WHY is this book written? is the most pertinent question asked an author
at the outset of composition. It is echoed and re-echoed by critic and
reader upon its publication. It certainly appears to be a fair question
whenever, the subjects seem so much out of the route of ordinary in
formation, as the present volume.
The scattered records of the Past, within the historical period, would
apparently yield scarcely enough material to make a short magazine
article of any interest, to say nothing of swelling in size, to the
dignity of a book.
Excerpt:
It is now conceded, however, by our wisest scientists, that every
configuration and corresponding circumstance points to the possibility
of the existence of an island continent in the neighborhood, if not
directly over the great West Indian Archipelago, just as the whole
configuration of the North American Continent tells the story of the
inland sea that broke through its barriers at the Thousand Islands in
the St. Lawrence river, and hurling itself over Niagara Falls, left the
habitable valley of the Mississippi, as a legacy to man for future
settlement.
The sacred writings of all nations concur in the same declaration and
statement of disaster to some portion of the earth, most generally
including all. In a late issue of Mind, appears an article headed: "A
Monument to Atlantis," which says : "A notable discovery of more than
ordinary interest for historians, especially those who have a leaning
toward antiquities, has lately been made by the well-known
archaeologist, Augustus Le Plongeon. This discovery should particularly
at tract the attention of Americans, since it enables them to lay claim
to one of the most important monuments of ancient times. The edifice in
question is the Pyramid of Xochicalo, standing 5,396 feet above the
level of the sea, and situated to the south-southwest of Cuernavaca, 60
miles from the City of Mexico. For more than a century the pyramid has
been occasionally visited by distinguished travelers, including the
learned Humboldt; but none succeeded in discovering the purpose for
which the monument had been erected, nor in deciphering the mysterious
inscriptions on its sides.
As far back as 1886, Dr. Le Plongeon published his alphabetic key to the
Maya hieroglyphs, comparing this with the ancient Egyptian hieratic
alphabet. He has now found that the signs on the Pyramid of Xochicalo
are both Maya and Egyptian ; and a careful study of these decorative
inscriptions has made it plain to him that the pyramid was a monumental
structure erected to commemorate the submergence and destruction of the
great Land of Mu (Plato's Atlantis), together with its population of
64,000,000 of human beings, about 11,500 years ago.
Dr. Le Plongeon, in his remarkable work, "Queen Moo and the Egyptian
Sphinx," gives four Maya accounts of the same cataclysm. This, then, is
the fifth, and, in his own opinion, the most important of all the known
records in Maya language of the appalling event that gave rise to the
story of a universal Deluge that is found in the sacred books of the
Jews, the Christians and the Mohammedans.
These records, on stone, on sun-dried bricks, on papyrus, all tell the
same story. The little we know of the Aztecs is also confirmatory of the
same fact. Whence came the people of South America, with their advanced
civilization and traditions of the Past? What mighty people built the
great cities and temples of the now forest-covered cities of Yucatan and
Central America, with their carved glyphs, and correspondences to the
hieroglyphs of the Valley of the Nile and the East Indian entablatures;
and moreover, on al most precisely similar styles of architecture to
those of Egypt and India.
Is it reasonable to sup pose there was
no common bond of fellowship between all these? The Ancient Egyptian
ideas have dominated the world down to the present day. Instead of a
mummy-case, we use a coffin for our dead. The idea is the same the de
parted ghost was to be saved the trouble of making a new body, perhaps
at short notice, at the great day of the resurrection.
The trinity in unity of God, now universally received, was an Egyptian
idea, and the same is wrought into the stone tablets which La Plongeon
and his amiable wife have unearthed in the forests of the Maias and
Quiches.
If the nation, of which these are but the feeble remnants, had not
disappeared by some cataclysmal climax we must certainly have had some
later, historical data. As the mind of the present generation is more
largely than ever, desirous of Truth, the idea of Astral presentation
and perception may not be without its weight, especially as the books of
Wisdom of the Past declare, that automatic books of record are kept of
all deeds and manifestation, upon the earth.