Chapter 735
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As shown in the “Preliminary Notes” to this Volume, it stands to reason that neither the name of Lemuria nor even of Atlantis are the real archaic names of the lost Continents. They have been adopted by us simply for the sake of clearness. Atlantis was the name given to those portions of the submerged Fourth Race Continent which were “beyond the Pillars of Hercules,” and which happened to keep above water after the general Cataclysm. The last remnant of these—Plato’s Atlantis, or “Poseidonis,” which is another substitute, or rather a translation of the real name—was the last of the Continent above water some 11,000 years ago. Most of the correct names of the countries and islands of both Continents are given in the Purânas; but to mention them specially, as found in other more ancient works, such as the Sûrya Siddhânta, would necessitate too lengthy explanations. If, in earlier writings, the two seem to have been too faintly distinguished, this must be due to careless reading and want of reflection. If ages hence, Europeans are referred to as Âryans, and a reader confuses them with the Hindûs and the latter with the Fourth Race, because some of them lived in ancient Lankâ—the blame will not fall on the writer.