Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-01

legends, and the story of Atlantis as told BY
Plato is not Inconsistent with any of them.
The tradition ia that the island of Atlantis
was the seat of empire of great, powerful
and highly civilized race. They were supposed
to have built mighty CITIES and temples
there, and to have sent forth msny
colonies, and to have conquered every
nation they attacked. And then at last.
when they were at the hight of their glory
and power. there occurred terrible earth.
quake, and the land sank, and the ocean
burst in upon Atlantis, aad in four days the
whole island had disappeared, leaving behind
it disturbed and muddy and unnavigablei
sea.
Now SO far MIR. Donnelly has only tradi-
ton to support him, but here he calls in
science to his aid. After showing that there
is about the legend which seems to Gender on
Atlantis marked consistency and coherence.
he proceeds to inquire whether the ocean
in the region where Atlantis is supposed to
have stood, gives any Indications of the
occurrence, in past times, of such catas-
trophe. And he is enabled to answer this
question in the affirmative, for the soundings
made by the Challenger really do prove the
existence, in the very region of the supposed
Atlantis, of what may very well be buried
continent. The Azores are the peaks of the
highest mountains of Atlantis Thousands
mighty architectural works, and its vast
treasures and the bones of the millions Of
human beings that were carried down with
the island. This is the authors theory, and
it is sustained il very skilful and exhaustive
way. OF course il csnrot bs denied that
such a catastrophe may have occurred. The
| souUdings show that such catastrophe in
all probability did occur within a compare
lively recent period. Beyond this all is
wrapped in cloud and mystery. The Chal-
lenger's dredges and travis brought to the
surface no tokens of the past. If Atlantis
be there, the globerigina oezs has probably
covered the ruins and the treasure fathoms
deep, and protoplasnic masses, destined
to important uses in the future, inertly sup
plant the once active aud eager life OF the
antedilavian world. L is certainly very
fascinating hypothesis, and it is due to Mr..
/ Donnelly to say that he has made the most
of it, and has produced volume which
abounds in interest. and affords many topics
/ for reflection.
ILLUSIONS A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY By James
! Suliy. New York ID. Appleton & Co.
| The chief value of works like the present is
to check the ever-growing disposition to look
upon the best accepted philosophy of the age
as the last word on the problems of existence.
| Mr.. Sully has iabored TO show that all human
observation ard speculation is and must be
! full Of errors, and that the most careful and
exact conclusions of science are only rela.
| lively and never absolutely correct The
very fundamental concepts Of philosophy are
| open TO objection, and liable to error, and in
fact illusions form part and parcel of all man
sees and hears and does and think.
The truth is that the human organism is not
a complete and infallible piece of mechanism,
but very imperfect and fallible machine.
seems most correct. and which is
not capable of absolute exactituds under
any circumstances. 1t is necessary to make
allowances for this tendency to illusion which
pervades and permeates everything, and a
work like Mr.. Sully's, which carefully and
thoroughly gees over the ground in scien-
tiGc spirit, is well calculated to Undue the
mind with that humility which is SO essential
to philosophic examination. The fallacy of
the common notion that all sound minds must
agree upon certain supposidtious simple prop
ositions. is here very clearly and instructiyely
demonstrated The fact is that if it were
possible to gauge the sanity of all men, it
would be seen that really sane men are in the
minority, and that tie percentage of brains
with some twist is very great. Altogether
realm of psychology.
THOMAS CARLYLE HISTORY OF THE FIRST FORTY
YEARS or HIS LIFE. By James Anthony Froude,
| NJ. A. In two volumes New York Charles
Scribner's Sons. San Francisco: A L. Bancroft
| & Co.
1t is impossible to rise from the perusal of
these volumes without rejecting that the
withdrawal of the veil which concealed the
life of Carlyle from the observation of the
world has produced notwithstanding which
must greatly detract from the influence of
his writings. For in his case it has been
made manifest that very large proportion
of the peculiar gloom and cynicism which
| filled his pages was the direct result, not of
any profound philosophy, not of deep reflsc.
| ton upon human nature and worldly affairs,
bat purely and wholly of morbid bodily con.
dition. Now it is this disclosure which
threatens to be so fatal to Carlyle's influence /;
for whereas men can be moved and led by no
matter how dark and dsspairing creed, pro-
vided they know it to have been the result of
thought or experience, it is impossible TO
maintain school upon no more digni6ed or
intellectual basis than the malign prompt.
| ings of diseased stomach. The truth
is that Csrlyle's dyspepsia was the
explanation of more than half his grim
philosophy, and it was also the reason why
his personal life was SO devoid of happiness.
Mr.. Froude has done his work very
thoroughly. he has been most unreasonably
| attacked for telling and showing the truth
about his friend but unless he had shown
the truth he had better moi have undertaken
the work, and as an honest literary man he
could not escape the obligation. 1t is here
made plain for the first time that Carlyle was
singularly deficient in at least one of the at
tributes without which there can be no true
philosophy and no intelligent grasp of phe-
nomena. The man actually did not know
what Love is. He was so ignorant $50
afflicted, perhaps we should say), that he
could not even understand what it was. He
had notion that love was like the mumps or
the cbicken-pox. to be endured for q short
time. and then got rid Of altogether. He
actually had no conception of that form of
affection which lasts through long life,
burning with steady brightness continually,
and influencing both lives in the most perfect