A T L 



A T L 



ufcribes the formation of the bed of the Atlantic, from 

 lat. 20° fouth up to the north pole, to the concufTion 

 of thefe enormous nwlTes of water. The bare infpec- 

 tion of a map, he fays, is fufficient to flicw that this vail 

 fpace was liollowcd by the imprcffion of water: the pro- 

 tuberance from cape I'rio to the river of the Amazons, or 

 J^a Plata, in joutli . -merica, correfpoiiding with the in- 

 cavation on the Afric: fide, from the river of Congjo to 

 cape Palmas; and tin vfricau protubci-ance from the ihaits 

 of Gibraltar to cape Palmas, aufwering to the immenfe 

 cavity between New York and cape St. Roque. The de- 

 preffioii of fuch a vaft tratl of land cannot appear impro- 

 bable, adds this author, when we confuier the ihock it muft 

 have received, and the enormous load with which it was 

 charged. Nor are fuch depreflion and abforption unex- 

 ampled, fmce we liave had frequent inifances of mountains 

 fwallowed up, and fome very lately in Calabria. Irifii 

 Tranf. vol. vi. p. 288. See Ocean. 



ATLANTIDES, in A/liommy, a denomination given 

 to the Pleiades, or feven ftars, fometimes alfo called vlr- 

 ^1/Le. Tiiey are thus called, as being fuppofed by the 

 poets to have been the daughters either of Atlas, or his 

 brother Hefperus, wiio were tranflated into heaven. See 

 Atlas. 



ATLANTIS, in ^ii'.lqu'sly, an ifland fpoken of by Plato, 

 and many other writers, under fome extraordinaiy circum- 

 ftances; and rendered famous by a controverfy among 

 the moderns, concerning its place and exiitence. The 

 Atlantis took its name from Atlas, Neptune's elded fon, 

 who, they tell us, fuccecded his father in the government 

 of it. 



The moll diftinft account of this celebrated country is 

 given us in Plato's Timseus and Critias; which amounts, in 

 a few words, to what follows. " The Atlantis was a large 

 ifland in the Weftern ocean, fituate before, or oppofite to, 

 the Ihaits of Gades. Out of this ifland there was an 

 eafy paffage into lome others, which lay near a large con- 

 tinent, exceeding all Libya and Afia. Neptune fettled in 

 this ifland, which he diftributed among his ten fons; to the 

 youngeft. fell the extremity of the ifland called Gadir, which 

 in the language of the country figniiies_/<'/-/i/f, or abundant in 

 Jbcep. The defcendants of Neptune reigned here from 

 father to fon, for a great number of generations, in the 

 order of primogeniture, duiing the fpace of 9000 years. 

 They alfo poflefFed feveral other iflands; and pafling into 

 Europe and Africa, fubducd all L-.bya as far as Egypt, 

 and all Europe to Afia Minor. At length the ifland funk 

 under water; and, for a long time afterwards, the fea there- 

 abouts was full of fiats and fliclves." 



This ifland was 30,000 iladia in length, and 20C0 in 

 breadth; it was in a very high degree fertile and produdivc, 

 abounding with pallure and arable, and in metals and trees. 

 The northern part of it had various mountains, which were 

 ftored with villages and magnificent habitations. The in- 

 habitants were numerous and powerful, and diftiiiguiflied 

 both by aits and arms. It was governed by ten archons, 

 who, in their refpccllve dillricts, adhered to tftabhflied cuf- 

 toms, and were inverted with the power of life and death 

 over their fubjecls. This federative repul;Hc was eftabliflicd, 

 according to Plato in a dialogue of which only a fragment 

 remains, by a huv derived from Neptune himfelf its firll 

 founder, engraved upon a column and placed in a temple. 

 Afltmblies were held alternately every five years, in which 

 all public affairs were the fubjefts of deliberation. The of- 

 fences of citizens were examined by the archons and punifli- 

 ed according to the degree of their aggravation. Plato in 

 tills dialogue has recited feveral ceremonies which were ob- 



3 



ferved by the archons in the e-xercife of their legidatlve ami 

 judicial offices. 



The aiflual exiftence and local fituation of the Atlantic 

 ifland has given occafion to many different opinions. The 

 reahty of Plato's Atlantis has had many advocates. Buf- 

 fon (NaU Hift. by Smelhe, vol. i. p. 507.), after citing 

 the paflage relating to it from Phito's Timteus, adds ; " this 

 ancient tradition is not devoid of probability. The 

 lands fwallowed up by the waters, were, perhaps, thofe 

 which united Ireland to the Azores, and the Azores to the 

 continent of America, for in Ireland there are the fame fof 

 fils, the fame ftiells, and the fame fea-bodies, as api)ear in 

 America, and fome of them are found in no other part of 

 Europe." 



M.'Bailly, in his " Lettres fur I'Atlantide de Platon, 

 &c." publilhed at Paris, in 1779, 8vo., maintains the exill- 

 ence of the Atlantides, and their ifland Atlantis, by the au- 

 thorities of Homer, Sanchoniathon, and Diodorus Siculus, 

 in addition to that of Plato. In proof of the opinion that 

 Plato's account of the Atlantic ifland is not a fiction of his 

 own devifing, a late writer (fee Taylor's tranflation of the 

 Cratylus, Phasdo, Parmenides, and Tima:us ot Plato, 1793) 

 alleges the following relation of one Marccllus who wrote an 

 hiitory of Ethiopian affairs, according to Prochis in Tim. 

 p. 55. " That fuch and fo great an ifland once exiited is 

 evinced by thofe who have compofed hillories of things re- 

 lative to the external fea ; for they relate that in tlieir times 

 there were f ven iflands in the Atlantic fea facred to Profer- 

 pine ; and befides thefe, three others of an immenfe magni- 

 tude, one of which was facred to Phito, another to Ammon, 

 and another, v, hich is the middle of thefe, and is of a thou- 

 fand Iladia, to Neptune. And befides this, that the inha- 

 bitants of this laft ifland preferved the memory ol the prodi- 

 gious magnitude of the Atlantic ifland as related by their 

 anceilors, aiid of its governing for many periods all thb 

 iflands in the Atlantic fea : and fuch is the relation of Mar- 

 celhis in his Ethiopic hillory." 



The learned Rudbeck, profefTor in the univerfity of LTp- 

 fal, in anexprefs treatife,intitled,"Atlantica, five Manheim," 

 maintains, very llrenuoufly, that Plato's Atlantis is Sweden 

 and Norway ; and attributes to his country whatever 

 the ancients have faid of their Atlantis or Atlantic ifland. 



M. Cailly (ubi fiipra, letter 24.), after citing many ancient 

 teftimonics which concur in placing this famous ifle in the 

 north, quotes that of Plutarch, who confirms thefe teftimo- 

 nics by a circumftantial defcripiiou of the ifle of Ogygia, or 

 the Atlantis, which he reprefents as fituated in the north of 

 Europe, and as having near it three iflands more, in one of 

 which the inhabitants of the country fay, that Saturn in 

 kept prifoner by Jupiter. Tiiefe four iflands may, as M. 

 Bailly conjeclures, be Iceland, Greenland, Spitzbtrg, and 

 Nova Zembla. or fome others nearer the Pole. He contro- 

 verts the opinion of Rudbeck as not conformable with the 

 account of Plato, who reprefents the Atlantis as an ifland, 

 which Sweden is not. Adhering fiill to his fyilcm, M. 

 Bailly, perfuadcd by a variety of plaufible circumftances, 

 which he has ingenioufly combined, places that famous 

 ifland among thofe of the FroT'.en ocean. \n this he is 

 ftrongly feconded by Plutarch, who tells us that the Atlan- 

 tis is in a region where " the fun during a whole fumtner 

 month is fcarctly an hour below the horizon, and where 

 that fhort night had its darknefs diminiflied by a twilight." 

 This, it may be faid, is a palpable indication of a northern 

 climate ; but hnw is this fituation reconcileable with the fei-- 

 tility of tile foil, the mildnefs of the air, particularly the 

 ilrait called the columns of Hercules, which Plutarch and 

 Plato mention among the circundlauccs pertaining to the 



abode 



