was that lost continent which Wallace told us, long ago, stood where now
roll the waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, south and southwest of
Asia. Here we have, in the degraded Papuan and Australian, the remainder
of the third race. Degraded I call him, because his ancestors, though
inferior to the highest races of to-day, were far in advance of him. So
it must always be. Destroy the accumulations of the highest race of men
now living, and the next generation will be barbarians; the second,
savages.

The fourth root-race inhabited the famous, but no longer fabulous,
Atlantis, now sunk, in greater part, beneath the waters of the Atlantic.
Fragments of this race were left in Northern Africa, though perhaps none
now remain there, and we are told that there is a remnant in the heart
of China. From the relics of the African branch of this root-race, the
old Egyptian priests had knowledge regarding the sunken continent,
knowledge which was no fable, but the traditionary lore and history of
the survivors of the lost Atlantis.

Such is, in brief, an outline of the nature, history, and destiny of
man, as the Buddhist relates it. How has he obtained his knowledge? By
means which, he says, are within the reach of any one. First, of the
history: it is said to be well authenticated tradition. Of the actual
knowledge of former races, the Egyptian priests were the repositories,
inheriting their information from the Atlantids. Of human nature and
destiny the Buddhist would say: Here are the facts, look about you and
see. From a theory of astronomy, or botany, or chemistry, we find an
explanation of facts, and these facts explained, confirm and establish
the theory. So, too, of man, here is the view, once a theory, but now as
firmly established as the law of gravitation. Besides, by study and
contemplation, the expert has developed, in advance of the age in which