“It was in the year 56,” she proceeded, “that the Agripides ministry came into office. Following the open insurrection of beauty-lovers against the ‘Respectables,’ the Anti-Mechanism party triumphed in a general election; and Agripides, known by his friends as ‘Savior of the World’ and by his foes as the ‘City-Wrecker,’ began to carry out the revolutionary policies he had been advocating for years. “These policies, which were perhaps the most daring ever conceived by the human mind, contemplated nothing less than the overthrow of existing civilization and the substitution of something better suited to endure. It was Agripides’ contention--and a contention established by the researches of the very scientists he opposed--that the State of Atlantis, under current conditions, had a potential life of not more than five hundred years; that it was burning away its energies with profligate abandon, and would soon droop withering and exhausted into permanent decay. Its best human material was being used up and cast aside like so much straw; its best social energies were being diverted into wasteful and even poisonous channels; its too-rapid scientific progress was imposing a wrenching strain upon the civilized mind and institutions. There was only one remedy, other than the natural one of oblivion and death; and that remedy was in a complete metamorphosis, a change such as the caterpillar undergoes when it enters the chrysalis, a transformation into an environment of such repose that society might have time to recover from its overgrowth and to evolve along quiet and peaceful lines.” * * * * * Another half-unconscious yawn from Stranahan imposed a brief interruption at this point; but Aelios had now thoroughly warmed to her theme; and, disregarding Stranahan’s rudeness, she continued almost without delay. “The proposal which Agripides had to make, and which he had been advocating eloquently for years, was one that caused even the liberal-minded to gasp and shake their heads doubtfully. He declared, in a word, that Atlantis was not sufficiently isolated and enisled; that it would never be safe while exposed to the tides of commerce and worldly affairs; that the only rational course was for it first to destroy whatever was noxious within itself, and then to prevent further contamination by walling itself off completely from the rest of the planet. And since no sea however wide and no fortress however strong would be efficacious in warding off the hordes of mankind, the one possible plan would be to go where no men could follow; to seal Atlantis up hermetically in an air-tight case--in other words, to sink the whole island to the bottom of the sea!” “Good Lord!” I exclaimed, horrified at so strange a suggestion. “Sounds just like a lunatic’s ravings!”