Page 104 - Dragon Flood

As I have studied the history of America, I have observed that this last tenet has been in
evidence among American government ever since its founding as a nation separate from
England. Some months back I read the book The Secret Destiny of America by Manly P.
Hall. Manly Hall is a Masonic author greatly admired by men of the lodge. In 1944 he
published the aforementioned book, setting forth a case for America fulfilling her destiny
as “the new Atlantis.”

Manly Hall makes reference to the writing Critias that was authored by the Greek
philosopher Plato in the fourth century B.C.. In Critias Plato imagines a dialogue between
Socrates and a man named Critias, who was named as a descendant of the Greek politician
Solon. Critias is telling Socrates of a trip made by his forebear to Egypt, where Solon was
shown mysteries by the Egyptian priests who guarded the wisdom of that ancient nation.
What Solon was shown related to the lost kingdom of Atlantis.

What stood out to me in Manly Hall’s review of this ancient writing was the claim that
Atlantis was ruled over by “philosopher kings.” These were men who had achieved an
illumined state through self-discipline and self-improvement. They were also learned in
ancient wisdom, and these qualities commended these men as nature’s only true
aristocracy. It was suggested by Manly Hall that certain men reach a state of moral and
philosophical advancement that sets them apart from the common man as being worthy of
ruling over others.

THE destruction of Atlantis, as described by Plato in the “Critias,” can be interpreted as
a political fable. The tradition of the Lost Empire as descended from Solon was enlarged
and embellished according to the formulas of the Orphic theology; but it does not follow
necessarily that Plato intended to disparage the idea that a lost continent had actually
existed west of Europe. Plato was a philosopher; he saw in the account of the fall of
Atlantis an admirable opportunity to summarize his convictions concerning government
and politics.

The “Critias” first describes the blessed state of the Atlantean people under the benevolent
rulership of ten kings who were bound together in a league. These kings were monarchs
over seven islands and three great continents. From the fable we can infer that the ten
rulers of the Atlantic league were philosopher kings, endowed with all virtues and wise
guardians of the public good. These kings obeyed the laws of the divine father of their
house, Poseidon, god of the seas...

In this way Plato describes the government of the Golden Age, in which men
live on earth according to the laws of heaven.

By the three great continents of Atlantis are to be understood, Europe, Asia, and Africa;
and by the seven islands, all the lesser peoples of the earth. The league of the ten kings is
the cooperative commonwealth of mankind, the natural and proper form of human
government. The Atlantis, therefore, is the archetype or the pattern of right
government, which existed in ancient days but was destroyed by the
selfishness and ignorance of men.