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 "Don't talk to Neve tonight, baby, okay? She stole my last pair of chain mail panties, that fucker. So...are we gonna play in your carriage again tonight? I saw it outside," the young Witch asked, now twirling her thick tongue along the perimeter of the smiling Count's ear. "I can tell you're not wearing the chain mail...you smell divine," Carlo growled as he sunk his fangs into the Witch's neck. Carlo's friends continued to chat with the other Witches and were becoming more friendly. Sara was now bouncing on Edgar's lap, and Nostradaigle, now standing, was talking into Neve's ear. Vindu and Casanueva looked at each other sheepishly and Casanueva remarked, "Come on Vin, let's go stand by the door. Don't worry B, we'll hook up," and the two then disappeared into the rapidly forming crowd. "Okay...here's the deal," Edgar began. "The ancient Greeks had a far better knowledge of geography than popular opinion today indicates. We have been deceived as to the full measure of classical learning, because the Greeks did not commit the larger part of their knowledge to writing, and they bound scholarship with the vow of secrecy, right?..." Count Carlo remarked, "That is true. In the ancient days, all learning was regarded as sacred; wisdom was entrusted to the keeping of the priest-philosophers; and they were permitted to communicate the choicest branches of the sciences only to duly initiated pupils. To bestow knowledge - Fairuza, stop that - upon those who had not prepared their minds by years of discipline and self-purification profaned the mysteries, desecrated the sacred sciences." Nostradaigle then added, "Wise men, the ancients believed, were a separate race, and to be born into this race it was necessary to develop the mind to a state of enlightened intelligence. The old philosophers taught that physical birth is an accident, for men are born into various races and nationalities according to the laws of generation; but there is a second birth, which is not an accident ; it is the consequence of proper intent. By this second birth, man is born by enlightened intelligence out of nation and out of race into an international nation and an international race. It is this larger and coming race that will some day inherit the Earth."  "Exactly," Edgar continued. "But unless a man be born again by enlightenment, he shall not be a part of the philosophic empire. Our age of gold will pass and someday the Golden Age will come again. A future of greatness is right now casting its long shadow across the face of Nature. With each passing generation, the responsibilities of the American people will increase. More and more, we shall be looked to as a source of courage, strength, and hope. And it will be in this way that we shall fulfill the destiny for which our nation was created by dreamers of long ago. From the Blessed Isles of the West must come the fulfillment of the promise of the ages."  "Yet I digress. What was I saying...oh yes! So anyway...there can be no doubt that the existence of a great continent in the Western Hemisphere was known to the ancient Greeks. And also to the Egyptians and the Chinese. It is nothing short of foolish to assume that the ancients lacked ships sufficiently seaworthy to navigate the larger oceans. Long before the Christian era, the older civilizations had constructed boats far larger and more seaworthy than any of the vessels used by Columbus. One of the Ptolemys of Egypt built a ship large enough to have an orchard of fruit trees on the deck, together with swimming pools and fountains stocked with fish!" "To the Gods!" the three men cheered in unison as they toasted their next round of drinks. Carlo listened attentively despite the sexy Witch's hand pulling at his chest hair. Edgar sipped his scotch, kissed the Witch Sara's lips, and continued,  "Greek mythology perpetuates the knowledge of a blessed land beyond the Western Boundaries of Ocean. In this blessed land dwelt the Hesperides, the beautiful daughters of Night, and here also at the end of each day the Sun came to rest. In popular mythology the Hesperic Isles were a kind of terrestrial paradise. Thus, under a thin veil of mystic symbolism, was concealed the account of a Western continent of great size, fertile and rich and abounding in all good things. The ancients believed the Earth to be surrounded by the sphere of the constellations, and they assigned to each country the star groups which were above the country's particular area of land. In the arrangements perserved in the writings of Aratus of Soli, the constellation of the eagle spreads its wings across the North American continent; the serpent winds its coil over Mexico and central America; and the dragon floats in the sky above Japan and China. Perhaps Sir Edward Landseer was not far wrong when he declared that the symbols of nations, and the emblems peculiar to their heraldry, originated in their ruling constellations. Just about everyone knows that the constellation of the Great Bear is in the sky over Russia, and since time immemorial the bear that walks like a man has been the accepted symbol of the Russian State." Carlo commented, "Thus in many ways we discover indications that the old races were wiser than we thought, and that what we have called discoveries are only re-discoveries." "Yep," continued Edgar. "Once long ago there existed on the Earth a vast empire, the power of which extended to every corner of the world, and great fleets of merchant ships sailed the seven seas and brought their wealth to the fabulous city of the Golden Gate. Here there were schools for the studies of the mysteries of Nature; towers for the examination of the stars; mines beneath the Earth from which the preciouswere brought forth in abundance. This empire was ruled over by seven kings, who were the descendants of Neptune, God of the Seas. Then came the fatal day when the seven kings of the Islands of the West in disobedience to the laws of the Gods resolved to conquer the whole Earth. And thus it was that war came into being, for before that time there had been no strife among men. And the seven kings led an army against the ancient Greeks and they invaded all of Europe, coming in great ships from the West. This occured about 9000 years before the seige of Troy. The Gods were angry because the seven kings had made war.  They caused the Earth to be shaken
and the great Islands of the West vanished into the sea. In a single
night, sixty million human beings perished because they had disobeyed the
laws of Heaven. In time even the name of the Atlantic Empire was
forgotten; for it must be ever so that those who disobey the Gods shall
vanish from the memory of mankind, regardless of their wealth or power.
When Solon, the great statesman and Archon of Athens, returned to Greece
in roughly 595 B.C., it was his intention to take the story of the
Atlantic Empire that he had learned from the High Priest at Sais who
served the shrine of the Goddess Isis, and to develop it into a great epic
poem; but the infirmity of years and the responsibilities of the State
interfered. Instead, Solon told the story in the fullest detail to his
close friend, Dropis, who in turn recited it to his son, Critias. In his
ninetieth year, Critias communicated the narrative to his grandson of the
same name who later became a disciple of Socrates. It is in this way that
the story of the lost Atlantis came finally to be incorporated in the
Platonic dialogues as part of the conversation between the younger Critias
and his master Socrates.""So, you think that the destruction of Atlantis, as described by Plato in the Critias , can be interrupted as a political fable?" Nostradaigle inferred. "Absolutely," Edgar assured his friends, "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 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. 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 fabled ten kings is the cooperative commonwealth of mankind, the natural and the proper form of human government." "Thus Atlantis," Carlo summarized, "is the archetype or the pattern of right government, which existed in ancient days but was destroyed by the selfishness and ignorance of men." "You got it, buddy...you see, the Greeks..." The men then were cut short by the Earthy presence of an attractive woman.
  
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