ATLANTIS. 229 



with some reason, we think, that this island was not 

 altogether a myth, although much that is said of 

 it is undoubtedly fabulous. 



Plato tells us that it was a large island in 

 the Western Ocean, situated before or opposite to 

 the Straits of Grades ; and that out of this island 

 there was an easy passage into some others which 

 , lay near a large continent, exceeding in bigness all 

 Europe and Asia. So far Plato may have told the 

 truth, and from this passage it is conjectured that 

 the existence of the continent of America was known 

 to the ancients. But he goes on, immediately after, 

 to draw upon his imagination, and to tell us that 

 Neptune settled on this island, and that his posterity 

 dwelt there for a period of nine thousand years in 

 the midst of fertility and abundance. But, not con- 

 tent with their ample possessions and prolific soil, 

 they went over to Africa and Europe, and even 

 penetrated into Asia, bent on conquest. 



Passing from this mixture of probable truth and 

 undoubted fable, Plato then asserts4hat the island of 

 Atlantis finally sank and disappeared. This may 

 or may not be true, but there is more reason for our 

 crediting the statement than many people would 

 suppose. Certain it is that no such island exists 

 at the present time, but it is believed by some that 

 the Azores, which are volcanic in their formation, 

 are the summits of the mountain ranges of the 

 Atlantis of the ancients. 



But the best evidence we have of the possible 



