because it had never seemed worth his while to do otherwise. But
provided he thought it would pay him, he was ready to believe in
anything--in Christianity, Mahommedanism, Buddhism, Theosophy, or
any other creed; and granted the book he had in his hands was
really written by Maitland, and Maitland was _bona fide_ (which Hamar
saw no reason to doubt), and granted, also, that Maitland was sane and
logical--which from his writing he certainly appeared to be--then
there was a certain amount in the volume that in Hamar's opinion
was "a find." Needless to say, he referred to the magic of the
Atlanteans--the art through the practice of which they had got in
touch with the Powers that could endow them with riches. The actual
history of Atlantis--once he was satisfied there had been such a
place--did not interest him. He skimmed through it quickly, and I
append a brief summary, only, for the benefit of more intelligent and
disinterested readers.

The Atlanteans were the oldest intelligent race in the world--they
existed contemporaneously with Paleolithic man, with whom their
mariners and explorers frequently came in contact, and about whom
their novelists wrote the most delightful stories, just as Fenimore
Cooper and Mayne Reid, in these days, have written the most delightful
stories about the Red Indians. In religion they were polytheists; they
believed that, in the work of Creation, many Powers participated; that
some of these Powers were benevolent, some malevolent, whilst
others--neither benevolent nor malevolent--were merely neutral. To the
benevolent creative Powers they attributed all that is beautiful in
the world (_i.e._ certain of the trees, plants, flowers, animals,
insects, and pleasing colours and scents); all that is fair and
agreeable in the human being, such as affection, love, kindness, the
arts and sciences--in a word all that in any degree affected the