Unquestionably, the museum was one of the things best worth seeing in all Atlantis. Not only were the contents vivid and remarkable beyond description, but the building itself was a never-failing source of wonder. The sides and roof were of glass, and on the lower levels the walls were colorless and transparent, so that passers-by could feast their eyes on the more conspicuous displays, just as on earth the passers-by may gaze into the shop windows. But above the first story the glass was no longer crystal-clear, but was frosted and tinted to the semblance of clouds driven across a pale blue sky; and over those clouds and down from the enormous rounded dome a dim rainbow seemed to reach, spreading a web that varied in hue and texture with every step one took and every variation in the luster of the searchlights that shone faintly from above. To glance at this superb building, one would never have guessed what queer objects it concealed. For my own part, I was simply astounded--astounded at the beauty of some exhibits, at the strangeness and ghastliness of others. The department of science and inventions (to select merely at random) was a source of bewilderment, for it showed the oddest contrivances I had ever beheld--machines for preventing earthquakes, machines for regulating the undersea temperature, machines for detecting and isolating noxious bacteria, machines for transforming iron into copper or tin into lead, machines for boring through the ground as a submarine bores through the water. But what particularly interested me was the historical department. I shall never forget my first visit to it; it was one of the most surprising experiences of my life. Imagine, for example, a glass case that contained nothing but the fragment of a brick wall, a perfectly commonplace wall of red brick!--and imagine reading that this was a substance employed for building purposes in the days before the Æsthetic Renaissance! Or, again, picture yourself in contact with half a dozen gold coins, larger than silver dollars and each worth several days’ wages, yet left unguarded where any one might seize them!--and fancy reading that these bits of metal had once been considered valuable and had even been contended for and hoarded! Or, to take still another illustration, conceive of one’s surprise at seeing a carefully treasured speck of coal, and being informed that this was used for fuel in the days before intra-atomic energy; or paint for yourself the shock of coming across a case of fine jewelry, of rings, earrings, brooches, bracelets, and the like, only to find them represented as typical of primitive taste! * * * * *