In religion the Atlanteans had reached all the great thoughts which
underlie our modern creeds. They had attained to the conception of one
universal, omnipotent, great First Cause. We find the worship of this
One God in Peru and in early Egypt. They looked upon the sun as the
mighty emblem, type, and instrumentality of this One God. Such a
conception could only have come with civilization. It is not until these
later days that science has realized the utter dependence of all earthly
life upon the sun's rays:
"All applications of animal power may be regarded as derived directly or
indirectly from the static chemical power of the vegetable substance by
which the various organisms and their capabilities are sustained; and
this power, in turn, from the kinetic action of the sun's rays.
"Winds and ocean currents, hailstorms and rain, sliding glaciers,
flowing rivers, and falling cascades are the direct offspring of solar
heat. All our machinery, therefore, whether driven by the windmill or
the water-wheel, by horse-power or by steam--all the results of
electrical and electro-magnetic changes--our telegraphs, our clocks, and
our watches, all are wound up primarily by the sun.
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