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Where was I? Where was I?[*] I must know, at any cost. I tried to speak, but Captain Nemo stopped me by a gesture, and picking up a piece of chalk stone, advanced to a rock of black basalt, and traced the one word –
ATLANTIS[+]
What a light shone through my mind!
Whilst I was trying to fix in my mind every detail of this grand landscape, Captain Nemo remained motionless, as if petrified in mute ecstasy, leaning on a mossy stone. Was he dreaming of those generations long since disappeared? Was he asking them the secret of human destiny? Was it here this strange man came to steep himself in historical recollections[#], and live again this ancient life[~], – he who wanted no modern one? What would I have not given to know his thoughts, to share them, to understand them! We remained for an hour at this place, contemplating the vast plain under the brightness of the lava, which was sometimes wonderfully intense.
At this moment the moon appeared through the mass of waters and threw her pale rays on the buried continent.[$] It was but a gleam, but what an indescribable effect! The Captain rose, cast one last look on the immense plain, and then bade me follow him.
We descended the mountain rapidly, and the mineral forest once passed, I saw the lantern of the Nautilus shining like a star. The Captain walked straight to it, and we got on board as the first rays of light whitened the surface of the ocean.
[J. Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, pp. 247-49]
[#] See >Doctor Who.[~] See >Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
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