soc. CANADA. 
V.—The Lost Atlantis. 
By DANIEL Winson, LL.D., F.R.S.E., President of University College, Toronto. 
(Read May 28, 1886.) 
The legend of Atlantis, an island-continent lying in the Atlantic Ocean over against 
the pillars of Hercules, which, after long being the seat of a powerful empire, was 
engulphed in the sea, has been made the basis of many extravagant speculations. The 
story is recorded in the “Timzeus” and, with many fanciful amplifications, in the “ Critias” 
of Plato. According to the dialogues, as reproduced there, Critias repeats to Socrates a 
story told him by his grandfather, then an old man of ninety, when he himself was not more 
than ten years of age. According to this narrative, Solon visited the city of Sais, at the 
head of the Egyptian delta, and there learned from the priests of the ancient empire of 
Atlantis, and of its overthrow by a convulsion of nature. ‘No one,” says Professor Jowett, 
in his critical edition of “The Dialogues of Plato,” “knew better than Plato how to 
invent ‘anoble lie’;” and he, unhesitatingly, pronounces the whole narrative a fabrication. 
The world, like a child, has readily, and for the most part, unhesitatingly accepted the 
tale of the Island of Atlantis.” But to the critical editor, this reception furnishes only an 
illustration of popular credulity, showing how the chance word of a poet or philosopher 
may give rise to endless historical or religious speculation. In the “ Critias,” the legendary 
tale is unquestionably expanded into details of no possible historical significance or genuine 
antiquity. But it is not without reason, that men like Humboldt have recognised in the 
original legend the possible vestige of a widely spread tradition ef earliest times. In this 
respect, at any rate, I purpose here to review it. 
It is to be noted that even in the time of Socrates, and indeed of the elder Critias, this 
Atlantis was referred to as the vague and inconsistent tradition of a remote past; though 
not more inconsistent than much else which the cultured Greeks were accustomed to 
receive. Mr. Hyde Clarke, in an “ Examination of the Legend,” printed in the Transac- 
tions of the Royal Historical Society, arrives at the conclusion that Atlantis was the name 
of the King, rather than of the Dominion. But king and kingdom have ever been liable 
to be referred to under a common designation. According to the account in the “ Timzeus,” 
Atlantis was a continent lying over against the pillars of Hercules, greater in extent than 
Libya and Asia combined; the highway to other islands, and to a great ocean, of which 
the Mediterranean Sea was a mere harbour. But in the vagueness of all geographical 
knowledge in the days of Socrates and of Plato, this Atlantic domain is confused with 
some Iberian or western African power, which is stated to have been arrayed against 
Egypt, Hellas, and all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. The knowledge 
even of the western Mediterranean was then very imperfect; and, to the ancient Greek, 
the West was a region of vague mystery which sufficed for the localisation of all his 
Sec. IL., 1886. 14. 
