THE LOST CONTINENT

                      By Aleister Crowley


                     Ordo Templi Orientis
                         P.O Box 2303
                      Berkeley, CA 94702


                     (C) COPYRIGHT O.T.O.
                      June 21, 1985 e.v.

                         Sun in Cancer
                          Moon in Leo

                          AN 81 e.n.



                               *


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                       The Lost Continent


                           *       *


                               *


                            PREFACE

 Last year I was chosen to succeed the venerable K-Z--who had it
in his mind to die, that is, to join Them in Venus, as one of the
Seven Heirs of Atlantis, and I have been appointed to declare, so
far  as  may be found possible,  the truth about that  mysterious
lost land.  Of course,  no more than one seventh of the wisdom is
ever confided to one of the Seven,  and the Seven meet in council
but  once in every thirty-three years.  But its  preservation  is
guaranteed  by the interlocked systems of "dreaming true" and  of
"preparation of the antinomy". The former almost explains itself;
the latter is almost inconceivable to normal man.  Its essence is
to train a man to be anything by training him to be its opposite.
At  the  end  of anything,  think they,  it turns out to  be  its
opposite,  and that opposite is thus mastered without having been
soiled  by  the labours of the student,  and  without  the  false
impressions of early learning being left upon the mind.
  I myself,  for example, had unknowingly been trained to record
these observations by the life of a butterfly. All my impressions
came  clear  on  the soft wax of my brain;  I had  never  worried
because  the scratch on the wax in no way resembled the sound  it
represented. In other words, I observed perfectly because I never
knew that I was observing. So, if you pay sufficient attention to
your heart, you will make it palpitate.
  I accordingly proceed to a description of the country.

                                            Aleister Crowley

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                              I.
                 OF THE PLAINS BENEATH ATLAS,
                     AND ITS SERVILE RACE*.

  Atlas  is the true name of this archipelago--continent  is  an
altogether false term, for every 'house' or mountain peak was cut
from its fellows by natural,  though often very narrow waterways.
The  African  Atlas is a mere offshoot of the range.  It was  the
true  Atlas  that supported the ancient world by  its  moral  and
magical strength,  and hence the name of the fabled globe-bearer.
The  root  is the Lemurian 'Tla' or 'Tlas',  black,  for  reasons
which  will  appear in due course.  'A' is the  feminine  prefix,
derived  from  the shape of the mouth when  uttering  the  sound.
'Black  woman' is therefore as near a translation as one can give
in English; the Latin has a closer equivalent.
  The  mountains are cut off,  not only from each other  by  the
channels of the sea,  but from the plains at their feet by cliffs
naturally  or  artificially smoothed and undercut  for  at  least
thirty feet on every side in order to make access impossible.
  These  plains  had been made flat by  generations  of  labour.
Vines and fruit-trees growing only on the upper slopes, they were
devoted  principally  to  corn,  and to grass  pastures  for  the
amphibian  herds of Atlas.  This corn was of a kind now  unknown,
flourishing  in sea-water,  and the periodical flood-tides served
the same purpose as the Nile in Egypt.  Enormous floating  stages
of  spongy rock--no trees of any kind grew anywhere on the plains
so wood was unknown--supported the villages. These were inhabited
by a type of man similar to the modern Caucasian race.  They were
not  permitted to use any of the food of their  masters,  neither
the corn, nor the amphibians, nor the vast supplies of shellfish,
but  were  fed by what they called  "bread  from  heaven",  which
indeed  came  down from the mountains,  being the whole of  their
refuse of every kind.  The whole population was put to  perpetual
hard labour. The young and active tended the amphibians, grew the
corn,  collected the shell-fish, gathered the "bread from heaven"
for their elders,  and were compelled to reproduce their kind. At
twenty they were considered strong enough for the factory,  where
they  worked in gangs on a machine combining the features of  our
pump  and  treadmill for sixteen hours of  the  twentyfour.  This
machine  supplied  Atlas with its 'ZRO'* or 'power',  of which  I
shall speak presently. Any worker showing even temporary weakness
was transferred to the phosphorus works, where he was sure to die
within a few months.  Phosphorus was a prime necessity of  Atlas;
however,  it  was not used in its red or yellow forms,  but in  a
third  allotrope,  a blue-black or rather violet-black substance,
only  known in powder finer than precipitated gold,  harder  than
diamond,  eleven  times  heavier than  yellow  phosphorus,  quite
incombustible,  and  so shockingly poisonous that,  in  spite  of
every  precaution,  an ounce of it cost the lives (on an average)
of  some  two hundred and fifty men.  Of its properties  I  shall
speak  later.
  The  people  were left in utmost slavery and ignorance by  the
wise counsel of the first of the philosophers of Atlas,  who  had
written:  "An  empty  brain  is  a threat  to  Society."  He  had
consequently  instituted a system of mental  culture,  comprising
two parts:

         1.  As a basis, a mass of useless disconnected facts.
         2.  A superstructure of lies.

  Part  1 was compulsory;  the people then took Part  2  without
protest.*
  The  language of the plains was simple but profuse.  They  had
few nouns and fewer verbs. 'To work again' (there was no word for
'to  work' simply),  'to eat again',  'to break the law' (no word
for 'to break the law again'),  'to come from without',  'to find
light'  (i.e.  to go to the phosphorus factory) were  almost  the
only  verbs used by adults.  The young men and women had a  verb-
language  yet  simpler,  and  of degraded  coarseness.  All  had,
however,  an  extraordinary wealth of adjectives,  most  of  them
meaningless,  as attached to no noun ideas,  and a great quantity
of abstract nouns such as 'Liberty', 'Progress', without which no
refined  inhabitant could consider a sentence complete.  He would
introduce  them into a discussion on the most material  subjects.
"The immoral snub-nose",  "the unprogressive teeth",  "lascivious
music",  "reactionary  eyebrows"--such were phrases  familiar  to
all.  "To eat again,  to sleep again,  to work again, to find the
light--that is Liberty, that is Progress" was a proverb common in
every mouth.
  The  religion of the people was Protestant Christianity in all
essentials,  but  with an even closer dependence upon  God.  They
asserted  its  formulae,  without attaching any  meaning  to  the
words,  in a manner both reverent and passionate. Sexual life was
entirely  forbidden  to  the workers,  a single  breach  implying
relegation to the phosphorus works.
  In  every  field was,  however,  an enormous tablet  of  rock,
carved  on one side with a representation of the three stages  of
life:  the fields, the labour mill, the factory; and on the other
side  with these words:  "To enter Atlas,  fly." Beneath this  an
elaborate  series of graphic pictures showed how to  acquire  the
art of flying.  During all the generations of Atlas,  not one man
had been known to take advantage of these instructions.
  The principal fear of the populace was a variation of any kind
from routine.  For any such the people had one word only,  though
this   word  changed  its  annotation  in  different   centuries.
'Witchcraft',  'Heresy', 'Madness', 'Bad Form', 'Sex-Perversion',
'Black Magic' were its principal shapes in the last four thousand
years of the dominion of Atlas.
  Sneezing, idleness, smiling, were regarded as premonitory. Any
cessation  from speech,  even for a moment to  take  breath,  was
considered highly dangerous.  The wish to be alone was worse than
all;  the  delinquent would be seized by his fellows,  and either
killed  outright  or thrust into the compound of  the  phosphorus
factory, from which there was no egress.
  The  habits of the people were  incredibly  disgusting.  Their
principal  relaxations were art,  music and the drama,  in  which
they  could  show  achievement hardly inferior to that  of  Henry
Arthur Jones,  Pinero,  Lehar,  George Dance,  Luke  Fildes,  and
Thomas Sidney Cooper.
 Of  medicine they were happily ignorant.  The outdoor  life  in
that  equable  climate bred strong youths and  maidens,  and  the
first  symptoms  of  illness in a worker was held to  impair  his
efficiency  and qualify him for the  phosphorous  factory.  Wages
were  permanently  high,  and as there were no merchants even  of
alcohol,  whose  use  was  forbidden,  every man  saved  all  his
earnings,  and died rich.  At his death his savings went back  to
the  community.  Taxation was consequently  unnecessary.  Clothes
were unnecessary and unknown, and the 'bread from heaven' was the
"free gift of God".  The dead were thrown to the amphibians. Each
man  built  his  own  shelter of the  rough  stone  sponge  which
abounded.  The  word 'house' was used only in Atlas;  the servile
race  called its huts 'Hloklost' (equivalent to the English  word
'home').  Discontent  was  absolutely unknown.  It had  not  been
considered necessary to prohibit traffic with foreign  countries,
as  the inhabitants of such were esteemed barbarians.  Had a ship
landed  men,  they would have been murdered to a  man,  supposing
that  Atlas  had permitted any approach to its  shores.  That  it
hindered  such,  and  by  infallible  means,  was  due  to  other
considerations,   whose  nature  will  form  the  subject  of   a
subsequent chapter.
  This  then is the nature of the plains beneath Atlas,  and the
character of the servile race.


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                              II.
                     OF THE RACE OF ATLAS

  In  the  city or 'house' which was formed from  the  crest  of
every  mountain,  dwelt a race not greatly superior in height  to
our own,  but of vaster frame.  The bulk and strength of the bear
is  not  inappropriate  as a simile for the  lower  classes;  the
higher had the enormous chest and shoulders and the lean haunches
of  the  lion.  This  strength gave an  infallible  beauty,  made
monstrous  by  their most inexorable law,  that every  child  who
developed  no special feature in the first seven years should  be
sacrificed to the Gods.  This special feature might be a nose  of
prodigious size, hands and wrists of gigantic strength, a gorilla
jaw,  an elephant ear--or any of these might entitle its owner to
life:*  for in all such variations from the normal they perceived
the possibility of a development of the race.  Men and women were
hairy as the ourang-outang and all were closely shaven from  head
to  foot.  It had been found that this practice developed tactile
sensibility.  It was also done in reverence to the 'Living Atla',
of which more in its place.
  The  lower  class  were few in number.  Its  function  was  to
superintend the servile race,  to bring the food of the  children
to  the  banqueting-hall,  to remove the same,  to attend to  the
disposition of the 'light-screens',  to ensure the continuance of
the race by the begetting, bearing and nourishing of the children.
  The  priestly class was concerned with the further preparation
of  the Zro supplied by the labour-mills,  and  its  impregnation
with  phosphorus.  This  class had much  leisure  for  'work',  a
subject to be explained later.
  The  High  Priests  and High Priestesses  were  restricted  in
number to eleven times thirty-three in any one 'house'.  To  them
were  entrusted  the  final secrets of Atlas,  and  to  them  was
confided  the conduct of the experiments in which every will  was
bound up.*
  The colour of the Atlanteans was very various, though the hair
was invariably of a fiery chestnut with bluish  reflections.  One
might see women whiter than Aphrodite, others tawny as Cleopatra,
others  yellow as Tu-Chi,  others of a strange,  subtle blue like
the  tattooed faces of Chin women,  others again red  as  copper.
Green  was  however a prohibited hue for women,  and red was  not
liked in men.  Violet was rare,  but highly prized,  and children
born   of  that  colour  were  specially  reared  by   the   High
Priestesses.
  However,  in one part of the body all the women were perfectly
black with a blackness no negro can equal; from this circumstance
comes  the name Atlas.  It is absurdly attributed by some authors
to  the deposit of excess of phosphorus in the Zro.  I need  only
point  out  that the mark existed long before  the  discovery  of
black  phosphorus.  It is evidently a racial stigma.  It was  the
birth  of a girl child without this mark which raised her  mother
to  the rank of goddess,  and ended the terrestrial adventure  of
the Atlanteans, as will presently appear.
  Of  the ethics of this people little need be said.  Their word
for  'right' is 'phph' made by blowing with the jaw drawn sharply
across from left to right,  thus meaning 'a spiral life  contrary
to  the  course  of the sun'.  We may assume  it  as  'contrary'.
"Whatever is, is wrong" seems to have been their first principle.
Legs  were 'wrong' because they only carry you five miles in  the
hour:  let us refuse to walk; let us ride horseback. So the horse
is 'wrong' compared to the train and the motor-car; and these are
'wrong'  to  the  aeroplane.  If speed had been  the  Atlantean's
object,  he  would have thought aeroplanes 'wrong' and  all  else
too, so long as the speed of light was not surpassed by him.
  Curious  survivals  of  these  laws are found  in  the  Jewish
transcript of the Egyptian code,  which they, being a slave race,
interpreted in the reverse manner.
  "Thou  shalt not make any graven image." Every male  child  on
attaining  manhood,  had a graven image given him to  worship,  a
miracle-working  image,  whose principle exploits he would tattoo
upon it.
  "Remember  the  Sabbath Day and keep it holy."  The  Atlantean
kept  one  day  in seven for all purposes  unconnected  with  his
principle task.
  "Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery."  Though  the  Atlanteans
married, intercourse with the wife was the only act forbidden.
  "Honour  thy  father and thy mother." On  the  contrary,  they
worshipped their children,  as if to say: "This is the God whom I
have made in my own likeness."
  Similarly,  there is one exception and one only to the rule of
silence.  It is the utterance of the 'Name' which it is death  to
pronounce.  This  word  was  constantly in their  mouths;  it  is
'Zcrra', a sort of venomous throat-gargling.  Hence, possibly the
Gaelic  'Scurr' 'speak',  English 'Scaur' or 'Scar' in  Yorkshire
and the Pennines.  'Zcrra' is also the name of the 'High  House',
and of the graven image referred to above.
  Others   traces   may  be  found  in   folklore;   some   mere
superstitions.   Thus  the  correct  number  for  a  banquet  was
thirteen, because if there were only one more sign in the Zodiac,
the  year would be a month longer,  and one would have more  time
'for   work'.   This  is  probably  a  debased  Egyptian  notion.
Atlanteans  knew  better than anyone that the Zodiac is  only  an
arbitrary division. Still it may be laid down that the impossible
never  daunted Atlas.  If one said,  "Two and two make Four"  his
thought would be "Yes, damn it!"*
  I now explain the language of Atlas. The third and greatest of
their  philosophers  saw that speech had wrought more  harm  than
good,  and  he consequently instituted a peculiar rite.  Two  men
were chosen by lot to preserve the language,  which,  by the way,
consisted  of  monosyllables only,  two hundred and  fourteen  in
number,  to  each  of which was attached a  diacritical  gesture,
usually ideographic.
  Thus  'wrong' is given as 'phph' moving the jaw from right  to
left.  Wiping  the brown with 'phph' means 'hot',  hollowing  the
hands  over the mouth 'fire',  striking the throat 'to  die;'  so
that  each  'radicle' may have hundreds  of  gesture-derivatives.
Grammar,  by the way,  hardly existed,  the quick apprehension of
the Atlanteans rendering it unnecessary.
  These  two  men then departed to a cavern on the side  of  the
mountain  just  above  the  cliff,  and there  for  a  year  they
remained,  speaking the language and carving it symbolically upon
the  rock.  At  the end of the year they returned;  the elder  is
sacrificed and the younger returns with a volunteer,  usually one
who  wishes  to expiate a fault,  and teaches him  the  language.
During his visit he observes whether any new thing needs a  name,
and  if  so  he invents it,  and adds it to  the  language.  This
process  continued to the end.  The rest of the people  abandoned
altogether the use of speech, only a few years' practice enabling
them to dispense with the radicle. They then sought to do without
gesture,  and in eight generations the difficulty was  conquered,
and  telepathy* established.  Research then devoted itself to the
task of doing without thought;  this will be discussed in  detail
in the proper place.  There was also a 'listener',  three men who
took  turns  to  sit upon the highest  peak,  above  the  'light-
screens',  and  whose duty it was to give the alarm if any  noise
disturbed  Atlas.  On their report that High Priest charged  with
active governorship would take steps to ascertain and destroy the
cause.
  The 'light-screens' spoken of were a contrivance of laminae of
a  certain  spar  such that the light and heat of  the  sun  were
completely  cut  off,  not  by  opacity,  but  by  what  we  call
'interference'.  In this way other subtle rays of the sun entered
the  'house',  these rays being supposed to be necessary to life.
These matters were the subjects of the deepest controversy.  Some
held  that  these rays themselves were injurious  and  should  be
excluded.  Others considered that the light-screens should be put
in position during moonlight,  instead of being opened at sunset,
as was the custom.  This, however, was never attempted, the great
mass of the people being devoted to the moon.  Others wished full
sunlight, the aim of Atlas being (they thought) to reach the sun.
But  this theory contradicted the prime axiom of attaining things
through their opposites,  and was only held by the lower classes,
who were not initiated into this doctrine.
  The 'houses' of Atlas were carved from the living rock by  the
action of Zro in its seventh precipitation. Enormously solid, the
walls  were lofty and smoother than glass,  though the  pavements
were  rough and broken almost everywhere for a reason which I  am
not  permitted to disclose.  The passages were invariably narrow,
so that two persons could never pass each other. When two met, it
was  the  law to greet by joining in 'work' and then  going  away
together  on  their separate errands,  or passing one  above  the
other.  This was done purposely, so as to remind every man of his
duty to Atlas on every occasion on which he might meet a  fellow-
citizen.
  The  Banqueting-Hall  of the children was usually very  large.
The furniture, which had been brought by the first colonists, and
gradually  disused by adults,  never needed repair.  A vast  open
doorway  facing  North  opened  on the  mountainside  on  to  the
vineyards  and orchards,  the meadows and gardens,  in which  the
children  passed  their  time.  Suckled by the mother  for  three
months only, the child was then already able to nourish itself on
the bread and wine,  and on the flesh of the amphibious herds, of
which there were several kinds;  one a piglike animal with  flesh
resembling  wild  duck,  another  a sort of amatee  tasting  like
salmon,  its  fat  being somewhat like caviar in  everything  but
texture,  and a sure specific for any of childhood's troubles.  A
third, an ancestor of our hippopotamus, was really tamed, and was
employed  by the serviles for preparing the ground for the  corn,
trampling  through the fields while they were covered  with  sea-
water,  and thus leaving deep holes in which the seeds were cast.
Its flesh was not unlike bear,  but more delicate.  Notable, too,
was  the great quantity of turtle;  also the giant  oysters,  the
huge  deep  sea  crabs,  a  kind of octopus whose  flesh  made  a
nutritious and elegant soup, and innumerable shell-fish, added to
the  table.  The waterways were haunted by shoals of a small  and
poisonous  fish,* whose bite was immediate death to man,  a  fact
which  altogether  cut off communication between one  island  and
another  except  by air,  as  the  hippopotamus-animal,  although
immune to its bite, was unable to swim.
  Of the sleeping chambers I shall tell more particularly in the
course of my remarks on Zro.

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                             III.

                OF THE AIM OF THE MAGICIANS OF
               ATLAS: OF ZRO; AND ITS PROPERTIES
                    AND USES: OF THAT WHICH
                   COMBINED WITH IT: AND OF
                       BLACK PHOSPHORUS.

  It  was the most ancient tradition of the Atlantean  magicians
that  they  were  the survivors of a race  inhabiting  a  country
called Lemuria, of which the South Pacific archipelago may be the
remains.  These Lemurians had, they held, built up a civilization
equal,   if   not   superior  to  their  own;   but   through   a
misunderstanding of magical law--some said the 2nd, some the 8th,
some  the 23rd--had involved themselves and their land  in  ruin.
Others  thought that the Lemurians had succeeded in their magical
task,  and broken their temple.  In any case,  it was the  secret
Lemurian tradition that they themselves represented the survivals
of  a yet earlier race who lived on ice,  and they of yet another
who lived in fire, and they again of earlier colonists from Mars.
The  theory,  in fine,  was that the aim of man is to attain  the
Sun,  whence, according to one school of cosmology, he was exiled
in  the  cosmic catastrophe which resulted in  the  formation  of
Neptune.  His  task on any given planet was therefore to overturn
the laws of Nature on that planet, thus mastering it sufficiently
to enable him to make the leap to the next planet inward. Exactly
how and in what sense the leap was made remains obscure,  even to
the heirs of Atlantis.*
  The men of Atlas could fly,  it is true,  and that by a method
so  simple that men will laugh outright when it is  rediscovered;
but they needed air to support them;  they could not confront the
cold  and emptiness of space.  Was it in some subtler  body  that
they  conveyed  the Palladium?  Or,  content to die,  could  they
project  some vehicle across so great a distance?  The answer  to
such  questions probably lies in the recovery by mankind  of  the
knowledge of Zro and its properties.
  Beneath  the labour mills* run troughs* in which the sweat  of
the  workers  collects and drains off into an open basin  without
the  mill.  In this basin churns with  immense  rapidity--through
multiple  bevel gearing--a sort of paddle with knife  edges.  The
sweat is thus churned into froth,  and gradually disappears,  and
is  as  continually replaced.  The workers toil in  shifts--eight
hours work,  four hours repose, eight hours work, four hours rest
and recreation. The mills never cease day or night.
  The  basin is of polished silver and agate,  and is set at  an
angle,  facing two enormous spheres of crystal, encased in a sort
of trellis made of a certain greenish metal, its optical focus at
a point midway between the two.
  The  only sign of activity is that out of this focus  a  spark
crackles  unless the air be dry,  a condition difficult to secure
in  this part of the world,  although fans blow air,  dried  over
chloride of calcium and sulphuric acid, over the globes and their
focus.  These fans are worked by tidal power,  human labour being
appropriated solely to the one use.
  In  the temple of the 'house' are two globes similar to  those
upon  the  plains,  and the mysterious force generated  below  is
transferred to those above,  collecting within them. Now the name
of  this  substance is always Zro,  but in its  first  state  the
gesture  is  a twiddling of the thumbs.  In its second,  it is  a
rapid  twittering  of  the fingers,  and in its  third  state  of
distillation it is a screwing of the hands together.  Within  the
spheres  it sublimes suddenly in the air as a snaky powder (4) of
silver,  which immediately turns to an iridescent fluid (5)  that
is  forced up,  by its own need of expansion,  through a fountain
into  the  temple,  on whose floor it lies (6)  in  a  semi-solid
condition. Expert priests gather this in their hands, and rapidly
shape  it into its seventh state,  when it is a knife of diamond,
but alive.  An instrument like a Mexican machete is used to carve
rocks.  The  edge shears them,  the back smooths them.  The  rock
behaves exactly like wax,  responsive to the lightest touch. What
is  not used for weapons is then gathered up swiftly and  kneaded
by women of the rank of high priestess.  It is not known even  to
the high priests with what they knead it, but in its eighth stage
it  is  a  substance solid enough to support  great  weight,  but
eternally heaving of its own force.  Of this they make  beds,  so
that the sleeping Atlantean is (as it were) continually massaged.
To  this they attribute the fact that Atlanteans sleep never more
than half an hour, though they do so four times daily. These beds
remain active only for a few days,  and they are then thrown into
the ninth stage by being taken into a room where is a cauldron of
great  size.  They are thrown into this and sprinkled with  black
phosphorus.* The Zro then divides into two parts, one liquid, one
solid.  Neither of these has any ascertainable properties, for it
is  absolutely  passive to the will of the user,  who  may  taste
therein  his  utmost desire,  whether for food  or  drink.  Among
adults  there is no other food or drink than this.  The  children
are not allowed to taste it.
  The black phosphorus is always added by a high priestess,  and
it  is not known in what manner she does this.  The Zro that  may
remain is the subject of eternal experiments by the Magicians. It
is  generally thought by the greatest of them that an  error  was
committed  in bringing it to a ninth stage of division into  two,
and  many openly deplored the discovery of black phosphorus.  All
however  strive  in harmony to produce a tenth stage  that  shall
surpass the virtues of the ninth. Theoretically it is possible to
reach  an  eleventh stage wherein the Zro takes human  form,  and
lives!  Opinion  is divided as to whether this was  not  actually
done  by a certain magician at the time of the passing of  Atlas.
In  any  case,  I  beg the reader to remember that  I  have  only
described  one  seventh of the virtues of Zro,  and I  have  even
omitted  this,  that  in its ninth stage it is not only food  and
drink, but universal medicine, if properly understood. For Zro is
also a vision and a voice!
  Now  the  muscles of the people of Atlas are  the  muscles  of
giants,  and  yet  they  do one thing only.  And  this  thing  is
combined  by  the wisdom of the magicians,  so that it is at  the
same time work,  exercise,  sport,  game,  pleasure, and all else
that may fulfill life.
  This work never ceases. It has these parts:

    1.  Working at Zro, i.e. bringing it from the first stage to
the ninth.
    2.  Working with Zro, i.e. for one's own particular purpose.
    3.  Working for Zro.  This is the common and most honourable
task,  the Zro eaten and drunken being worked into a quintessence
of  higher  power,  though identical in property with the  common
Zro. This new Zro (Atlas Zro) goes through the same stages as the
common  Zro  of the serviles.  But it is the result of  free  and
joyful labour,  and so serves the magicians in their experiments,
and  the Governor of all for his sustenance.  None by the way  is
ever wasted. For example, a tunnel was drilled completely through
the earth and filled with Zro, and it is said that by this tunnel
the Atlanteans escaped.
  This working, whether with or for Zro, requires two persons at
least at any one time and place.  Great heat is generated in  the
working,  and  the bodies of the workers are therefore  sprinkled
heavily with the black phosphorus,  which is incombustible.  This
black  phosphorus,   poisonous  to  the  servile  race,   becomes
innocuous to anyone who has been in any way impregnated with Zro.
This itself,  in its first stage,  is as dangerous as electricity
of high voltage.
  The reverence attached to Zro is unbounded. At one time it was
hymned as the father of the gods,  and till the end all  children
were thought to be "begotten of Zro",  though everyone might know
who  was  the  father.*  All such  conception  was  however  held
indignity.  Its  official name was 'the old experiment'.  It  was
carried  on simply because the new methods of continuing the race
were not perfected. Childbirth was therefore in one way accident;
although a duty,  everyone shrank from it.  For though no pain or
discomfort attached to the process,  it was a sort of second-best
achievement  from which proud women turned  contemptuously.  This
was in part the reason why the father's name was never mentioned.
  On several occasions in the history of Atlas the Zro 'failed'.
Although not changed in appearance,  its properties were lost  or
diminished. In such a case young men and maidens in great numbers
were captured on the plains,  brought into Atlas,  and offered in
sacrifice  to the Gods.  Their blood was mingled with Zro in  its
third  stage,  and the latter recovered its potency.  Their flesh
was eaten by the high priests and priestesses in penance for  the
unknown  wrong.  It  was subject to other and terrible  scourges,
being the most sensitive as well as the strongest thing on Earth.
On  one  occasion it had to be treated with  a  fox-like  perfume
prepared  by the chief magician;  on another it was subjected  to
streams of moonlight from parabolic mirrors.
  The most serious crisis was some two thousand years before the
destruction   of  Atlas.   One  of  the  serviles,   riding   his
'hippopotamus'  to  the ploughing,  fell off  and  was  instantly
bitten  by  the poisonous fish previously described.  Through  an
accident of boyhood he had,  however, for a reason too obscure to
describe here,  no such vulnerable spot as suited the  Zhee-Zhou.
He survived and went to work,  as it chanced,  the next day.  The
Zro  was poisoned;  a third of Atlas died within  the  hour;  the
plants  on the affected island had to be destroyed,  and all  its
people.  It  was  only repopulated some three hundred and  eighty
years later,  and then for particular reasons of magical  economy
impossible to dwell upon in this account.
  Marriage was compulsory on all those whose passion had been so
exclusive  and  enduring  as to  produce  two  children.  Further
intercourse between the pair was barred. The Magicians thought it
was inimical to variation for a woman to have more than one child
(a  fortiori  two) by the same father;  and  the  custom  further
prevented those stupid sporadic outbursts of burnt-out lust which
make so many modern marriages intolerable.
  Closely connected with marriage, the close of the reproductive
life,  is  that of death,  the close of the little that  remains.
Death hardly threatened the Atlantean; he would decide to "go and
see", as the old phrase ran, and take an overdose of a particular
preparation  of black phosphorus mixed with a very little Zro  in
the ninth stage,  which ensured a painless death.  That none ever
returned  was  taken  as proof of the supreme  attractiveness  of
death.
  The  ghoulish and necromantic practices with which  Atlanteans
have been unjustly reproached never occurred. A little vampirism,
perhaps,  in the early days before the perfecting of Zro;  but no
Atlantean  was ever so stupid or so ignorant as to confuse  death
with life.
  Beside  this voluntary death only one danger existed.  As  the
use  of Zro guaranteed life and health and  youth--a  centenarian
high  priest was no better than a kitten!--so did its abuse spell
instant corruption of those qualities.  As mentioned  above,  now
and then the Zro itself was at fault,  and caused epidemics;  but
from  time to time there were deaths in a particularly  loathsome
form caused by what they called 'misunderstanding' the Zro.* Such
mistakes  were  particularly  common in the  early  days  of  its
discovery, and before its use had become well nigh a worship. The
first symptom was a crack in the skin of the temple, or sometimes
of  the  bridge of the nose,  more rarely of an eyelid or  cheek.
Within a few minutes this crack became one open sore,  of  horrid
foetor,  and within twenty-four hours, the patient was completely
rotted away, bone and marrow. A circumstance of singular atrocity
was  that death never occurred until the spinal column collapsed.
No treatment could be found even to prolong the agony by an hour.
This being recognised,  sufferers were thrown from the cliffs  at
the  first  sign of the malady.  In this way too were  all  other
corpses disposed.  It was the most honourable death possible, for
becoming  'bread from heaven' for the serviles,  they were  again
worked  up into Zro itself,  a transmutation which in their  view
would  be  well  worth all the "resurrections of  the  body"  and
"immortalities of the soul" of the theoretical, dogmatic, hearsay
religions.   So  much  then  concerning  Zro,   and  the  matters
immediately connected with it.

pa
                              IV.

                       OF THE SO CALLED
                   MAGIC OF THE ATLANTEANS.



  Magic in Atlas was a 'Science of Sciences'.  It was the  final
integration   of  all  knowledge.   In  method  its  theory   was
differentiation,  and  in theory its method was integration.  For
example,   the   fifth  of  the  great   philosophers   indicated
"Everything  is  Zro" to the Keeper of the Speech at  the  annual
sacrifice.  This  in spite of the fact that in that very year two
new forms of Zro had been discovered by that same philosopher. It
was the third of the galaxy who announced "The ultimate  analysis
of sensation is pain;  that of thought,  madness;  that of super-
consciousness  (a state of trance induced by Zro and valued above
all things) annihilation."
  His  successor  had  retorted  that in  this  was  implicit  a
postulate that pain,  madness and annihilation were  undesirable.
The  third  admitted  that  he  had  so  meant  his  phrase,  but
destroying  the postulate,  still stuck to it.  All this was  the
foundation   of  much  magical  theory,   and  on  these   purely
psychological  researches was based the whole  magical  practice.
'There  is  no  God'  was a commonplace.  It  only  implied  that
the  mind  was  wrong to try to conceive within it  what  was  by
definition without it.  To set limits to anything whatever seemed
to  them the greatest of crimes,  the exact opposite of the  true
path to the Sun.
  The  practical  side  of magic was for the most  part  a  mere
utilization  of  known  forces,  such as are employed  by  modern
science.  But  the  resources  of Atlas were as  great,  and  the
advantages  incomparably  greater.  The whole archipelago  was  a
laboratory.  There  was  no question of the 'cost  of  research';
every man was devoted to it.  Every man thought only of the  main
problem  'How to reach Venus' and its  sub-issues.  Further,  the
main  laws  of magic had always been found to govern and  include
chemical and physical laws.
  In  the early days of colonization Zro was only known  in  its
crude state;  it was the genius of a single man that obtained the
third  state  in its purity.  From this state to the  seventh  it
moved  almost of itself,  very much as radium does.  The  genius,
having  sufficient  in this seventh  state,  made  a  sword,  and
completed in three days the subjugation of the servile races.  It
was  a stroke of fortune,  this quickness,  for on the fourth day
the Zro began to disintegrate. The magicians then began to seek a
means of making this state permanent.  But in this they  failed,*
so that knives had always to be replaced twice weekly; but in the
course  of  their  failures they discovered the  infinitely  more
valuable eighth and ninth stages of Zro.  Tradition has preserved
a  hint  of  their efforts in Alchemy with its  problems  of  the
fixation  of  the  Universal Mercury,  the  secret  of  perpetual
motion,  and 'potable gold--the Universal Medicine'.  It has been
theoretically determined towards the end of the tenth state, that
Zro should be a solid,  but whether this was confirmed is  beyond
my knowledge.
  To return to the main magical theory,  the Quintessence,  said
they,  or Universal Substance (which some strove to identify with
Hyle,  others  with the Luminiferous Aether) is  the  two-in-one,
liquid and solid,  the former part being also twofold,  fluid and
gaseous,  and  the  latter earthy and fiery.  The combination  of
these  four  phases  of  Zro accounted  for  the  universe.  This
quintessence is Zro in some state unknown and incalculable.  Some
expected to find it in its twelth state,  some in a  seventeenth,
others  in a thirty-seventh:  all this was pure  guesswork.  Some
tradition  to this effect appears to have reached Plato;  and the
neo-Platonists  combined  with  those  Jews  who  had   preserved
fragments  of  the  Egyptian tradition to form  a  new  initiated
hierarchy,  the echo of whose teaching is found in Paracelsus. At
one  period,  too,  missionaries  (not  colonists,  as  has  been
ignorantly  asserted;  there was no trouble of over-population in
Atlantis)  were sent to the four quarters and parties  landed  in
Mexico,  Ireland  and  Egypt.  The  adventures of the  party  who
travelled  South  form an astounding chapter in  the  history  of
Atlas.  It was they who discovered the Magnetic South,  and whose
observations  rendered possible the theory which resulted in  the
piercing of the Earth by Zro.*
  There  were also preparations of Zro which increased the  size
of the user, and others which diminished it. In general use among
the lower classes, until the very end, was that composition which
made the body light. Careful adjustment would equalize its weight
with that of the displaced air,  and movements of the limbs would
then permit flying.  In this way the overseers visited the plains
and  returned.  The  other  and earlier art of flying  needed  no
apparatus,  but I am forbidden to disclose the method,  except to
hint  that  it  is connected closely with the  art  of  'dreaming
true'.
  These  are  but  a few of the magic powers  so-called  of  the
compounds  of Zro;  but they will indicate the power of Atlas  by
shewing  what it could afford to neglect.  Yet all  these  powers
were implicit in the process of 'working'.
  The  art of prediction was in the same unsatisfactory state as
it  is  in England today.  Nor was  its  practice  encouraged.  A
magician  makes the future,  and does not seek to divine it.  All
true  prediction  was  therefore  necessarily  catastrophe.   The
greatest good fortune seemed worthless to an Atlantean,  since it
was accident,  and if accidents are to happen, one of them may be
fatal. They believed themselves to be equal to the whole tendency
of  things,  and  proudly gazed on Nature as a man might  upon  a
virgin captive to his spear.  Everything that was being was  Zro;
everything  that was Energy was 'working for Zro'.  Outside  this
was but by-product and waste-heap.
  The  arrangement  of  the houses was in  accordance  with  the
magical theory.  There was first the High House, then four (later
six,  last  ten)  'Houses of Houses';  and to each of  these  was
attached a varying number of ordinary houses.  The High House was
the  central  shrine  of  the  whole  archipelago,  and  must  be
separately described.

pa
                              V.

                  OF THE HIGH HOUSE OF ATLAS,
               OF ITS INHABITANTS, AND OF THEIR
                     MANNERS AND CUSTOMS,
                    AND OF THE LIVING ATLA.


  The High House was separated from its nearest neighbor by over
twenty miles of sea.  Its diameter was about an half-mile and its
height four miles.  It had no plains at the base,  and its cliffs
went absolutely sheer and smooth into the water.  It was in shape
a  flattish cylinder,  but the top broadened into a pointed knob,
somewhat in the style of St.  Basil's at Moscow.  There was not a
trace  of  vegetation,  which  by  the way was  despised  by  the
Atlanteans.  A child would pick a flower contemptuously  thinking
"You cannot even move about",  or pet it as an English degenerate
woman does a dog. The only entrance was by an orifice at the top.
But  the base was tunneled so that from every house was a channel
for  the Zro which having been brought to the highest  perfection
was thus transferred to headquarters.  The receptacle at the base
being  far  below  the  earth,  and the  Zro  further  heated  by
friction, it seethed continually into a bluish or purplish smoke.
This  was  the  sole sustenance of the inhabitants  of  the  High
House.  In  early  days the old High House,  in an  island  since
destroyed  by  order of the Atla,  had been called the  House  of
Blood,  the inhabitants subsisting only on blood sucked from  the
living.  The  improvements in Zro had changed all that;  but  the
idea  was the same,  to live on the Quintessence of  Life.  Hence
while  the 'houses' ate and drank Zro,  the High House drank  its
vapour.  No children were born in it,  and none below the rank of
High Priest dwelt there.
  Except  for  one matter which was  never  thought  of,  though
constantly  spoken,  the inmost mystery of the High House was the
'Living  Atla'.  This had  many  names,  'Wordeater',  'Unshaven'
(because the razors of Zro were turned on its hair), 'Fireheart',
'Beginning  and End' and so on:  but especially a word I can only
translate as 'To Her',  a defective pronoun existing only in  the
dative. What the Living Atla really was, is a secret of secrets.*
We know it only from its epithets,  its veils.  Thus it was 'That
Black which makes black white'.  It was 'twenty-six feet high and
fifteen  feet  across--Oh  my Lords,  it is the  essence  of  the
Incommensurable!'  It was 'the wife of Zro',  'the heart of Zro',
'desire of Zro', 'the Atla that eats Atlas', 'the swallower up of
her own house',  'the pelican',  'the fire-nest of the  Phoenix',
according  to  the greatest of the poets.  And the burden of  his
hymns of worship was that it must be destroyed.
  It was impossible to approach the Atla without being instantly
sucked up and devoured by it.  This was the greatest  death,  and
ardently  desired by all.  The favour was accorded only to  those
who  discovered improvements in Zro,  or otherwise merited signal
and  supreme recognition from the state.  Hidden men listened  to
the  cries  of the victim,  and thus learned the  nature  of  the
death.  It  appears  that the black suddenly broke into  a  fiery
rose, 'the only* luminous thing in Atlas', and a shooting forward
enclosed  him.  For some reason which was never even guessed  the
Atla refused women.  Those who had seen Atla were however useless
to instruct.  They came forth from the Presence smiling, and even
under  the most fearful tortures that the magicians could devise,
continued to smile.  This smile never left them during life,  and
the  conscious  superiority  of it  was  so  irritating,  and  so
contrary  to  the  harmony of life in Atlas that the  women  were
killed, and their companions for the future forbidden to approach
the Atla.
  Whatever theories as to its nature may have been formed by the
magicians  were upset by a famous experiment.  A most  holy  high
priest,  a  man who at puberty had insisted on immediate marriage
with all the women of his house,  a magician who had formed  four
new  compounds of Zro,  and discovered how to pass matter through
matter,  was  honoured by the great death.  On reaching the  last
corridor, where the concentrated spirals of Zro vapour whirled up
into  the  Presence of Atla,  he bade farewell to  the  appointed
listeners in the manner suitable to his dignity, and then, taking
a  last  deep  draught of Zro into his  lungs,  rushed  into  the
antrum.  They  heard him cry aloud "O!" with surprise,  and  then
with inexpressible rapture the words "Behind Atla,  Otla!"  which
were,  and still are,  completely unintelligible.  Their surprise
was  greater,  when,  seven days later he came striding past them
without greeting. He went to his 'house' and shut himself up, was
never seen or heard again,  but was assuredly living at the  time
of the 'catastrophe'. This man founded a school of philosophy, or
rather,  it  founded  itself  on  what it supposed  him  to  have
discovered; and this school disputes with the orthodox the credit
of the final success.
  The  lesser mysteries of the High House were concerned  almost
entirely with the creation of life,  and the bridging of the gulf
between  Earth and Venus.  These were connected  intimately;  the
theory  was  that  if  Atlantean brains  could  exist  in  bodies
sufficiently subtle to traverse aether,  the task was done.  Some
of  the  experiments  were  crude  enough,  and,  to  our  minds,
horrible.  They  attempted to breed a new race by  crossing  with
snakes,  swans,  horses  and other animals.* The Greek legends of
such monsters as Chimaera, Medusa, Lamia, Minotaur, the Centaurs,
the  Satyrs  and the like are mere filtrations of  the  Atlantean
tradition.  The only theory behind such experiments was that they
were contrary to the natural order,  and so worth trying.  Men of
more  scientific  mind more plausibly passed Zro  vapour  through
sea-water;  but  they only created serpents of vast  size,  which
they  cast into the sea about the High House  as  guardians.  The
sea-serpent,  whether  legend  or fact,  is derived from this  ex
periment.  It is quite possible that some such  survive.  Another
school,  objecting  strongly to the sex-process,  "which must  be
transcended  as the Lemurians overcame gemmation" vivisected  men
and  women,  taking  various parts of the brain,  especially  the
cerebellum,  the pineal gland,  and the pituitary body,  and  cul
tivated  them  in  solutions of Zro under the invisible  rays  of
black  phosphorus.  The best results of this work was a  race  of
translucent jelly-folk of great intellectual development;  but so
far  from being able to travel through space,  they could  hardly
move  in their own element.  Another school argued that as Zro in
vapour combined the virtues of the liquid and the solid Zro, so a
fiery  state  might be produced which would so  impregnate  their
bodies  as to make them 'mates of the aether'.  This school  held
that  fiery Zro already existed in Nature,  "in the heart of  the
Living Atla", and asserted that those who died by absorption into
Atla passed straight to Venus.  Many of them therefore tried hard
to obtain messages from that planet. Familiar with Newton's first
law  of motion,  they further held it possible to prepare Zro  in
such  a  state that a current of it could never be  deflected  or
dissipated, and so, if it could be made in sufficient quantity, a
bridge  to Venus might be built by which they might travel.  They
therefore tunneled through the planet,  as previously  explained,
to  have  a sort of cannon for the Zro.  But as their supply  was
pitifully  insufficient,  they endeavoured also to prepare a  Zro
which  would  have the power of  multiplying  itself.  Alchemical
tradition has some record of this problem.
  Yet another group of magicians argued that as Nature had  cast
off  the  planets from the Sun--a disputed point,  some  thinking
this due to magic, which if so completely destroys the argument--
it would be contrary to Nature to cause the planets to fall  back
into  it.  They  busied themselves with attempts to increase  the
Earth's  gravitational  pull,  and (alternatively) to  check  her
course.  Their  schemes were generally regarded  as  Utopian--yet
they  could  boast  of the discovery of the  Zro  that  lightened
bodies, and of a kind of aether-screen which generated mechanical
power  in  inexhaustible  quantities by  making  matter  slightly
opaque to aether.  This engine only worked on a very small scale.
A  screen two inches long would tear itself from fastenings  that
would   have  held  an  earthquake,   while  the  rocks  in   its
neighbourhood  would  melt in a few minutes,  and  the  sea  boil
instantly  where  its  rays struck.  The most brilliant  of  this
school asserted "Matter is a strain in the aether." He  explained
gravitation  in  this way.  Place two ivory spheres in  a  rubber
tube;  the strain on the tube is least when the balls touch.  The
tendency  is therefore for them to come together.  Friction alone
checks  them.  Now  aether  is  infinitely  elastic  and  without
friction.  From  these  data  he calculated the  Law  of  Inverse
Squares.
  A more mystic school saw life everywhere.  It knew all that we
know, and more, about ions and electrons; it saw every phenomenon
as a manifestation of will. The crowning glory of this school was
the discovery that Zro in its ninth stage, eaten and drunken with
concentrated  intention,  produced the desired  result,  whatever
(within  wide  limits)  that result might be.  This went  far  to
supersede  the  use of all specialized forms of Zro,  and  so  to
unify the magical practice.
  It seems curious with all this magic,  Magic itself should  be
the  thing most deplored.  But it was the means,  and,  as  such,
"that  which is in particular not the end".  The word for  Magic,
'Ijynx',  was the only dissyllable in the language, for Magic was
the essentially two-fold thing, more two-fold (in a way) than the
number  two itself.  It is interesting here to sketch briefly the
mathematics of Atlas. The task is not easy, as their minds worked
very differently from ours.
  The  number 1 was a fairly simple idea;  but two was not  only
two,  but also 'the result of adding 1 to 1' and 'the root of 4'.
The  numbers grew in complexity out of all reason.  Seven  was  6
plus 1,  and 5 plus 2,  and 4 plus 3,  and so on; as well as 'the
root  of 49',  'half 14' and the like.  They even distinguished 4
plus  3 from 3 plus 4.  Each number also represented an  idea  or
group  of ideas on all sorts of planes.  It would have been quite
possible to discuss dressmaking in terms of pure number.  To give
an example of the way in which their minds thought,  consider the
number  three.  Three,  in  so far as it gives  the  first  plane
figure,  suggests  superficies;  with regard to the dimensions of
space,  solidity.  Three itself is therefore 'that ineffably holy
thing in which the superficies is the solid'.  Of course hundreds
of other ideas must be added to this;  and to grasp and harmonize
them  all  in one colossal supra-rational idea was  the  constant
task  of  every mathematician.  The upshot of this was  that  all
numbers above 33 were regarded as spurious, illusionary; they had
no real existence of their own*;  they were temporary  compounds,
unreal in very much the same sense as our square root of 1.  They
were  always expressed by graphic formulae,  like our own organic
compounds.  To take an example,  the number 156 was regarded as a
sort of efflorescence of the number 7;  it was never written  but
as 77 plus [(7+7)/7] plus 77. Again 11 was usually written 3 plus
5  plus  3.  It  was  always the aim to find  symmetry  in  these
expressions,  and also 'to find an easy way to 1'.  This last  is
difficult to explain.
  Eleven was their great 'Key of Magic'.  It is a twofold number
in  'the act of becoming 1'.  Thirty-seven was the essence  of  1
inasmuch  as  multiplying it by 3 gives 111,  three  ones,  which
divided again by 3 in another manner,  yield 1. "One would rather
think of 48 as 37 plus 11 than as 4 times 12" is the statement of
an  elementary text-book dating from the earliest days of  Atlas.
It  was a sort of moral duty to teach the mind to think  in  this
manner.
  The  number 7 was the 'perfect number' with them as  with  us,
but for very different reasons. It was the link between Earth and
Venus, for one thing; I cannot explain why. It was 'the number of
Atla',  and  the  'house  of success' (two being  the  'house  of
battle').  It was also grace, softness, ease, healing and 'joy of
Zro'  as  well  as 'play  of  phosphorus'.  Many  mathematicians,
however, attacked it with rigour; there was at one time an almost
general consent to replace it by 8, and its 'rapture-combination'
31,  by  33.  Despite the intense preoccupation with such  ideas,
mathematics  as we know them had reached a perfection which if it
does not surpass that of our own civilization,  fails principally
because  of its theorems,  handed down to Euclid and  Pythagoras,
although imperfectly, formed a springboard whence we might leap.
  The  initiation of children was also a matter reserved for the
High House.  Weaned at three months,  the children were tended by
the lower classes until the age of puberty,  an occurrence  which
fitted them at once for initiation.  A legate from the High House
was  sent  for,  and  in  his presence  the  child  was  brought,
acquainted  with  Zro  by  its  father  and  mother,   and   full
instruction  in 'working' was further conferred by any member  of
the  'house'  who  chose to do so,  this in practice  meaning  by
everybody.  The  ceremonies were frequently long and  exhausting;
children  often enough died in the course of them.  This was  not
regarded  as a serious calamity;  some schools of magicians  even
pretended to rejoice. The representatives of the High House had a
prior  right to the parents of the child;  at times he  conducted
the initiation in person, a high honour, but invariably fatal. On
rare  occasions  male children were sent over to the Atla  to  be
devoured.  The  parents of so fortunate a child were advanced  in
rank on the spot,  and had special privileges conferred on  them,
sometimes  even  being transferred to a 'House  of  Houses'.  All
those  who  dwelt  in the High House were  veiled  whenever  they
appeared,  in  order to prevent it being known that they were  of
the  same  appearance in all respects as  their  inferiors.  This
ordinance had been made after the Great Conspiracy,  with which I
shall deal in the chapter on History.
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                              VI.

                  OF THE UNDERGROUND GARDENS
                 OF ATLAS, AND OF THE ALLEGED
                  COMMERCE OF THE ATLANTEANS
                 WITH INCUBI, SUCCUBI, AND THE
                      DEMONS OF DARKNESS.

  I have referred to the contempt with which the Atlanteans were
prone  to regard the vegetable kingdom.  Animals,  including man,
shared  their  scorn.  The  idea may have been  that  with  their
advantages  they  ought to have done much better for  themselves.
Minerals,  however,  were  regarded as helpless;  and  hence  the
extraordinary attention paid to them. Beneath the houses the rock
had been tunneled out into grottos,  some in odd fantastic forms,
but  most  in immense polyhedra or combinations of  curves.  Each
'house' had some twenty of such gardens. Three reagents were used
in the cultivation;  the 'seed of metals',  'the seed of  Light',
and  the seed of '',  an untranslatable idea approximating to our
mystic's  interpretation  of 'Alpha and Omega'.  The  two  former
produced simple effects, the first formed jewels, self-luminious,
which  yet  grew like flowers,  the second similar  effects  with
metals; while the third brought any mineral to flower in the most
extravagant combinations of colour and form.  All such conditions
as  texture,  hardness,  elasticity,  and physical attributes  in
general, were considered worthy of the profoundest attention.
  As  an instance of these,  I may describe particular  gardens.
One  would  have a roof of  softly-glowing  sapphires,  foxglove,
bluebell or gentian, and between these champak stars of ruby. The
walls would be covered with tendrils of vine within whose  depths
lurked  tiny  blossoms  of  amethyst.   The  floor  would  be  of
malachite,  but alive,  growing as a coral does,  softer than any
earthly moss and more elastic to the tread.  On every darker leaf
might  glow  dew-drops  of self-strung diamond  formed  from  the
carbon  dioxide of the air by the action of the 'seed of  Light'.
Another  grotto  would be a monochrome of  blue,  various  copper
salts  being 'planted' everywhere,  and growing in  incrustations
and  festoons of every shade of blue from the faintest  tinge  of
coerulean azure and green and grey,  in whose abyss would be seen
shapes of anemonies,  perhaps of such hues as iron oxide,  silver
chromate,  and cupramonium cyanurate. All this floor would in all
respects  resemble  water  but  for  its  greater  solidity,  and
floating  on  it  would be giant lilies,  great green  leaves  of
emerald with cups of pearl not less than twelve feet in diameter,
with  corollae of pure gold,  so fine that they glimmered  green,
with  pistils  of platinum on whose tops trembled  great  pigeon-
blooded rubies. Another might be wholly of metal, a mere bower of
jasmine,  with its floor of violets.  The law of growth of  these
creatures of wisdom was not that of plants or animals, or even of
crystals;  it  was that of the earth.  Constantly growing as  the
planet  approached  the  sun,  they  as steadily  shrank  as  she
departed to aphelion. This was not growth and decay, but the rise
and fall of an eternal bosom.  It is probable,  too, that this is
one of the reasons why Atlas neglected the higher kingdoms;  they
had learned to grow,  but on wrong lines,  and it was too late to
endeavour to correct the error.
  These  gardens were the principal places of  working.  It  was
hardly  possible to pass from one place to another without coming
upon  one of them,  so cunningly were they  distributed;  and  in
every garden would be found, joyful and noble, parties of workers
intent on their beloved task. The passer-by would gladly join one
of such parties, engage in the work for so long as he wished, and
then  proceed  upon his private business.  In these same  gardens
too,  were salvers and goblets always filled with Zro,  and after
toil, refreshment fitted the workers to return to labour.
  Now  of these workings in the gardens strange tales are  told.
It is said that the inhabitants falling to repose were visited in
sleep by incubi and succubi (whatever the nature of these may be,
and I by no means concur in the opinion of Sinistrari),  and that
they  welcomed such with eagerness.  Nay,  darker legends tell of
infamous commerce and intercourse with demons foul and malicious,
and  pretend that the power of Atlas was devilish,  and that  the
catastrophe was the judgement of God.  These mediaeval fables  of
the  debased and perverted phallicism miscalled Christianity  are
unworthy  even to be refuted,  founded as they are on  hypotheses
contrary  to  common sense.  Nor would they who  knew  themselves
masters  of  the earth have deigned to  degrade  themselves,  and
moreover  to vitiate their whole work by commerce with inferiors.
If there be any truth whatever in these stories,  it will then be
more  easily supposable that the Atlanteans aspiring  to  journey
sunwards to Venus, might invoke the beings of that planet, should
it  be possible for them to travel to us.  And that this is impos
sible,  who  can assert?  On the theory of the  Magicians,  power
increases  as  the sun is approached,  the inhabitants  of  Earth
being more highly infused with the magical force of Our Star than
those  of Mars,  and they again more than those of great Jupiter,
gloomy and disastrous Saturn and Uranus, or Neptune lost in star-
dreams.  Again,  the powers of each particular planet  may,  nay,
must  be wholly diverse.  So fundamental a condition of existence
as the value of g being vastly various,  must not the inhabitants
differ equally in body and in mind?  What lives on the minute and
airless  Moon can be no inhabitant of what may hide  beneath  the
flaming  envelope  of  the sun,  with its fountains  of  hydrogen
flaming an hundred thousand miles into the aether.  And surely so
wild  an  ambition as that of Atlas would not have been  held  by
beings  so wise and powerful for so many centuries had  they  not
either  a  sure memory of coming from Mars,  or some  earnest  of
their  eventual departure to Venus.  Man does not persist in  the
chimerical  for  more than a few  generations.  Alchemy  achieved
results  so startling and so beneficial to humanity at large--one
need  only mention the discovery  of  zinc,  antimony,  hydrogen,
opium,  gas  itself--that  the original ideals were  changed  for
others   more  limited  and  more  practical--or  at  least  more
immediately realizable.
  Nor  is this view unsupported by testimony of a  sort.  "Great
and glorious,  rays of our father the Sun", says one of the poets
of  Atlas,  "are  they  within us.  Let us  call  them  forth  by
utterance  that is not uttered,  by the gesture that is not made,
by the working that is above all working,  for they are great and
glorious,  rays of our father the Sun.  Then from our bride  that
waits  for  us in the nuptial chamber,  green in the green  West,
blue in the blue East,  exalted above our father in the even  and
in the morn, spring forth our heirs and our hosts, to greet us in
the darkness.  Dim-glimmering are our gardens in the light of the
seed  of light;  they are peopled with shadows;  they take  form;
they  are as serpents,  they are as trees,  they are as the  holy
Zcrra,  they  are  as  all things straight or  curved,  they  are
winged,  they are wonderful. With us do they work, and that which
was  but one in seven,  and that which was two is become  eleven!
With us do they work,  and give us of the draught miraculous;  us
do they instruct in magic,  and feed us the delicate food. Let us
call  forth them that are within us,  that they that are  without
may enter in, as it was made manifest by Him that maketh secret."
This passage,  not devoid of a rude eloquence,  makes clear  what
was held in exoteric circles. For in Atlas the poet was not as in
England  a  holy and exalted being,  one set apart for  his  high
calling,  throned in the hearts of the people, cherished by kings
and  nobles,  one  on whom no wealth and honour are too great  to
shower,  but  one  of the people themselves,  of no  greater  con
sequence than any other.  Every man was an artist in so far as he
was a man;  and every man being equally so in nature,  whether so
in achievement or not mattered nothing, as appreciation was of no
moment.  Accomplishing Art for the sake of Art,  the interest  of
the creator in his work died with its creation.  It may therefore
be possible that these words are those of poetic exaggeration, or
that  there  is  a concealed meaning in them,  or that  they  are
intended  to mask and mislead,  or that the poet was not  himself
fully instructed.  Indeed it is certain that only the High  House
had  the  secrets of Atlas,  and that the magicians of the  House
held  the  undeniable if sometimes dangerous  doctrine  that  the
truth  and  falsehood of any statement alternated as do  day  and
night  according  to the status of the hearer of  the  statement.
However,  so  strong  is the tradition concerning the  'Angel  of
Venus' that it must at least be considered carefully.  The theory
appears  to have been that if the magicians of Venus invited  the
Atlanteans,  means  would  assuredly follow,  just as if  a  King
summons  a  paralysed  man to his presence,  he  will  also  send
officers  to  convey  him.  Now whether the 'Angel of  Venus'  is
really an angel in anything like the modern sense of the word, or
merely  a title of one of the principal magicians of the  planet,
it is evident that the High House ardentl  desired his  presence.
That  this  might be manifested by the birth of a child  'without
the  stain  of  Atla' was clearly  an  ultimate  desideratum,  an
outward and visible sign of redemption,  an obvious guarantee  of
the  reality  of  the  occurrence.  It was  then  a  Virgin  high
priestess  who achieved so notable a renown;  whether or not this
is a mere poetic parable of the abiogenesis--if it is indeed fair
so to describe it--of the eleventh stage of Zro is another and an
open question.  In any case,  such is the tradition, and numerous
parodies  of it are still extant in the stories of the births  of
Romulus  and  Remus,  Bacchus,  Buddha and many  other  legendary
heroes  of  modern times;  we even catch an echo in the myths  of
such barbarian lands as Syria.
  So  much  and  no more concerning the Underground  Gardens  of
Atlas, and of their commerce with the inhabitants of Venus.
                             VII.

             OF MARRIAGE AND OTHER CURIOUS CUSTOMS
                     OF  THE  ATLANTEANS:
                AND OF SACRIFICES TO THE GODS.

  I  have  already adverted to that most singular conception  of
the  duty  of the married which opposes the customs of  Atlas  to
those  of any other race on Earth.  But the considerations  which
established  it have yet to be discussed.  I will not  insist  on
that  gross  and  cynical point of view which might  perceive  in
English  marriage today a practical vindication of the  Atlantean
position.  On the contrary, in Atlas marriage formed the loftiest
of  ideals.  It  resembles  the 'Hermetic  marriage'  of  certain
alchemists.  The  bond between the parties was only stronger  for
the  absence of the lower link.  The idea underlying this was  in
the  main  a  particular  case of the  general  proposition  that
whatever  was natural should be transcended.  As will be seen  in
the final chapter, the very stigma of success in their Great Work
was the transcending of the sexual process.  The bond of marriage
was not, however, entirely of this negative character. It had its
positive side, and here closely resembled the so-called Christian
doctrine  of Christ and the church.  Husband and wife were to  be
father and daughter,  mother and son, brother and sister, teacher
and  pupil,  and above all,  friends.  And this relation  was  to
subsist on all planes.  The hieroglyph of love was a cross;  that
of marriage,  parallel straight lines, and as the cross was to be
transcended in the circle, so were these lines to converge not on
earth,  but  in Venus.  In the meanwhile each partner led his own
free life;  and it often occurred that a woman,  having borne two
children  to a man and married him,  would bear two  children  to
another man,  and so on perhaps for two centuries, thus acquiring
a cohort of husbands.  Such an arrangement must clearly have lead
to  grave confusion had any question of property and  inheritance
been involved, but notions so unfortunate were unknown. Where all
had  every heart's desire,  of what value were they?  It is  true
that  some division of labour (though little) was involved in the
social  scheme,   but  it  occurred  to  no  one  to  regard  the
supervision  of serviles as less honourable than the offering  of
great sacrifices.  In a perfect organism one part is as necessary
and  decent as any other part,  and no sane observer  can  reason
otherwise.  For a perfect organism has a single definite aim, and
the  only dishonourable feather on an arrow would be one that was
out of place. Human nature being what it is, one may nevertheless
agree  that  this measureless content with  the  existing  order,
except  in  so  far as the purpose of the establishment  of  that
order  was  unfulfilled,  was rendered possible  by  the  extreme
lightness  of  the  toil demanded of any individual.  But  it  is
impossible  for  slaves to understand free men.  It is  always  a
wonder  to  Englishmen  that  a  man  should  devote  himself  to
unremitting  toil  for an ideal. He is  called  a  crank,  basely
slandered,  the  lowest motives being without any reason assigned
to his actions,  mocked,  persecuted,  perhaps crucified. This is
partly   forgivable,   as  in  England  philanthropy  is   almost
invariably the mask of vice and fraud.
  The ceremony of marriage* was simple, dignified, yet poignant.
The  lovers  in  the presence  of  their  whole  house,  publicly
embraced  for  the  last time.  Their two children  pressed  them
apart.  Elevating  their hands in a crossed clasp they gave  way,
and  the  children passed through,  preceding a most  holy  image
which was borne by a priest and priestess between them. Then they
parted,  and each was severally congratulated and embraced by any
of  the  others who chose,  and the priest  and  priestess  then,
exalting  the image and setting it in a suitable  shrine,  closed
the  ceremony  by the command "To work" and adding force  to  the
same by their example.
  The  education of the children was another important matter in
which  their  ideas were wholly opposed to  our  own.  It  ceased
altogether at the age of puberty, which was sometimes as early as
six,   never  later  than  fourteen.  Were  it  so  delayed,  the
delinquent  was  crowned  in  mockery with a  square  black  cap,
sometimes  tasselated,  and sent among the serviles  to  instruct
them  in  religion and similar branches of  learning,  and  never
permitted  to return to Atlas.  The ignorance and superstition of
the plains was thus kept at a proper height.
  The   method  of  education  was  indeed   singular.   Certain
Atlanteans  who  made  it  their study would  place  the  various
articles in the hands of the infants,  and observe what use  they
made  of  them.  In  the course of a few months the  experts  had
accurately mapped the psychology of the child,  and it was led in
accordance  therewith.  The marriage customs of Atlas allowed  no
too  rapid growth in numbers,  and it was therefore easy to  give
each child attention. The method of opposition was again employed
in   education,   the  child's  natural  wish  being   constantly
stimulated  by  a  parallel training  in  the  contrary  subject.
Children  were  also  shewn a series of  ordered  facts,  and  an
explanation given. But not the least pains was taken to ascertain
whether the child had retained those instructions; they were left
as  impressions  on the mind.  The brain was not injured  by  the
strain of being constantly forced to bring up its stores from the
subconscious.  It  was found in practice that every child  learnt
everything  that it was shown,  and that this learning was always
ready  for  use,  while the consciousness was  never  wearied  or
overcrowded.  It  was  also found that those whose memories  were
what  we call good were precisely those who failed to develop  in
other ways more useful to society.
  The most peculiar of their methods was the search for  genius.
It  was  the business of the experts to pay the most serious  and
reverent  attention to all that a child did,  and  whenever  they
failed to understand the workings of its mind,  to place it under
the  charge  of  a  special  guardian,  who  did  his  utmost  to
comprehend sufficiently to be able to encourage it to become  yet
more unintelligible.
  Apud eos membrum virile membrano lucido erat;  ob quod  qualis
circumscisio die nativitatis facta erat.  Vix credere dignum est,
tanquam  verum,  feminarum montes venereales similutidine  facies
fuere,  facies demonicae, sardonicae, Satyricae, cujus os erat os
vulvae,  res  horribiles  atque  ridiculosa.  Ferunt  similia  de
virorum membris,  quae fingunt sicut imagines homunculorum fuere.
Lege--Judice--Tace.
  Many of the men had ossified extensions of the frontal process
which amounted to horns, and the formation was occasionally found
in  the higher types of women.  Curiously carven head-dresses  of
gold were worn by both sexes,  and those of priestly rank adorned
these with living serpents, and the high priests yet further with
feathers or with wings,  such being not the spoils of dead birds,
but  the blossoms of the live gold of the crowns.  Some tradition
of  this custom is found in the pictures of the 'Gods' of  Egypt,
these  gods being merely the Atlanteans whose  mission  civilized
the country.  The names of some of the earlier gods confirm this.
Nu  (Hebrew  Noah) is Atlantean for arch,  Zu (Egyptian Shu)  for
many ideas connecting with wind,  Asi means 'cum quasi  serpens',
obviously  the  name  of an actual High  Priestess.  Ra  is  pure
Atlantean for Sun, and 'Mse' (Egyptian Chomse) for moon. The idea
in  'Mse  is that of a strong woman ('M) closing the mouth  of  a
serpent (S) or dragon, and from this we have the XIth card of the
Bohemian Tarot,  and the legend in the Apocalypse.  In the mystic
Greek used by the Gnostics we find similar traces,  SOPHIA  being
from S Ph,  giving the idea of 'serpent breath' i.e.  wisdom. IAO
is  PHALLOS,  KTEIS,  PROKTOS.  The word LOGOS means the Boy  (G)
naturally engendered of the Virgin (L) and the Serpent (S). THEOS
(root O,  first written 0) means the sun in his strength and also
the  Lingam-Yoni conjoined.  CHRISTOS is 'The love of passion  of
the  Rising Sun (R) and the serpent' (S).  The I and  T  indicate
certain  details  which  are foreign to the  present  discussion.
NEUMA  (Atlantean  N M) is the 'Arch of the  Woman',  MARIA,  the
Woman  of  the  Sun.* The words MEITHRAS and  ABRAXAS  are  again
derived from Atlas.  "The woman entered,  Lingam being  conjoined
with  Yoni,  bears  the sun from her serpent womb" and "From  the
womb's mouth the sun (cometh seeking) a womb for his desire, even
the womb of a serpent", the course of the year being signified in
this  manner,  as usual with the ancients.  This plan of an  idea
corresponding to each letter was carried out very strictly:  thus
TLA,  black,  means the stigma or mark of the virgin's  womb,  IA
(Hail!  Greeting!)  'Face  to Face',  from the other  peculiarity
described above.  These few examples will suffice to indicate the
singular  character  of the language,* and the way in  which  its
essential dogmatic symbols have been incorporated by the heirs of
Atlas in the inmost sanctuaries of races which they deemed worthy
of such assistance.
  I  must not pass over in silence the question of sacrifice  to
the  gods,  to  which a passing reference has already been  made.
Such  sacrifices  were not very frequent;  the victims  were  the
'failures',  those  who were useless to the social  economy.*  As
they  represented capital expenditure,  the object was to recover
this,  at least,  since no interest could be expected. The victim
was  therefore  handed over to a High Priest  or  Priestess,  who
extracted  the life by an instrument devised for and  excellently
adapted to the purpose,  so that it died of exhaustion.  The life
thus regained was given to 'the gods' in a manner too complex  to
be described in this brief account.
  The early age at which puberty occurred was due to design. The
normal  period  of  gestation  had also been  shortened  to  four
months.  This was all part of the scheme to economize  time.  Old
age  had been almost done away with by the great readiness of the
Atlanteans to 'go and see' at the first sign of failing power. No
doubt, further improvements would have been made but for the loss
of interest in the matter,  all generation being regarded as 'the
old  experiment',  not  likely  to repay the trouble  of  further
research.  In the 200 or 300 years of a man's full vigour, only 8
years on an  average was the wastage of childhood,  and even this
was not all waste, since some time at least must be necessary for
the  experts to discover and direct the tendencies of  the  mind.
The  body  ought  therefore  to be regarded  as  an  engine,  the
theoretical limit of whose efficiency had been reached.
  So much I mention of the customs of the Atlanteans with regard
to marriage, education and religious sacrifices.
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                             VIII.

                 OF THE HISTORY OF ATLAS, FROM
                     ITS EARLIEST ORIGINS
                   TO THE PERIOD IMMEDIATELY
                  PRECEDING THE CATASTROPHE.


  The origin of Atlas is lost in the obscurity of antiquity. The
official  religious  explanation is this:  "We  came  across  the
waters  on  the living Atla",  which is pious but  improbable.  A
mystic  meaning is to be suspected.  The lay historian  says  "We
came, escaping from destruction, eight persons in a ship, bearing
the  living Zro." This reminds one of later legends of presumably
equal value.  Poets frankly claim "We descended from heaven", and
it  has been seriously urged that seafarers would have  preferred
the  plains  to  the rocks.  The law  of  contrariety  to  Nature
explains  this away.  Others maintain that the earliest  settlers
came  'by  air,' or  'through air'.  This must mean  balloons  or
airplanes, as flying was not known until centuries after. What is
definitely  known is that the earliest settlers were of a  purely
fighting race.
  An  Atlantean Homer,  Ylo,  has described the first battle  in
such  detail as to leave no doubt that he is  retelling  facts--a
marked  contradiction to his earlier books.  There appear to have
been  but  few Atlanteans,  unless the names given are  those  of
chiefs,  which internal evidence contraverts.  Their valour seems
to  have  been prodigious.  The natives were  armed  with  every
possible instrument of precision, having cavalry and artillery in
abundance,  as well as weapons that must have been as superior to
the  modern  rifle  (unless Ylo exaggerates) as that  is  to  the
arquebus.  In  spite  of this the men of Atlas 'smote  them  with
rods'  or  'fell  upon them with their cones',  and  routed  them
utterly.  This  mention of rods and cones has absurdly  suggested
to  commentators  that  the  Atlanteans  used  their  eyes,   and
hypnotised the enemy.  To state such an opinion is sufficient  to
expose  its author to the contempt of the thoughtful.  Altogether
86  battles were fought,  extending over five years,  before  the
natives  were  reduced  to sue for peace.  This  was  granted  on
generous terms,  which the colonists broke, as soon as they dared
to  do so,  in accordance with the invariable rule of  colonists,
then as much as today.  However,  it was nigh on a hundred  years
before the first college of magic was established. Previously the
Atla  had  been carried about as occasion demanded.  It  was  now
enshrined with some decency of ceremonial upon a mountain.  About
three hundred years later we find ourselves face to face with the
first great Mystery of Atlas. This is a translation of the record
of that most strange event.
  "Now  it came to pass that all men turned black and died,  and
that the living Atla abode alone,  bearing Mercury,  whereof  the
Sun  knoweth.  Thus came again the true men of Atlas,  and  their
women, bearing gods and goddesses. And the void suffered nothing,
and  the earth was at peace.  Now then indeed arose Art,  and men
builded,  being blind. And there was light, and some of the light
wrought  mischief.  Wherefore  the wise men destroyed  them  with
their magic, and there is no record because it is written in that
which  is." A sort of 'Si monumentum quaeris,  circumspice'  seems
here  implied.  In any case there were clearly two gaps  unbridge
able  between the early struggles of the settlers,  the period of
great buildings,  and the modern period,  which proved stable  of
'houses'.  The 'houses' were only made possible by the perfecting
of  Zro,  and this helps considerably to fix the date.  The  next
2500  years  were years of peaceable progress;  the  labour-mills
were run without a hitch, and the next event was the discovery of
black phophorus.  It had been the custom to worship the Atla with
lights, and these lights had been candles of yellow phosphorus in
golden  sheathes.  At  that  time the Atla  was  veiled.  At  one
festival  of  Spring  the  veils  were  burnt  up,   the   lights
extinguished,  and  the yellow phosphorus was found to have  been
turned  into the black powder.  The magicians examined this,  and
brought Zro to its ninth stage. This revolutionized the condition
of things: old age and disease were no more, and death voluntary.
Strangely enough this led directly to the Great Conspiracy.
  At the end of this period of 2500 years the system of 'houses'
was well established.  There were over 400 such 'houses', each of
perhaps  1000  souls  on an average.  These were  governed  by  4
'houses of houses' whose rulers took orders from the High  House,
at the head of which was the living Atla.  The plain principle of
Atlas was  revolution;  and like all  revolutionary  bodies,  was
obliged to adopt the strictest form of autocracy.  A democracy is
always soddenly conservative. The only hope is to catch it in one
of  its moments of crazy enthusiasm,  and crush it before it  has
time to recover. Caesar and Napoleon both did this as far as they
could;  Cromwell  and Porfirio Diaz did the same within  narrower
limits.
  Now  a certain sophist--for philosopher one cannot call  him--
tried  to enunciate a magical law to the effect that the  present
standard  of  life was all that could be  desired;  that  further
progress  would be harmful,  that Venus was not worth  attaining,
and  that  the  sole  endeavour of the  magicians  should  be  to
preserve  things as they were.  That such a proposition could  be
supposed  a  'law'  reflects  no  credit on  its  author  or  its
supporters.  Yet of these it found many.  The ninth stage of  Zro
was  a leap calculated to unsettle the calmest mind.  Its reality
had beggared the optimist's daydream. Poets had thrown down their
stilettos.*  High  Priests  who  had  spent  decades  in  hopeful
experiment  saw  their results attained by an entirely  different
method.   In short,  two thirds of the people were infected  with
the heresy, and hoped to hear it promulgated as a Law of Magic.
  It  should  here be explained that every Law of Magic had  its
turn  as the principal law of practical working,  and the  school
supporting any law, or insisting on it, became prominent with it.
Every   dominant  law  in  all  history  had  always  been   made
insignificant  by a new discovery about Zro,  or other matter  of
practical importance,  just as the "Peace with Honour" battle-cry
of  Disraeli  was  drowned  by the calculation  of  the  cost  of
warships,   soldiers  and  patriotism.   Each  step  in  Zro  had
consequently  implied the rise to power of a new school;  and the
sophist was ambitious, and yet the law he wished to establish was
the ruling law of the servile races.
  The 'law' was accordingly sent to the High House for approval.
Some  opposition may have been forseen,  but no one was  prepared
for  the  blackness  of  disapproval  which  actually   radiated,
striking hearts cold.  A course without precedent,  no answer was
vouchsafed.  On  the  contrary,  even  normal  communication  was
suspended.  The  houses  which  favoured the  innovation--333  in
numbers--took counsel,  came to the decision that it was  useless
to  oppose the High House,  and were about to acquiesce,  when  a
woman  who  had  once been in the presence of 'To Her'  rose  and
thought   vehemently  'The  Living  Atla  is  the  head  of   our
conspiracy'.  In  other  words,  they  were  the  loyalists,  the
Magicians of the High House the rebels. This was why they had cut
themselves off,  because their own head was against them.  It was
instantly  resolved  to  go to the High  House,  and  demand  the
custody of 'To Her'.  Nearing the goal, however, a remnant of the
ancient reverence half cowed even the ringleaders--I may  mention
that  five of every six of the heretics were women--when they saw
a stern phalanx of magicians, its point threatening their centre.
As  they  wavered,  a woman cried "They are only men such  as  we
are." The ranks stiffened;  on all sides the army closed upon the
tiny phalanx,  which only numbered 66 all told.  It was then that
the truth was known.  Ere a blow could be struck,  the  attacking
party  vanished;  it was instantaneous and complete annihilation.
From  that moment it was certain that the ruling power  in  Atlas
was  Something* infinitely more awful than the  Living  Atla.  In
order  to  avoid any possible repetition of such a  disaster--for
the  Magicians of the High House knew that any  manifestation  of
the  Supreme must undo the work of centuries--they gave out  that
they  had  become too terrible to look upon,  and for the  future
they always appeared with heavy veils, or rather masks, since for
the  most part they were carven fantastically by the  wearers  in
their leisure hours.  A further alteration was made in the system
of government. The head of one of the 'houses of houses' was made
supreme:  the  High House took no part in affairs of state.  Thus
the  Atla was to all intents and purposes deposed,  although  the
same  reverence  and sacrifice were paid to it  as  formerly.  It
became a 'constitutional monarch', in our modern jargon.
  The  next thousand years were years of serious trial in  other
ways.  The  toil of repopulation was excessive,  and there was  a
revolt or rather strike of the servile races,  which was ended by
the substitution of 'bread from heaven' for those products of the
earth on which they had formerly been fed, a diet which proved so
adapted to their natures that no labour troubles ever recurred.
  The Greek legends of the wars between Gods, giants, Titans are
traditional of a real war or series of wars which continued  with
intervals over 200 years.  The enemy had developed naval armament
to an extreme. Their tactics were these:

  1.  To wipe out the servile races and so to interfere with the
      production of Zro.

  2.  To rush and destroy the High House.

  The  first  of these met with a great  deal  of  success,  the
floating  rock  being  struck with  projectiles  and  sunk.  This
occurred  chiefly on the outlaying islands,  where they were  not
too  much afraid to make raids in force.  They also sent epidemic
disease  of many kinds.  Atlas was reduced to such  extremity  in
these  ways  that at one time the waterways were forced  and  the
assault  on the High House was actually carried out,  bombardment
continuing  day  and  night  for  months  together.   Through   a
misunderstanding of a well known magical law,  Atlanteans at that
time  considered themselves prohibited from employing  any  other
defence  than  the rods and the cones of their  forefathers;  and
these, it appears, were useless against machinery, or against men
protected  by fortification in such a way that they could not  be
got  at from any quarter.  Thus the sharklike submarines  of  the
enemy were unassailable.  The war was therefore at first entirely
one-sided. A certain youthful magician, however, resolving to die
for his country if need were,  decided to retaliate. He had found
that  Zro in its nascent state (i.e.  between the globes) had the
power  of  bringing  about  endothermic  reaction,  seawater  for
example, becoming caustic soda and hydrochloric acid; and further
that this acid thus produced was many thousand times more  active
than in its normal state.  For example,  the rock basins in which
he  conducted his first experiment dissolved as rapidly as butter
under  boiling  oil.  He  then  prepared a  number  of  pairs  of
receiver-globes,  and dropped them in the vicinity of the enemy's
submarines  by night.  In this manner he destroyed the  hulls  of
almost the whole fleet in a single night;  and the remainder fled
in panic at dawn.  They returned the following year, carrying out
daylight raids only and devoting themselves chiefly to destroying
the  labour-mills.  The young magician had been rewarded for  his
services  by  being  presented  to the  Atla,  and  this  example
encouraged  others  to  find means  of  attacking  the  invaders.
Artificial darkness was therefore invented, and combined with the
former  method;  but  this  was only  partially  successful,  the
tremendous  pace  of  the 'sharks' enabling  them  to  evade  any
threatening clouds. They did enormous damage, and the supplies of
Zro were seriously curtailed.  Things now went from bad to worse,
and  culminated in the attack on the High  House,  the  besiegers
keeping  their battleships surrounded by rafts of fire,  so  that
attack  was impossible even by night.  It was then that the  High
House  called on the heorism of its sons.  Armed with long swords
of Zro,  they plunged into the sea,  to perish under the tooth of
the Zhee-Zhou,  but not before they had time to hack the invading
battleships to shreds.  Their floating torch-rafts only  assisted
the attack by directing the swimmers to their quarry.  The attack
on  the High House had aroused Atlas at last.  A counter invasion
was plotted and carried out with immediate and complete  success,
the  enemy  being  exterminated,  and their  country  not  merely
ravaged  but destroyed by arousing the forces of earthquake.  All
activity  of this kind however was deprecable,  a recurrence  was
guarded against by removing the High House to the lofty  mountain
previously  described,  and a 'house' was chosen to cultivate the
art of war,  and entrusted with the duty of destroying any living
thing that might approach within a hundred miles of Atlas.
   Only one other adventure of historical importance remains  to
be  recorded.  It  is the attempt of some foolish  Atlanteans  to
found  an 'Empire',  and so to be entirely distinguished from the
missionary effort referred to previously. The original settlement
of Atlas, as has been the case with all flourishing colonies, was
made  by  a  few  hardy  pioneers,  who  strengthened  themselves
gradually  by growth.  But Atlas in her momentary madness  poured
out  blood  and treasure in the fatuous attempt to  impose  alien
domination on lands utterly unsuited to the genius of the people.
The  idea,  of course,  was to increase the supply of labour  and
consequently of crude Zro.  In the first place the adventure  was
expensive.  It was uneconomical (in the scientific sense) to send
ships with less than 1000 fighting men. The Zro required for these
meant  the employment of at least 7000 serviles,  and  the  naval
construction  was  therefore of a colossal  order.  But  although
little  difficulty  was  found in conquering the country  in  the
military sense,  the natives had to be almost  exterminated,  and
the  labour of the survivors proved difficult to enforce.  It was
even  then  not a tenth as efficient as that of the  serviles  at
home.  The imported serviles moreover caught native diseases, and
died  in hundreds;  and though by prodigious sacrifices the  West
African Empire was kept going for nearly 200 years, it had to end
at last no less ingloriously than the French adventure in Mexico,
or the English in India, and South Africa.*
  The main causes were the impossibility of breeding children in
a climate so unsuitable, even of maintaining their own women, and
above  all the fact that the crude Zro was not of a quality equal
to  that  obtained in Atlas,  and that the Zro generated  by  the
Atlanteans themselves was not to be made at all outside their own
country.  The lesson was learnt. Until the end no further attempt
was  made  to advance in any but the true  direction.  The  great
majority   of  the  colonists  returned  to  Atlas;   but   many,
degenerating as is the fashion with colonists of this  conquering
kind,  abandoned  Zro  for  gross  food,  intermarried  with  the
natives,  and  have  generally degenerated yet further  to  races
inferior  even  to the present descendants of those who  were  in
those days the equivalents of the serviles of Atlas.
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                              IX.

                      OF THE CATASTROPHE,
                      ITS ANTECEDENTS AND
                       PRESUMED CAUSES.

  In  my  remarks on Zro I have a necessarily  somewhat  diffuse
account of the properties of this remarkable substance.  It  must
now  be  made  clearer  that the crude Zro  in  its  nine  stages
produced  by the serviles,  and consumed in the 'houses'  was  in
each  stage  of  inferior  quality to that  of  the  same  degree
produced by the Atlanteans,  and consumed by the High House.  For
example,  the  crude Zro was made in a labour-mill with all sorts
of insulations.  The first stage of the priest's Zro could be made
anywhere  and at any time,  and naturally directed itself to  the
receptable for it without any precautions.  It must,  I think, be
presumed  that the Zro generated in the High House was  again  of
far  greater  purity  and potency.  Very little of  it  can  have
been  used  in  the  experiments of  the  magicians,  and  it  is
therefore necessary to account for enormous quantities,  produced
during many centuries of uninterrupted labour.  I have,  however,
no data of any kind for this investigation;  the mysteries of the
High  House  have  ever been inscrutable,  and  were  not  wholly
delivered to the Heirs of Atlas. They must be rediscovered by the
magicians  of the new race.  It may be that in some form or other
the Zro had been made stable,  and used to impregnate the  column
which  is  alleged  to  have been  driven  'through  the  Earth';
perhaps,  and less improbably, only to the depth of a few hundred
miles.  This column, however long it may have been, had certainly
its  top immediately beneath the reservoir of the High House.  It
had  been completed about 70 years before the  'catastrophe'  but
apparently no effort was made to utilize it in any way.  To me it
appears  probable  that in some one mind the whole  'catastrophe'
was brooding,  that the column was part of the device,  and  that
the event which I shall now describe was the other part.
  This event was the birth of a child in the High House, a child
without the distinguishing mark of the daughters of  Atlas.  That
any  child  at all should have been born there is  so  incredible
that I am inclined to suspect an improper use of the word 'born'.
I think rather that a magician brought Zro to its eleventh stage,
when  it takes human form,  and lives!  The alternative theory is
that  of  the 'Angel of Venus' described in the  chapter  on  the
Underground Gardens of Atlas.  The supporters of this theory hold
that  the  child was not born of a priestess,  but of the  Living
Atla.
  In  any case,  the whole country gave itself up  to  unbridled
rejoicing.  Work  was  carried  on at a greater speed  than  ever
before: one might say a delirium of labour. For eleven years this
continued  without cessation,  and then without warning came  the
order to repair to the High House--every man,  woman and child of
Atlas.  What was then done,  I know not, and dare not guess; that
same  day seven volunteers,  heroic exiles from the reward of  so
many  centuries  of  toil,  voluntary maroons  on  the  discarded
planet,  the  Heirs of Atlas,  turned their faces from  the  High
House,  and  severally  sought distant mountains,  there each  to
guard his share of the Secrets of the Holy Race,  and in due time
to discover and train up fit children of other races of the earth
so  that  one day another people might be  founded  to  undertake
another such task as that now ended.
  Hardly  had  the pinnacle of Atlas melted into the sea  behind
them,  than  the 'catastrophe' occurred.  The High House and  the
column beneath it,  with all the inhabitants of Atlas,  shot from
the earth with the vehemence of a million lightnings,  bound  for
that green blaze of glory that scintillated in the West above the
sunset.
  Instantly  the  Earth,  its god departed,  gave itself  up  to
anguish.  The  sea  rushed unto the void of the column and  in  a
thousand  earthquakes  Atlas,  'houses' and plains together  were
overwhelmed  forever in the ocean.  Tidal waves rolled round  the
world;  everywhere great floods carried away villages and  towns;
earthquakes  rocked and tempests roared;  tumult was  triumphant.
For  years  after the catastrophe the dying tremors of the  Event
still shook mankind with fear.* And the eternal waves of the great
mother rolled over Atlas, save where Earth in her agony thrust up
gaunt  pinnacles,  bare  masts of wreckage to mark  the  vanished
continent.  Save  for  its heirs,  of whose successors it  is  my
highest honour to be the youngest and the least worthy,  oblivion
fell,  like  one  last night in which the sun should  be  forever
extinct, upon the land of Atlas and its people.
  Shall  such high purpose fail of emulation,  such  achievement
and  example not excite us to like striving?  Then let earth fall
indeed  from  her high place in heaven,  and mankind  be  outcast
forever from the sun!  Men of Earth! Seek out the heirs of Atlas;
let  them  order you into a phalanx,  let them build you  into  a
pyramid,  that  may pierce that appointed which  awaits  you,  to
establish  a  new  dynasty of Atlanteans to be the  mainstay  and
mainspring  of  the  Earth,  the pioneers of their  own  path  to
heaven,  and to our lord and Father, the Sun! And he put his hand
upon his thigh, and swore it.
  By the ineffable    , Tla,  and by the holy Zro,  did he swear
it,  and entered into the body of the new Atla that is alive upon
the earth.
pa

                            NOTES:


Chapter I:
   p3.  There  were four (some say five)  distinct  races,  each
having  several sub-races.  But the main characteristics were the
same. Some alleged the Portuguese and the English to be survivals
of this or kindred stock.
   p3.  Or ZRA'D.  The ZR is drawled slowly;  then the lips  are
suddenly  curled back in a sneering snarl,  and the vowel sharply
and  forcibly  uttered.  It  is disputed  whether  this  word  is
connected with the Sanscrit SRI, holy.
   p4.  The  same  danger  to society in our own time  has  been
forseen,  and  an  identical  remedy discovered  and  applied  in
compulsory education and cheap newspapers.

Chapter II:
   p6.  Gautama  Buddha  was the reincarnation or  legend  of  a
previous  Buddha  who  was a missionary  from  Atlas,  hence  the
account  of his immovable neck,  the ears that he could fold over
his face, and other monstrous details.
   p6.  There was a Governor of these, of whose name, nature and
function I am not permitted to speak.
   p7.  One  of the most brilliant children committed suicide on
learning that he could not move his upper jaw. This boy is of the
eleven  heroes  who  had  statues in  the  High  House.  And  the
Atlantean  for  'sorrow'  in  its  ultimate  sense  ('dukka'   or
'weltschmerz') is to wrench at the upper jaw.
   p8.  This  system of communication has great advantages  over
any  other.  It is independent of distance,  and dependent on the
will  of  the  transmitter.  Telepathic  messages  could  not  be
'tapped' or miscarry in any way.
   p9.  Called by them Zhee-Zhou,  in imitation of the swish  of
the tail and the cry of its victim.

Chapter III:
   p10. The point was discussed fully, and finally relegated, in
the Council of Stockholm, 1913.
   p10. The  scene is so real to me that I find it impossible to
avoid   using   the   historic  present   here   and   elsewhere,
inadvertently.
   p10. There  are six other pieces of apparatus to insulate and
carry to the basin the six subtler principles of sweat.
   p11. Only  the  smallest  quantity is  required,  and  it  is
unchanged,  its  function being purely catalytic.  This  form  of
phosphorus  is one of the most stable elements.  It combines  (so
far  as  is  known) only with Zro.  But if thrown out of  such  a
combination, it becomes ordinary yellow phosphorous.
   p12. In spite of the absolute promiscuity of the  Atlanteans,
this  was never in doubt,  owing to the special mark of each man,
whose stigma or variation was infallibly transmitted.
   p13. This item is loosely used,  as equivalent of 'life.' The
sacrifice is described later, and the point made clear.

   p13. No other disease was known after the bringing of the Zro
to its ninth stage,  all indisposition being instantly cured by a
single dose.

Chapter IV:
   p14. No known state of pure Zro is stable.  From this it will
be seen how entirely Atlas was in the hands of the servile races.
Fortunately  no  trouble ever arose;  the supply  of  labour  was
always ample.
   p15. There was also a settlement in Finland. Its only remains
in historic periods is 'Lapland Witches.'

Chapter V:
   p16. There are various theories; one a sort of avatar affair,
another  that  the Atla is a quintessence of some  kind;  another
calls 'To Her' the 'Angel of Venus, the force of our aspiration.'
   p16. A mere compliment.
   p17. Especially monkeys.  The results of this experiment were
sent to colonize an island, but escaped, and after many journeys,
reached Japan, where their descendents flourish still.
   p19. A partial exception existed for prime numbers,  as being
self-generated, and each of these which had been investigated had
its special (and comparatively simple) signification.

Chapter VII:
   p25.There was also the marriage of those of the Magicians who
refused all intercourse with the opposite sex, and were therefore
married to the whole sex as such.  Here was no ceremony used; but
each  had  a  special mark signifying that he  or  she  was  thus
consecrated.
   p26. MAR  is  Atlantean (also Sanscrit) for  die.  This  word
throws light on their conception of death.
   p26.Note that no tautologies defile its linguistic wells. "As
I have written" is never changed to 'as I have  observed,  noted,
described, said, indicated, remarked, pointed out' and so on.
   p26. I must revert for a moment to the language.  OIK,  Greek
OIKOS meant the 'House of the penetrating men.' NOM, Greek NOMOS,
the 'arch of the House of the Women,' i.e. that which roofed them
in or protected them. Hence "the law.'

Chapter VIII:
   p29. Needle-sharp  daggers  of Zro in its seventh stage  were
used to write on the rock walls of Atlas.
   p30. This  matter  is not for open discussion.  Even at  this
distant date it would be dangerous to do so much even as  indulge
in speculation.
   p32.I write a little, but not much, in advance of the events.
To  illustrate the theory here advanced I will ask the reader  to
compare  the  results of the attempts to colonize America by  (a)
the whole military power of Spain at her zenith,  (b) the handful
of exiles in the 'Mayflower.'

Chapter IX:
   p34.The Legend of the Deluge is derived from this event.


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