Critias
By Plato
Written 360 B.C.E
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
Persons of the Dialogue
CRITIAS
HERMOCRATES
TIMAEUS
SOCRATES
Timaeus. How thankful I am, Socrates, that
I have arrived at last, and, like a weary traveller
after a long journey, may be at rest! And I pray the being who
always was of old, and has now been by me revealed, to grant
that my words may endure in so far as they have been spoken truly and
acceptably to him; but if unintentionally I have said anything wrong, I pray that he will impose upon me a just retribution, and the just
retribution of him who errs is that he should be set right.
Wishing, then, to speak truly in future concerning the
generation of the gods, I pray him to give me knowledge, which
of all medicines is the most perfect and best. And now having
offered my prayer I deliver up the argument to Critias,
who is to speak next according to our agreement.
Critias. And I, Timaeus, accept
the trust, and as you at first said that you were going to speak
of high matters, and begged that some forbearance might be shown
to you, I too ask the same or greater forbearance for what I am
about to say. And although I very well know that my request may
appear to be somewhat and discourteous, I must make it nevertheless. For will any man of sense deny that you have spoken well? I can
only attempt to show that I ought to have more indulgence than
you, because my theme is more difficult; and I shall argue that
to seem to speak well of the gods to men is far easier than to
speak well of men to men: for the inexperience and utter
ignorance of his hearers about any subject is a great assistance to
him who has to speak of it, and we know how ignorant we are concerning the gods. But I should like to make my meaning clearer, if Timaeus, you will follow me. All that is
said by any of us can only be imitation and representation. For
if we consider the likenesses which painters make of bodies
divine and heavenly, and the different degrees of gratification with
which the eye of the spectator receives them, we shall see that we are
satisfied with the artist who is able in any degree to imitate the earth
and its mountains, and the rivers, and the woods, and the universe, and
the things that are and move therein, and further, that knowing nothing precise about such matters, we do not examine or analyze the
painting; all that is required is a sort of indistinct and
deceptive mode of shadowing them forth. But when a person endeavours to paint the human form we are quick
at finding out defects, and our familiar knowledge makes us severe judges
of any one who does not render every point of similarity. And we may
observe the same thing to happen in discourse; we are satisfied with a picture of divine and heavenly things which has very little
likeness to them; but we are more precise in our criticism of
mortal and human things. Wherefore if at the moment of speaking
I cannot suitably express my meaning, you must excuse me,
considering that to form approved likenesses of human things is
the reverse of easy. This is what I want to suggest to you, and at
the same time to beg, Socrates, that I may have not less, but more indulgence conceded to me in what I am about to say. Which favour,
if I am right in asking, I hope that you will be ready to grant.
Socrates. Certainly, Critias, we will grant
your request, and we will grant the same by anticipation to Hermocrates, as well as to you and Timaeus; for I have no doubt that when his turn comes a
little while hence, he will make the same request which you have
made. In order, then, that he may provide himself with a fresh
beginning, and not be compelled to say the same things over
again, let him understand that the indulgence is already
extended by anticipation to him. And now, friend Critias,
I will announce to you the judgment of the theatre. They are of
opinion that the last performer was wonderfully successful, and
that you will need a great deal of indulgence before you will be
able to take his place.
Hermocrates. The warning, Socrates, which you have addressed to him, I must also take to myself. But remember, Critias, that
faint heart never yet raised a trophy; and therefore you must go
and attack the argument like a man. First invoke Apollo and the
Muses, and then let us hear you sound the praises and show forth
the virtues of your ancient citizens.
Crit. Friend Hermocrates,
you, who are stationed last and have another in front of you,
have not lost heart as yet; the gravity of the situation will
soon be revealed to you; meanwhile I accept your exhortations and
encouragements. But besides the gods and goddesses whom you have mentioned, I would specially invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important part of
my discourse is dependent on her favour,
and if I can recollect and recite enough of what was said by the
priests and brought hither by Solon, I doubt not that I shall
satisfy the requirements of this theatre. And now, making no more excuses,
I will proceed.
Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the
sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken
place between those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and all
who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the
leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the
other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as
was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia,
and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable
barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the
ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various nations
of barbarians and families of Hellenes which then existed, as they successively
appear on the scene; but I must describe first of all Athenians of
that day, and their enemies who fought with them, and then the respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms. Let us give the
precedence to
In the days of old the gods had the whole earth distributed among them
by allotment. There was no quarrelling; for you cannot rightly suppose that the gods did not know what was proper for each of them to
have, or, knowing this, that they would seek to procure for
themselves by contention that which more properly belonged to
others. They all of them by just apportionment obtained what
they wanted, and peopled their own districts; and when they had
peopled them they tended us, their nurselings and
possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting only
that they did not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do,
but governed us like pilots from the stern of the vessel, which
is an easy way of guiding animals, holding our souls by the rudder
of persuasion according to their own pleasure;-thus did they guide all
mortal creatures. Now different gods had their allotments in different places which they set in order. Hephaestus and Athene,
who were brother and sister, and sprang from the same father,
having a common nature, and being united also in the love of
philosophy and art, both obtained as their common portion this
land, which was naturally adapted for wisdom and virtue; and
there they implanted brave children of the soil, and put into their minds the order of government; their names are preserved, but
their actions have disappeared by reason of the destruction of
those who received the tradition, and the lapse of ages. For
when there were any survivors, as I have already said, they
were men who dwelt in the mountains; and they were ignorant of
the art of writing, and had heard only the names of the chiefs
of the land, but very little about their actions. The names they were
willing enough to give to their children; but the virtues and the laws
of their predecessors, they knew only by obscure traditions; and as they themselves and their children lacked for many generations the
necessaries of life, they directed their attention to the
supply of their wants, and of them they conversed, to the
neglect of events that had happened in times long past; for
mythology and the enquiry into antiquity are first introduced into
cities when they begin to have leisure, and when they see that the necessaries
of life have already been provided, but not before. And this is
reason why the names of the ancients have been preserved to us and not their actions. This I infer because Solon said that the priests in
their narrative of that war mentioned most of the names which
are recorded prior to the time of Theseus,
such as Cecrops, and Erechtheus,
and Erichthonius, and Erysichthon, and the names of the women in like manner.
Moreover, since military pursuits were then common to men and
women, the men of those days in accordance with the custom of
the time set up a figure and image of the goddess in full armour, to be a testimony that all animals which associate together, male as well as female, may, if they please, practise in common the virtue which belongs
to them without distinction of sex.
Now the country was inhabited in those days by various classes of
citizens;-there were artisans, and there were husbandmen, and there was also a warrior class originally set apart by divine men. The
latter dwelt by themselves, and had all things suitable for
nurture and education; neither had any of them anything of
their own, but they regarded all that they had as common
property; nor did they claim to receive of the other citizens
anything more than their necessary food. And they practised
all the pursuits which we yesterday described as those of our
imaginary guardians. Concerning the country the Egyptian
priests said what is not only probable but manifestly true,
that the boundaries were in those days fixed by the Isthmus,
and that in the direction of the continent they extended as far as
the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes; the boundary
line came down in the direction of the sea, having the district
of Oropus on the right, and with the
river Asopus as the limit on the left. The land was
the best in the world, and was therefore able in those days to
support a vast army, raised from the surrounding people. Even
the remnant of
Such was the natural state of the country, which was cultivated, as
we may well believe, by true husbandmen, who made husbandry their business, and were lovers of honour, and of a
noble nature, and had a soil the best in the world, and
abundance of water, and in the heaven above an excellently attempered climate. Now the city in those days was arranged
on this wise. In the first place the Acropolis was not as now.
For the fact is that a single night of excessive rain washed
away the earth and laid bare the rock; at the same time there
were earthquakes, and then occurred the extraordinary inundation,
which was the third before the great destruction of Deucalion. But
in primitive times the hill of the Acropolis extended to the Eridanus and Ilissus,
and included the Pnyx on one side, and the Lycabettus as a boundary on the opposite
side to the Pnyx, and was all well covered with soil, and level at the top, except in one or two places. Outside
the Acropolis and under the sides of the hill there dwelt artisans, and such of the husbandmen as were
tilling the ground near; the warrior class dwelt by themselves around
the temples of Athene and Hephaestus at the summit,
which moreover they had enclosed with a single fence like the
garden of a single house. On the north side they had dwellings
in common and had erected halls for dining in winter, and had
all the buildings which they needed for their common life,
besides temples, but there was no adorning of them with gold and
silver, for they made no use of these for any purpose; they took a middle
course between meanness and ostentation, and built modest houses in
which they and their children's children grew old, and they handed them down to others who were like themselves, always the same. But in
summer-time they left their gardens and gymnasia and dining
halls, and then the southern side of the hill was made use of
by them for the same purpose. Where the Acropolis now is there
was a fountain, which was choked by the earthquake, and has
left only the few small streams which still exist in the vicinity, but
in those days the fountain gave an abundant supply of water for all and of suitable temperature in summer and in winter. This is how
they dwelt, being the guardians of their own citizens and the
leaders of the Hellenes, who were their willing followers. And
they took care to preserve the same number of men and women
through all time, being so many as were required for warlike
purposes, then as now-that is to say, about twenty thousand. Such
were the ancient Athenians, and after this manner they righteously administered
their own land and the rest of Hellas; they were renowned all
over Europe and
Yet, before proceeding further in the narrative, I ought to warn you,
that you must not be surprised if you should perhaps hear Hellenic names
given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of this: Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem, enquired into the
meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians in
writing them down had translated them into their own language,
and he recovered the meaning of the several names and when
copying them out again translated them into our language. My
great-grandfather, Dropides, had the original
writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully
studied by me when I was a child. Therefore if you hear names
such as are used in this country, you must not be surprised,
for I have told how they came to be introduced. The tale, which
was of great length, began as follows:-
I have before remarked in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that
they distributed the whole earth into portions differing in extent, and made for themselves temples and instituted sacrifices. And
Poseidon, receiving for his lot the
In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth born primeval men of
that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a
wife named Leucippe, and they had an
only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had
already reached womanhood, when her father and mother died;
Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her,
and breaking the ground, inclosed the
hill in which she dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of
land and three of water, which he turned as with a lathe, each
having its circumference equidistant every way from the centre,
so that no man could get to the island, for ships and voyages
were not as yet. He himself, being a god, found no difficulty
in making special arrangements for the centre island, bringing
up two springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm water and
the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly from the soil. He also begat and brought up five pairs of twin
male children; and dividing the island of Atlantis into ten
portions, he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his
mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the
largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he
made princes, and gave them rule over many men, and a large territory. And he named them all; the eldest, who was the first king, he
named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were
called
Now Atlas had a numerous and honourable family, and
they retained the kingdom, the eldest son handing it on to his
eldest for many generations; and they had such an amount of
wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates,
and is not likely ever to be again, and they were furnished
with everything which they needed, both in the city and country. For
because of the greatness of their empire many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island itself provided most
of what was required by them for the uses of life. In the first
place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found
there, solid as well as fusile, and
that which is now only a name and was then something more than a name, orichalcum, was dug out of the earth in
many parts of the island, being more precious in those days
than anything except gold. There was an abundance of wood for
carpenter's work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild animals.
Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the island; for
as there was provision for all other sorts of animals, both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also for those
which live in mountains and on plains, so there was for the
animal which is the largest and most voracious of all. Also
whatever fragrant things there now are in the earth, whether
roots, or herbage, or woods, or essences which distil from
fruit and flower, grew and thrived in that land; also the fruit which admits of cultivation, both the dry sort, which is given us for
nourishment and any other which we use for food-we call them
all by the common name pulse, and the fruits having a hard
rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments, and good store
of chestnuts and the like, which furnish pleasure and
amusement, and are fruits which spoil with keeping, and the pleasant kinds of dessert, with which we console ourselves after dinner,
when we are tired of eating-all these that sacred island which
then beheld the light of the sun, brought forth fair and
wondrous and in infinite abundance. With such blessings the
earth freely furnished them; meanwhile they went on
constructing their temples and palaces and harbours
and docks. And they arranged the whole country in the following
manner:
First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the
ancient metropolis, making a road to and from the royal palace. And at the very beginning they built the palace in the habitation of
the god and of their ancestors, which they continued to
ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the
one who went before him to the utmost of his power, until they
made the building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty.
And beginning from the sea they bored a canal of three hundred
feet in width and one hundred feet in depth and fifty stadia
in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone,
making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient
to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they divided
at the bridges the zones of land which parted the zones of sea, leaving
room for a single trireme to pass out of one zone into another, and
they covered over the channels so as to leave a way underneath for the
ships; for the banks were raised considerably above the water. Now the
largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three
stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came
next of equal breadth; but the next two zones, the one of
water, the other of land, were two stadia,
and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only
in width. The island in which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia. All this including the
zones and the bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in
width, they surrounded by a stone wall on every side, placing
towers and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in. The
stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath the
centre island, and from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as
the inner side. One kind was white, another black, and a third red, and as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out double
docks, having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of
their buildings were simple, but in others they put together
different stones, varying the colour to
please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight. The entire circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, they covered
with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they
coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel,
flashed with the red light of orichalcum.
The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed on this
wise:-in the centre was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito
and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded
by an enclosure of gold; this was the spot where the family of
the ten princes first saw the light, and thither the people
annually brought the fruits of the earth in their season from
all the ten portions, to be an offering to each of the ten. Here
was Poseidon's own temple which was a stadium in length, and half a
stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a strange barbaric appearance. All the outside of the temple, with the exception of
the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with
gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory,
curiously wrought everywhere with gold and silver and orichalcum; and all the other parts, the walls and pillars and floor, they coated with orichalcum.
In the temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god
himself standing in a chariot-the charioteer of six winged
horses-and of such a size that he touched the roof of the building
with his head; around him there were a hundred Nereids
riding on dolphins, for such was thought to be the number of
them by the men of those days. There were also in the interior
of the temple other images which had been dedicated by private
persons. And around the temple on the outside were placed
statues of gold of all the descendants of the ten kings and of
their wives, and there were many other great offerings of kings and
of private persons, coming both from the city itself and from the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an altar too, which in
size and workmanship corresponded to this magnificence, and the
palaces, in like manner, answered to the greatness of the
kingdom and the glory of the temple.
In the next place, they had fountains, one of cold and another of
hot water, in gracious plenty flowing; and they were wonderfully adapted for use by reason of the pleasantness and excellence of their
waters. They constructed buildings about them and planted
suitable trees, also they made cisterns, some open to the
heavens, others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm
baths; there were the kings' baths, and the baths of private
persons, which were kept apart; and there were separate baths for women,
and for horses and cattle, and to each of them they gave as much adornment
as was suitable. Of the water which ran off they carried some to
the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil, while the
remainder was conveyed by aqueducts along the bridges to the
outer circles; and there were many temples built and dedicated
to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some for
men, and others for horses in both of the two islands formed by
the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the two there was set
apart a race-course of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race in. Also there were
guardhouses at intervals for the guards, the more trusted of
whom were appointed-to keep watch in
the lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis while the most
trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel, near the persons
of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and
all things were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of
the royal palace.
Leaving the palace and passing out across the three you came to a
wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbour, and enclosed the whole, the ends
meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to the sea. The entire
area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest
of the harbours were full of vessels and merchants
coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a
multitudinous sound of human voices, and din and clatter of all
sorts night and day.
I have described the city and the environs of the ancient palace nearly
in the words of Solon, and now I must endeavour to
represent the nature and arrangement of the rest of the land.
The whole country was said by him to be very lofty and
precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately
about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded
by mountains which descended towards the sea; it was smooth and
even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia, but across the centre inland it
was two thousand stadia. This part of
the island looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains were celebrated for their number and
size and beauty, far beyond any which still exist, having in
them also many wealthy villages of country folk, and rivers,
and lakes, and meadows supplying food enough for every animal,
wild or tame, and much wood of various sorts, abundant for each
and every kind of work.
I will now describe the plain, as it was fashioned by nature and by
the labours of many generations of kings through long
ages. It was for the most part rectangular and oblong, and
where falling out of the straight line followed the circular
ditch. The depth, and width, and length of this ditch were
incredible, and gave the impression that a work of such extent, in
addition to so many others, could never have been artificial. Nevertheless I must say what I was told. It was excavated to the depth of a
hundred, feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was
carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams
which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain and
meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further inland, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from
it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading
to the sea: these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they brought down the wood
from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another,
and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of
the earth-in winter having the benefit of the rains of heaven,
and in summer the water which the land supplied by introducing
streams from the canals.
As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had to find a
leader for the men who were fit for military service, and the size of a lot was a square of ten stadia each
way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand.
And of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the
country there was also a vast multitude, which was distributed among
the lots and had leaders assigned to them according to their districts and villages. The leader was required to furnish for the war the
sixth portion of a war-chariot, so as to make up a total of ten
thousand chariots; also two horses and riders for them, and a
pair of chariot-horses without a seat, accompanied by a
horseman who could fight on foot carrying a small shield, and
having a charioteer who stood behind the man-at-arms to guide the
two horses; also, he was bound to furnish two heavy armed soldiers, two slingers, three stone-shooters and three javelin-men, who were
light-armed, and four sailors to make up the complement of
twelve hundred ships. Such was the military order of the royal
city-the order of the other nine governments varied, and it
would be wearisome to recount their several differences.
As to offices and honours, the following was the
arrangement from the first. Each of the ten kings in his own
division and in his own city had the absolute control of the
citizens, and, in most cases, of the laws, punishing and
slaying whomsoever he would. Now the order of precedence among
them and their mutual relations were regulated by the commands of Poseidon
which the law had handed down. These were inscribed by the first kings
on a pillar of orichalcum, which was situated in the
middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the
kings were gathered together every fifth and every sixth year
alternately, thus giving equal honour to
the odd and to the even number. And when they were gathered together they consulted about their common interests, and enquired if any
one had transgressed in anything and passed judgment and before
they passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another on
this wise:-There were bulls who had the range of the temple of
Poseidon; and the ten kings, being left alone in the temple,
after they had offered prayers to the god that they might
capture the victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the bulls, without
weapons but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they
led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of it so that the
blood fell upon the sacred inscription. Now on the pillar, besides the
laws, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When therefore, after slaying the bull in the accustomed manner,
they had burnt its limbs, they filled a bowl of wine and cast
in a clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the victim
they put in the fire, after having purified the column all
round. Then they drew from the bowl in golden cups and pouring
a libation on the fire, they swore that they would judge according to
the laws on the pillar, and would punish him who in any point had already transgressed them, and that for the future they would not, if they
could help, offend against the writing on the pillar, and would
neither command others, nor obey any ruler who commanded them,
to act otherwise than according to the laws of their father
Poseidon. This was the prayer which each of them-offered up for
himself and for his descendants, at the same time drinking and
dedicating the cup out of which he drank in the temple of the god; and
after they had supped and satisfied their needs, when darkness came on, and the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of them put on
most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on the ground, at
night, over the embers of the sacrifices by which they had
sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple, they
received and gave judgment, if any of them had an accusation to
bring against any one; and when they given judgment, at daybreak they
wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and dedicated it together with their robes to be a memorial.
There were many special laws affecting the several kings inscribed about
the temples, but the most important was the following: They were not
to take up arms against one another, and they were all to come to the rescue if any one in any of their cities attempted to overthrow
the royal house; like their ancestors, they were to deliberate
in common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to
the descendants of Atlas. And the king was not to have the
power of life and death over any of his kinsmen unless he had
the assent of the majority of the ten.
Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of
Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land for the following reasons, as tradition tells: For many generations, as long as the
divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws,
and well-affectioned towards the god,
whose seed they were; for they possessed true and in every way
great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised
everything but virtue, caring little for their present state of
life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other
property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they
intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their
self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all
these goods are increased by virtue and friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect for them, they are lost
and friendship with them. By such reflections and by the
continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we
have described grew and increased among them; but when the
divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often
and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got
the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased,
for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but
to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they
appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were
full of avarice and unrighteous power. Zeus, the god of gods,
who rules according to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving
that an honourable race was in a woeful plight, and
wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be
chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most
holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the
world, beholds all created things. And when he had called them
together, he spake as follows-* The
rest of the Dialogue of Critias has
been lost.
THE END