Vol. IV.] 
from complying with your requeft; bet, 
for your fake and that of your city, 1 
will relate the whole ; and efpecially on 
account of that godde{s * who is allotted 
the guardianfhip both of your city and 
6ur’s, and by whom they have been edu- 
cated and founded; your’s, indeed, by a 
Priority to seis of a thoufand years, re- 
ceiving the feed of your race from Vul- 
can ahd the earth. But she defeription of 
ihe tranfudtions of this our city, diving the 
Jpace of EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS, js 
prejerved in our facred writings. I will 
therefore curlorily run over the laws and 
more illuftrious aétions of thole cities 
which exilted nine thoufand years ago. 
For, when we are more at leifure, we 
thall profecute an exact hiftory of every 
particular, receiving, for this purpofe, the 
facred writings themfelves. 
** Tn the firft place then, confider the 
laws of thefe people, and compare them 
with our’s ; for you will find many things 
which then fublifted in your city, fimilar 
to fuch as exift at prefent. For. the 
Priefts paffed their life feparated from 
allothers. The artificers aifo exercifed 
their arts in fuch amanner, that each was 
engaged in his own employment with- 
out being mingled with other artificers. 
The fame method was likewife adopted 
with thepherds, hunters and hufbandmen. 
The foldiers too, you will find, were fe- 
parated from other kind of men, and 
were commanded by the laws to engage 
in nothing bur warlike affairs. A fimilar 
armour too, fuch as that of fhields and 
darts, was employed by each. Thefe we 
firft ufed in Afias the godsefs in thofe 
places, as likewife happened to you, firtt 
pointing them out to our ufe. You nay 
Perceive too from the beginning, what 
great attention was paid by the laws to 
prudence and modefty ; and, befides this, 
to divination and medicine, as fubfervi- 
ent to the prelervation of health. And 
from thefe, which are diyine goods, the 
laws, proceeding to the inyention of fuch 
as are merely human, procured all fuch 
other difciplines as follow from thofe we 
have juft enumerated. 
“From fucha diftribution therefore, and 
in fuch order, the godde(s firt eftablithed 
and adorned your city, choofing, for this 
purpofe, the place in which you were 
born ; as fhe forefaw that from the ex- 
cellent temperature of the region, men 
would arife, diftinguithed by the. mot 
confummate fagacity and wit. For as 
the goddefs is a lover both of wifdom 
* Minerva, 
Tranflation from 
Plato by Mr. Taylor. 523 
and war *, the fixed on a foil capable of 
producing men the moft fimilar to -her- 
felf, and rendered in every refpeét adapr~ 
ed for the habitation of fuch a race The 
ancient Athenians, therefore, ufing thefe 
laws, and being formed by good inftis 
tutions, in a ftill higher deoree than I 
have mentioned, inhabited. this region; 
furpaffing all men in every virtue, as it 
becomes thofe todo who are the progeny 
and pupils of the gods. 
“But though many and mighty deeds 
of your city are contained in our {acred 
writings, and are admired as they ‘de- 
ferve, yet there is one tranfaction which 
furpaffes all of them in maynitude and 
virtue. For thefe writings relate what 
prodigious ftrength your city formerly 
tamed, when a mighty warlike power, 
rushing from the Atlantic fea, foread it- 
felf with hoftile fury over all Europe and 
Afia: for, at that time, the Atlantic 
fea was navigable, and had an jfland + 
before 

* Minerva was called by the ancients, the 
philofophic goddefs, becaufe fhe is replete with 
in‘ellectual knowledge, and the light of wifdom ; 
and jthilopolemic, or a lover of contention, becaufe 
fhe uniformly rules over the oppofing natures 
which the world contains, 
t In addition to what we have already faid 
in proof that Plato’s account of the Atlantic 
Ifland is not a fiction of his own devifing, let 
the reader attend ta the following relation of 
one Marcellusy who, according to Proclus (a) 
wrote a hiftory of ABthiopian affatrs. On; 
fev evevelo comury TLS WITOS XML TiktnauT Hy 
dndsuct tives sey tsosouviwy ree mest tne Sw Su 
Aerins. ever YU ue EV TOS MU TEY y povars Fd 2 
(4EY VMOeUS EV exe tu Mehayet Mesoepeyng bERle ry 
Tons de aALS HTRETOUS, TD Key WAsUiwros, any 
Oe cpemnwyo-, eony &: covloy edany WoTeeuyory 
Kieu cad Ta preyedos. uee Tous PIMOUYTES sy 
UTM VHD TD TwY mooyorwy Siarweey meet ry¢ 
alraviicos ayrws YEVOLKENS exe WNTOY TaeMKEM 
yeberulnc, ay ex: morkAws mweciodove Suvmcey= 
Ths Teg Swy ev erravriny Thay YIiTVTo 
TAUTE (EY OUY o Mepxsrao; oy Tos ebSiotrixary 
yeycegey. i. «© That fuch and fo great an ifland 
once exitted, -is evinced by thofe who have com- 
peled hiftories of things relative to the external 
fea, For they relate that in their times there 
were feven iflands in the Atlantic Sea, facred to 
Proferpine : and befides thefe, three of an im. 
menfe magnitude ; one of which was facred to 
Pluto, another to Ammon, and another, which 
is the middle of thefe, and is of a thoufand 
ftadia, to Neptune. And befides this, that ‘the 
inhabitants of this laft ifland preferved the me- 
mory of the prodigious magnitude of the Atlanc 
tic ifland, as related by their anceftors 5 and of 
its’ governing for many periods all the iflands of 
the Atlantic fea, And fuch ‘is the selation‘of 
Magcellys, in his Ethiopic hiftory.? © ">> 
(2) In Tim. p. 55. 
% Indeed 
