In this way nonsense is made of the whole retrospect; and theethnological scheme remains so vague and shadowy that it fails todisplace crude conceptions of mankind's beginning which still dominatereligious thinking, and keep back the spiritual progress of the age.The decadence and ultimate disappearance of Atlantean civilisation isin turn as instructive as its rise and glory; but I have nowaccomplished the main purpose with which I sought leave to introducethe work now before the world, with a brief prefatory explanation, andif its contents fail to convey a sense of its importance to anylisteners I am now addressing, that result could hardly beaccomplished by further recommendations of mine.

A. P. SINNETT.