History of Atlantis by Lewis Spence

PREFACE
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER II. THE SOURCES OF ATLANTEAN HISTORY
CHAPTER III. THE SOURCES OF ATLANTEAN HISTORY
CHAPTER IV. ATLANTEAN HISTORICAL SOURCES EXAMINED
CHAPTER V. THE GEOGRAPHY OF ATLANTIS
CHAPTER VI. THE RACES OF ATLANTIS
CHAPTER VII. THE STONE AGE IN ATLANTIS
CHAPTER VIII. THE KINGS OF ATLANTIS
CHAPTER IX. ATLANTIS IN BRITAIN
CHAPTER X. THE TRADITIONS OF ATLANTIS
CHAPTER XI. LIFE IN ATLANTIS
CHAPTER XII. THE ATLANTEAN STATE AND POLITY
CHAPTER XIII. THE RELIGION OF ATLANTIS
CHAPTER XIV. ANIMAL LIFE IN ATLANTIS
CHAPTER XV. THE COLONIES OF ATLANTIS
CHAPTER XVI. THE ATLANTEAN CULTURE-COMPLEX

PREFACE

ATLANTEAN ARMOUR (MEXICAN TYPE) (From a figure found in a Mexican grave).

The History of Atlantis may, in the light of our present knowledge of Plato 's sunken island, appear as a somewhat presumptuous title for a work, the object of which is to present a general outline of what is known concerning Atlantean civilisation. But it is my earnest wish to place the study upon a scientific basis, and in so doing I attach the description of "history" to this work in the hope that the mere invocation of such a name will endow it with the spirit which should inspire all histories a desire to arrive at fundamental truth by every available means.

The volumes which I have already published on the subject have met with such widespread acceptance, and for the most part with such kindly and catholic criticism, that I am emboldened to proceed a step farther, and to attempt to cast the evidences of Atlantean civilisation, which I have already gathered into something resembling a historical narrative. Such an account, I am the first to admit, must have as many lacunae as it has facts, and must rely in large measure upon analogy and often upon pure surmise. But in the first chapter of this volume I have explained my reasons for employing certain methods of approach which may seem too unfamiliar to the historian to meet with his ready acceptance.

In the present volume I have arrived at many conclusions, and have brought forward much evidence which did not appear in my former works on the subject of Atlantis. For example, I have shown that the story of Atlantis, as painted upon the peplum of Pallas at the Athenian festival, has a very definite bearing upon the credibility of Plato's narrative, pre-dating it as it did by more than a century. I have also demonstrated that, so far from being mythical, the Egyptian sources from which Plato drew his material were very real indeed, and that he himself visited Egypt.

Again, I have, I think, thrown much new light on the character of the Atlantean invasion of Europe, on the exact site of Atlantis, and especially on the great amount of evidence for the former existence of the island-continent which survives in British and Irish folklore and tradition. British tradition, indeed, is the touchstone of Atlantean history, and the identification of Lyonesse with Atlantis, and the grouping of Atlas with the British gods, Albion and Iberius, should go far to prove the ancient association of our islands with the sunken continent.

But it is from the acceptance of my theory of the existence of a definite Atlantean culture-complex, embodying certain peculiar and associated customs, that I hope to gain converts to the belief in a former widespread Atlantean civilisation having cultural outposts in Western Europe and Eastern America, and connected with the motherland by way of the intervening islands. It is in this theory, I feel, that the strongest case for the pre-existence of Atlantis resides, and I confidently present it to my readers in the certainty that they will favourably consider a hypothesis which I devoutly believe approaches within measurable distance of the truth.

LEWIS SPENCE. 66 Arden Street, Edinburgh.