ater ages should have been imposed upon by
the fiction. As many attempts have been made to find the great island of
Atlantis, as to discover the country of the lost tribes. Without regard
to the description of Plato, and without a suspicion that the whole
narrative is a fabrication, interpreters have looked for the spot in
every part of the globe, America, Arabia Felix, Ceylon, Palestine,
Sardinia, Sweden.

Timaeus concludes with a prayer that his words may be acceptable to the
God whom he has revealed, and Critias, whose turn follows, begs that a
larger measure of indulgence may be conceded to him, because he has to
speak of men whom we know and not of gods whom we do not know. Socrates
readily grants his request, and anticipating that Hermocrates will make
a similar petition, extends by anticipation a like indulgence to him.

Critias returns to his story, professing only to repeat what Solon was
told by the priests. The war of which he was about to speak had occurred
9000 years ago. One of the combatants was the city of Athens, the other
was the great island of Atlantis. Critias proposes to speak of these
rival powers first of all, giving to Athens the precedence; the various
tribes of Greeks and barbarians who took part in the war will be dealt
with as they successively appear on the scene.

In the beginning the gods agreed to divide the earth by lot in a
friendly manner, and when they had made the allotment they settled
their several countries, and were the shepherds or rather the pilots of
mankind, whom they guided by persuasion, and not by force. Hephaestus
and Athena, brother and sister deities, in mind and art united, obtained
as their lot the land of Attica, a land suited to the growth of virtue
and wisdom; and there they settled a brave race of children of the soil,
and taught them how to order the state. Some of their names, such as
Cecrops, Erechtheus, Erichthonius, and Erysichthon, were preserved and
adopted in later times, but the memory of their deeds has passed away;
for there have since been many deluges, and the remnant who survived
in the mountains were ignorant of the art of writing, and during many
generations were wholly devoted to acquiring the means of life...And the
armed image of the goddess which was dedicated by the ancient Athenians
is an evidence to other ages that men and women had in those days,
as they ought always to have, common virtues and pursuits. There were
various classes of cit