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BOOK THE SECOND.
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(blank)
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HISTORY OF THE MORMONS.
------
SECTION I. PONTIFICATE OF JOSEPH SMITH.
CHAPTER I.
LIFE OF THE PROPHET UP TO THE PERIOD OF THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF HIS RELIGION, 1805-1830.
FAMILY OF JOSEPH SMITH. -- BIRTH OF THE PROPHET. HIS YOUTH. --
HIS VISIONS. HIS MARRIAGE. -- THE GOLD PLATES AND THE URIM
AND THUMMIM. -- TRANSLATION OF THE PLATES. -- MARTIN
HARRIS AND PROFESSOR ANTHON. -- OLIVER COWDERY. THE
WITNESSES TO THE BOOK OF MORMON. -- ORGANIZATION OF THE
NEW CHURCH. --PUBLICATION OF THE TRANSLATION. -- ANALYSIS
OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. -- SPAULDING'S ROMANCE. -- JANE
LEADE. -- MEXICAN GLYPHICS.
The inclinations of man, his tastes, his character, the course of his passions,
the direction taken by his faculties, are generally determined by maternal
influence. Childhood in its home, takes the imprint of all around it. But it
is principally, nor do we need any physiological induction to be convinced
of this, by the mind and by the heart of a tender and impulsive mother,
whose love is ever anxiously
[226]
HISTORY OF THE MORMONS.
ministering to all his wants, that the mind and heart of the child are
fashioned. This influence will be much greater still, when it calls to its aid
the marvelous. Nothing is so fascinating to a child as tales of supernatural
occurrences bordering upon magic. Nothing is more easy than to accustom
its ductile imagination to prodigies and spirits, especially in a social position
where such ideas are constantly recurring, and where there is an absence of
those relations with the outer world which might tend to restrain or modify
them. Hence there is no reason for our being surprised at its having been
believed that the founder of the Mormon religion derived from his family
associations the source of his vocation, a certain predisposing motive to the
part he played, that is, to the mission of religious renovation which he
arrogated to himself and sought to accomplish.
In point of fact, however, it would be exceedingly rash to adopt this
solution; nor is it at all admissible, save with a limitation, which it is
important to indicate with some little precision. Yes, doubtless, the mystic
circle in which Joseph Smith was brought up; the atmosphere swarming
with pious visions, in which his infancy and early youth were passed; the
halo, as it were, of spiritual appearances and miraculous agencies by which
his mother was ever surrounded; all this was calculated to act upon his
imagination; all this, too, was necessarily not without influence on the
direction of his ideas; and one can imagine that
[227]
EARLY LIFE OF THE PROPHET.
the spectacle which daily passed before his eyes may have opened up
peculiar views to him, and suggested the course he took. But here arises a
question, the importance of which cannot be denied: did the religious
impressions, so intense in his family, act seriously and profoundly on his
mind? The sentiments, so ardent and excited in their expression, which
circumfused his earlier years, were sincere convictions in them; but were
they equally so in him? If they were at the outset, it is evident they did not
long remain so; and it results from the leading features of his history, that
eventually they were employed by him merely as means, as instruments, of
which he made clever and powerful use. Joseph Smith is an argument in
favour of the opinion, false as a rule, which sets down certain religious
formulae as the results of cunning, and as the invention of imposture.
From this point of view, the history of this man merits attention, and may
throw light on certain phases of the human mind. But our opinion as to
how much was calculation and falsehood in the part he played, will
develop itself as we proceed with his history.
The parents of Joseph Smith were tillers of the soil; they at first resided in
Windsor county, in the State of Vermont. His father, who was in tolerably
easy circumstances, considering the time and place in which be lived;
ruined himself at an early period by a speculation in crystallized ginseng, a
cargo of which he consigned to China, and of the proceeds of which he was
defrauded by his consignee.
[228]
He retrieved his affairs by taking a farm belonging to his father-in-law,
and by keeping a school during the winter months for the neighbouring
children. He was by no means of a religious turn; however, his views
afterwards underwent a change, and about 1811 he, was converted through
his wife's prayers. He was even favoured with visions, and from the time of
his conversion spent the remainder of his life in religious observances. He
died in 1840, a fervent adherent to the religion invented by his son.
Lucy Mack, his wife, the Prophet's mother, had been from the outset
exceedingly pious and even addicted to religious reveries. About 1803 she
was, as she states in her son's biography, miraculously cured of a mortal
complaint. But among the numerous sects which contended with each
other for the possession of souls in the United States, not one for some time
could fix her wandering faith. Tormented by a craving for belief of some
sort, she long wavered in doubt, unable to decide among the great number
of religious sects, all at the same time canvassing her, which was the true
one; ultimately, wearied out in all probability by her efforts to ascertain the
truth, her mind became excited, she saw apparitions, and under the
influence of these hallucinations she was baptized by a Presbyterian
minister, but without binding herself to any definite religious view, and
with the understanding that she would not join any existing sect. The only
definite idea she had
[229]
was belief in the right of private judgment and faith in the Scriptures.
She founded her faith entirely on the Bible, which she freely interpreted
without other guide than her reason. Her thoughts were exclusively
occupied with God and her children (ten in number), and there is reason to
believe that these two objects of her constant concern were frequently
blended in her thoughts and determined the current of her ideas, Her life
was one entire mysticism. Sometimes she had visions which revealed to
her that all religions had swerved from the truth; at other times she
imagined miraculous interventions in favour of her family. Thus, one of
her daughters, named Sophronia, who had long been given up by the
physicians, was suddenly cured and restored to her parents after having
been supposed to be dead for several hours, -- such was her impression.
It was amid these associations, between a convert father and a fanatic
mother, both visionaries, that the future Prophet of the Mormons passed
his infancy and early youth.
Joseph Smith was born the 23rd of December, 1805, at Sharon, in Windsor
county, State of Vermont. He was the fourth child. His mother states that
nothing remarkable occurred in connection with him in his early
childhood, but a circumstance showed he possessed resolution of no
ordinary character. Between eight and nine years of age he refused to be tied
down while undergoing a most painful operation, the removal of a bone in
his leg, which had become carious after causing him intense suffering. This
[230]
mishap eventually relieved him from service in the militia. About the
same time frequent illness attacked various members of his family, which,
thus impoverished, left for Norwich and took to farming. Disheartened by
three years' ill success, they afterwards went to Palmyra, where, having
obtained a hundred acres of land, they by industry once more acquired a
competence. Joseph for some time went to one of the elementary schools
so numerous in America, but his parents were unable to give him a
finished education. He learned to read with ease, to write a tolerable hand,
and to understand more or less the four rules of arithmetic. At the age of
fourteen, according to his mother's statement, he was a remarkably quiet
boy, and gave signs of an excellent disposition. This favourable testimony,
indeed, is not generally admitted; the enemies of the Prophet, on the
contrary, represent him as exceedingly unruly and good-for-nothing.
According to them, there was at that time an attempt made on his life,* and
they assert that his disorderly habits were the sole cause of it. But his
mother, who does not deny the fact, alleges that it was done by the malice of
the wicked and at the instigation of the devil.
_____________________
* Some person, unknown, fired a gun at Joseph; the ball missed him, and
lodged in a cow's throat. About the time of this mysterious attempt upon
the young man's life, his father had a seventh and final vision, wherein it
was announced that he was justified, and that to assure his salvation but
one thing was requisite, which would hereafter be written down for him by
a supernatural hand. -- Lucy Mack's Biography of the Prophet.
[231]
It would be difficult to follow or to determine the order of the impressions
or ideas which, before 1820, worked upon the mind of young Smith, and
first roused his intellect. But, about that period, at Manchester (New York),
where the Smith family then resided, a great revival,* including all the
neighbouring religious sects, took place, and it is quite certain that the
discussions on that occasion, in which he took part, as well as the reaction
produced in him by the rabidness exhibited by all parties in their struggle for
the monopoly of consciences, made a strong and lasting impression upon
him. The result of this was to shock, rather than decide him. He now felt a
leaning towards the Methodists, without however joining them, and
without showing any displeasure at four members of his family going over
to the Presbyterians. He could not yet, he says in his biography, make out
where the truth was. There came a moment when Catholicism seemed as if
it would sway the balance. What especially struck him in this great religion
was, that line of unbroken tradition which is more completely maintained
by it than by any other Church; and also that powerful organization and
imposing hierarchy which is unrivaled in the world, But
_____________________
* A revival, in America, means a series of preachings and conferences, held
by the ministers of different sects at nearly regular intervals, for the purpose
of keeping up the zeal of the faithful, of reviving the faith of the lukewarm,
of awakening the indifferent, and of converting the profane. We know
nothing to which we can so well compare the revivals as the missions and
general meetings in Catholic countries, with this difference, that in the
United States different denominations are present.
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never having heard a Catholic missionary, and reduced as he was to obtain
his information from some antipapist publications which represented the
Roman faith as full of superstitions and absurd observances, how could he
conceive any great esteem for it? how could his wavering mind espouse
dogmas he did not know, or was scarcely acquainted with? He was content
to give it a passing admiration, and though he may never have lost the
memory of the impression its outward aspect had made on him, he did not
treat it with more ceremony than other religious institutions, and still
continued in the dilemma of Ruridan's ass, as he himself informs us. He
has since described the state of doubt and uncertainty in which he was at
this time, at this first moment of reflection, on this first occasion of his
looking carefully into the real state of his religious views; a state of mind
caused by the discordant controversies at which it was his fate to be present.
"Amid this war of words," said he, "in the midst of this tumult of opinions,
I often said to myself, what is to be done? Which of these parties is in the
right? Are they not all equally in error? If one of them be right, which is it?
How am I to ascertain?" Is it not a remarkable thing that a youth of fifteen,
without high intellectual culture, should be so powerfully moved by
considerations of such a nature, and should speak of established religions
almost in the same terms as Rousseau puts in the mouth of his Savoyard
curate?
[233]
What is no less remarkable is, to find this same lad not slow in discovering
that, in America at least, the different forms of religion which are there
contending for mastery, are nothing more than mere opinions, taken up
just as one takes up a political view. What he is thinking of is not merely
the different forms he has under his eye; his critical speculations extend far
beyond this, and reject, as empty images, all existing religions. We must let
him speak for himself. "The different kinds of worship, thought he, are like
the different forms of government. Each has its good and its evil. Not one is
perfect; all are false. This is why my reason admits none. If either one or the
other comprised absolute truth, it would be self-evident, and all others
would fall of themselves. And as at the end of eighteen centuries, far from
agreeing, we are further apart than ever, it is clear that the perfect form does
not exist."
We shall find a great analogy between this youth's manner of seeing
things, and that which formed the staple of his mother's views, of which it
was probably the reflection or echo. Keeping in mind that she long sought
with painful anxiety for the best creed, that she constantly communicated to
her family her doubts, and her uneasiness with respect to her own salvation,
as well as the visions which she or her husband had seen, we are the less
surprised that, face to face with the theological quarrels of sects, the youthful
imagination of her son should have been stimulated to
[234]
give itself free scope. But it must be noted that the boy did not only share his
mother's doubts and belief, but that he moreover affirmed all religions to be
mere matters of opinion, analogous to political opinions, and not the
manifestations of absolute truth; and it will be easily conceded that this
view of the matter, which did not occur to the parent, constituted a wide
distinction between the mother and the son, and indicated a singular
precocity in the latter.*
The idea of the inefficacy, or rather of the vanity and emptiness, of religious
worship, seems from that period to have taken possession of young Joseph
Smith's mind, and to have prompted the part he subsequently played. It
was a rapid but complete revolution, and there is reason to believe that
from that time religious doubts occupied a much larger space in his mind
than in his mother's, and that his nature was completely changed. Mrs.
Smith sought for truth; Joseph Smith declared that it did not exist. The
mother believed that she sometimes, in her visions, caught a glimpse of its
radiant image; the son forged imaginary visions, and constructing out of
them a fiction, offered it as a truth to the homage of the credulous. I cannot
recall in history another example of such impudent audacity and precocious
cleverness. At fifteen years of age, Smith had made up his mind that there
was no true religion, and that
_____________________
* Such precocity, however, is not rare in the United States, where children
suck in their faith and doubts with their mother's milk, surrounded as they
are by the religious squabbles which are ever pealing in their ears.
[235]
many of his family were not far from sharing his opinion; it then soon
occurred to him that on this state of mind in those around him, which had
been formed and fanned by sectarian dissensions, he might rear up a new
religion, and at one and the same time lay the foundation both of his
fortune and his greatness. There are minds which reach at a single bound
the extreme limits, whether of good or evil.
At any rate, we will now show how Joseph Smith made his first appearance
in that world of visions from which he hoped to get such fine pickings.
While still full of that idea of the falsity of all creeds, which had made such
rapid havoc in his mind, he came across a passage in the Epistle of St. James
(ch. i. v. 5) which says, "If any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God."
Struck, says he, by the appositeness of this passage, he withdrew, one
morning in the spring of 1820, into a little wood in the vicinity of his
father's house, and there, after ascertaining that he was alone, he knelt and
made known to God the desires of his heart. Scarcely had he uttered his
prayer, when his tongue became paralyzed, and he fell into a state of
profound depression. But presently a column of light, more brilliant than
the sun, descended upon his head, and he was comforted. Two celestial
beings appeared in the air above him. One of them, calling him by name,
said, pointing to his companion, "This is my well-beloved Son; hearken to
him."
Let us allow our pretended seer to speak for himself: --
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"No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to
speak, than I asked the personages who stood above me in the light, which
of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart
that all were wrong), and which I should join. I was answered that I must
join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the personage who
addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight;
that those professors were all corrupt; they draw near to me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me; they teach for doctrine the commandments
of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.' He
again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did: he
say unto me which I cannot write at this time," He then went on to say, that
a few days afterwards, having mentioned this vision to a Methodist
preacher, the latter treated his communication "not only lightly, but with
great contempt, saying it was all of the devil; that there were no such things
as visions and revelations in these days; and that all such things had ceased
with the apostles. I soon found that my telling the story had excited a great
deal of prejudice against me: and though I was an obscure boy, only between
fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to
make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing
would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create
a hot persecution; and this was common among all the
[237]
sects; all united to persecute me. It has often caused me serious reflection,
both then and since, how very strange it was that a boy in my condition,
doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily
labour, should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the
attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, so as to
create in them a spirit of the hottest persecution and reviling. But, strange
or not, so it; was, and was often a cause of great sorrow to myself. However,
it was no less a fact that I had a vision. I have thought since that I was much
like Paul before Agrippa; some said he was dishonest, others said he was
mad, and he was ridiculed and reviled; but all this did not destroy the
reality of his vision. So it was with me; I was hated and persecuted for
saying I had seen a vision, but yet it; was true; I knew it, and I knew that
God knew it; and I: could not deny it, neither did I dare deny it."*
Orson Pratt, in a pamphlet of sixteen pages, entitled 'Remarkable Visions,'
states that celestial personages informed Joseph that his sins were forgiven
him; but the Prophet does not mention this forgiveness in his biography.
From 1820, the period of his first vision, up to 1823, Joseph suffered himself
to lie carried away by the world's currents and committed faults which his
panegyrists attribute to the weakness of youth, and the corruptness of
human nature. He himself admits, in his autobiography,
_____________________
* History of Joseph Smith, 'Millennial Star,' vol. iii. No. 2, p. 21.
[238]
with something like compunction, that he yielded to temptation and to the
gratification of divers appetites culpable in the sight of God. His mother
does not mention these backslidings, in the history of his life. However, he
felt remorse for his conduct, and one night, the 21st of September, 1823, after
he had retired to bed, he supplicated the Almighty to forgive him his sins,
and to make known to him by some manifestation, in what light he
appeared to the Omniscient. A "Personage" then appeared to him in the
midst of light brighter than mid-day, simply dad in a flowing robe of
spotless whiteness. The dazzling messenger, calling him by name, said he
had been sent by God to him, and that his name was Nephi; that God had a
work for him to accomplish; that his name (Joseph's) would be blessed and
accursed through all the nations of the earth; he likewise told him that
there was in existence a book written on gold plates, which gave an account
of the first inhabitants of the continent of America, and of their origin. He
added that it contained the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it was
given to his people on this land. He further said, that there also existed an
instrument which consisted of two smooth three-cornered diamonds set in
glass, and the glasses were set in silver bows, which were connected with
each other much in the same way as old-fashioned spectacles; that these
glasses, being attached to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim
and Thummim, and would be found deposited with the plates; that
[239]
the possession and use of these glasses constituted a seer in primitive times,
and that God had prepared them for the translation of the Book. He then
quoted several prophecies from the Old Testament, and many passages
from it and the New, and ended his discourse by warning Joseph that
whenever the time should come for his receiving the plates, the breastplate,
and the Urim and Thummim, he was to show them to no one, save such as
God might indicate, on pain of death.
Twice again did the same Personage appear that night, repeating exactly the
same things; and, as he was on the point of departing, enjoined Joseph to be
actuated in his desire to obtain the plates by no other motive than that of
glorifying God, and also to be proof against the temptation of selling them,
in order to satisfy his own wants. The cock crew, and day broke; Joseph rose
without having had time to sleep. He went to his work, with his parents,
when the same Personage he had seen during the night appeared to him a
fourth time, repeating the same things and enjoining him to communicate
all to his father. Joseph obeyed, and his father told him that it was an from
God, and that he must go and do as the heavenly messenger had
commanded him. Joseph at once left his work, and went to the place where
the messenger had told him that the plates were deposited.
Near the village of Manchester, in Ontario county (State of New York), is
an eminence higher than any other in its
[240]
neighbourhood, and known to the Mormons by the name of Cumorah. On
the western side of this hill, a little below the summit, under a stone of
considerable dimensions, the plates were found deposited in a stone box.
The lid was thinned off towards the edges, and raised in the centre in a kind
of globe, which rose above the surface of the soil. Joseph, after removing the
earth which covered the edges, raised the stone with a crowbar, and found
the tablets, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate.* The box was
formed of stone held together at the corners by a kind of cement. Two
stones were placed crossways at the bottom of the box, and upon these
stones were the plates and other relies. Joseph attempted to take them out,
but was prevented by the heavenly messenger, who again told him that the
time had not yet arrived, and that he must wait four years from that time.
The divine envoy added, that Joseph must present himself at the place of
deposit in a year from that day, and that he must keep the same rendezvous
every year, until the time had arrived for him to take away the plates.
Joseph obeyed the commands of the Angel, and every year met him at the
appointed spot, to receive his instructions as to what the Lord wished done,
as well as revelations as to the manner in which His kingdom must be
governed in the latter days.
_____________________
* It would appear that Laban's sword was among these precious relies; but
Joseph, who speaks of it afterwards, says nothing about the time when he
found it.
[241]
At this time Joseph's family were poor; all the members of it were obliged
to labour, and often to hire themselves out to day-work. In October 1825,
Joseph entered the service of an old man named Josiah Stoal, who lived in
Chenango county, State of New York. Stoal employed him with other
workmen in a silver-mine, which had been opened by the Spanish at
Harmony, Pennsylvania. After a month's unproductive labour, Joseph
induced the old man to give up his mine.
"It was this circumstance," says Joseph, "that gave rise to the generally
received belief that I was a money-digger."
While he was in the service of Stoal, with whom he remained over a year,
Joseph made the acquaintance of Emma Hale, the daughter of Isaac Hale, a
tavern-keeper, at whose house he dined, and on the 18th of January, 1827,
he married her, at South Bainbridge, State of New York, with the consent of
his own parents, but in opposition to the family of the young woman,
which was greatly opposed to the marriage, on account, as the Prophet
states, of the persecutions that his visions had brought upon him.
The young couple retired to the farm belonging to the Prophet's father, and
betook themselves to agriculture. Joseph does not mention in his biography
that he was, sometime after his marriage, very severely beaten by an angel,
who reprimanded him for not being enough engaged
[242]
in the work of the Lord; we get this fact from his mother's narrative.*
The 22nd of September, 1827, the heavenly messenger delivered to Joseph
Smith the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breast-plate, on
condition that he would be responsible for them, and that he would
preserve them carefully until such time as he should be again asked for
them.**
Having returned to his father's house with his precious trust, Joseph lost
no time in finding a hiding-place in which to conceal it. His mother tells us,
that he had a wooden chest made to enclose the sacred objects, and that the
family not having the money to pay the carpenter for it, Joseph went and
worked at the well of a Mrs. Wells, to earn the sum necessary to defray the
cost.
The report having spread that Joseph had obtained the golden tablets,
some fanatical Methodists made a riotous attempt to steal them. But Joseph
managed on this occasion, as on many others; to baulk their attempts.
The Urim and Thummim consisted, states Joseph's mother, who had seen
them, of two transparent stones, clear as crystal, set in the two rims of a bow.
By this instrument
_____________________
* Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, etc., by Lucy Smith, mother of the
Prophet, c. 22; p. 99.
** The angel did claim the tablets and the other articles, after they had served
for the fulfillment of the Divine purpose. Joseph, in a written
communication, the 2nd of May, 1838, says that at this period they were in
charge of the angel, but he does not tell us the precise moment at which he
gave them up.
[243]
Joseph was enabled to understand the characters on the tablets, to see to any
distance, and to obtain revelations upon every kind of subject he desired.*
The plates had the appearance of gold. They were about seven inches wide
by eight long, and their thickness was not quite that of an ordinary sheet of
tin. Egyptian characters were engraved on both sides of each plate, and the
whole was bound in one volume, like the leaves of a book, closed by three
clasps; its thickness was six inches. One portion of the plates was sealed up;
on those which were not sealed there were small characters or letters
skillfully cut. One of our engravings ** gives a facsimile of one, as
published by the Mormons themselves, some time after the Prophet's
death. "The whole book," says Joseph Smith, "by its shape, denoted the
antiquity of its origin; and displayed some ability on the part of the
engraver.
The breast-plate, or pectoral, was of pure gold, according to the statement of
Joseph's mother, who had seen and touched it. It had four golden straps, of
which two were intended to, attach it to the shoulders, and the other two to
fix it on the hips. These straps were exactly the breadth of two female
fingers, and they were pierced with several holes at the ends, by which to
fasten them. This article was worth five hundred dollars at least, adds the
Prophet's aged mother.
_____________________
* See Note XII. at the end of the work.
** See Note XIII. at the end of the work.
[244]
After having been obliged several times to come to blows with those who
attempted to rob him of his treasure, Joseph, who in the end found this sort
of persecution insupportable, decided on quitting Manchester with his wife;
to go and settle in Susquehannah county, Pennsylvania. As he was very
poor, and as the annoyances to which he was everywhere exposed left him
little hope of ever becoming rich, he accepted a sum of fifty dollars for his
journey, which was offered him by Martin Harris, a friend of his, a farmer at
Palmyra, State of New York. Thanks to this assistance, Joseph and his wife
were enabled to go to Pennsylvania, where they arrived with their sacred
charge, which they had secreted in a common bean-barrel.
As soon as he was settled in his new abode, close to his father-in-law, Joseph
set to work to copy the characters on the plates. From December 1827 to
February 1828, he translated several by means of the Urim and Thummim.
He confided the copy and translation to Martin Harris, to be shown to
Professor Anthon, of New York, who was then very celebrated as a classical
scholar, and, if we are to believe our informant, for his knowledge of
hieroglyphics. Martin Harris went to New York, showed the copies to the
Professor, who declared, if we are to believe our informant, that the
characters were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyrian, and Arabic, and wished to see
the original. Martin Harris informed the Prophet that Mr. Anthon entirely
approved of his translation of these specimens,
[245]
but this is not confirmed by the Professor, who, in a letter from New York,
dated 17th of January, 1834, distinctly denies having seen a translation of
any kind, and asserts that the characters which Harris showed him were
anything but Egyptian. Mr. Anthon says in this letter, that the copy
exhibited by Harris contained characters arranged in columns, imitating
Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses, flourishes, Roman letters inverted, and
that these perpendicular columns were terminated by a clumsily-drawn
circle, divided into several compartments decked with various strange
marks evidently copied from the Mexican calendar given by Humboldt, but
so copied as to conceal the source from which it was taken.
Martin Harris, returning about the 12th of April, 1828, rejoined Joseph,
commenced his functions as secretary, and continued to be engaged on the
translation of the plates until the 14th of June following, having then filled
a hundred and sixteen pages of large-sized paper. The secretary was
separated from the Prophet by a curtain that prevented his seeing the plates,
which the translator read by means of the Urim and Thummim. At this
stage of the great work, Harris, by his entreaties, obtained permission to take
away his copy to read it to his wife and several other persons pointed out by
a special revelation. By the treacherous connivance of his wife, Harris was
robbed of this portion of the manuscript, which was thus for ever lost to the
Prophet.
[246]
Joseph was now to be punished for the confidence he had placed in his
secretary. A revelation he had in July 1828, by means of the Urim and
Thummim, reprimanded him for what he had done, but at the same time
accused Harris of being a party to the fraud. An angel afterwards descended
from the celestial regions for the purpose of taking back with him the plates
and the magnifying-glass; both which, however, he brought down again in
a few days, Joseph having meanwhile found favour before God. A little
later, a special revelation warned the young Prophet that to avoid the
attacks of the wicked, who would not fail to compare the new translation
with that which had been stolen by a sacrilegious hand, and to single out
any discrepancies between them, he must abstain from again translating the
part in which Harris had served him as secretary. It is hardly necessary to
make a remark on the simplicity of this mode of getting out of a difficulty.
Joseph had successively a great number of revelations on the subject of his
work, and of the men who rendered him assistance. They are all marked by
personalities, and modes of expression which do not leave the slightest
doubt as to their fraudulent fabrication. We do not in this place take any
other objection to them than this, that their dates do not correspond with
the events.
The 15th of April, 1829, a new secretary presented himself to Joseph as a
successor to Harris. This was Oliver Cowdery, who, being the schoolmaster
of the village
[247]
where the father of the new Prophet resided, had some knowledge of the
great things which the Lord was preparing by his hands. Oliver gave up his
school, and went to Pennsylvania, without any kind of invitation, to offer
his gratuitous services to the translator of the new Bible.
They were working busily on the translation of the Golden Book in the
midst of a shower of revelations, when one day (May 15th, 1829, having
betaken themselves to the woods to pray to God, and to interrogate him on
the subject of baptism for the remission of sins, a heavenly messenger, who
said he was John the Baptist, descended in "a cloud of light," and laying his
hands upon Joseph, and on his scribe, ordained them, in the name of the
Messiah, priests of the "Order of Aaron," which possesses the keys of the
ministering of angels, of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by
immersion for the remission of sins. The messenger of Jehovah told them
that this Aaronic priesthood had not the power of laying on hands to confer
the gift of the Holy Spirit; but that this power, which belongs to the Order of
Melchisedec, should be conferred on them later; that Joseph would be styled
the First Elder, and Oliver the Second Elder; and he then commanded them
to baptize one another. Joseph accordingly baptized Oliver, after which
Oliver baptized Joseph; and they then ordained each other as priests of the
Order of Aaron, a priesthood which they had already received from the
angel.
[248]
As soon as they were baptized, the Holy Ghost fell on them, and the spirit
of prophecy was given to them. They at once turned it to account by setting
to work prophesying the birth of a new religion, and of numberless things
having reference to the Church and to the present generation.
For some time they kept secret the heavenly gifts which had been accorded
to them, for fear of reviving the spirit of persecution to which they had
been at first exposed, Happily for Joseph, he was at this period on good
terms with his wife's family, which had the effect of relieving him of a great
deal of opposition and annoyance. A short time after this, Samuel, a brother
of Joseph's, received the new baptism.
Whilst engaged upon his translation, Joseph got hold of some persons
well-disposed towards him, who aided him materially in his work, some by
giving or lending him money, others by supplying him with food, some by
offering him shelter others, again, by tendering all these things together. In
the favourable reception which he met from these good people, he must
have seen the first omen of his future success in the great work of religious
renovation for which he was preparing with so much zeal. Among his
benefactors, Joseph could reckon especially upon John Knight, of Colesville,
State of New York, who supplied him with food; and on the family of
Whitmer,* of Fayette, Seneca county, in the same State,
_____________________
* Joseph states, and it is worth while noting it, that Whitmer, unsolicited,
[249]
who placed at his disposal his house and table until the completion of the
sacred work. Joseph accepted the generous offer of the Whitmers, and left
Harmony, where he then. lived, to take up his abode at Fayette, about the
month of June, 1820. He had every reason to be satisfied with his hosts, who
assisted him in all ways. But it was by no means so with the old friends who
lived in his father's part of the country. Harris's wife, whose vanity had
been greatly wounded by Joseph's refusal to show her the sacred plates,
infected several other persons with her ill-will, and it was resolved, at a
meeting of persons competent to depose to the facts, that a charge should be
brought before the magistrate of Lyons, State of New York, against Joseph,
accusing him of fraudulent attempts to obtain or extort money from
credulous persons. The case was entered into, but the principal witness,
Martin Harris, husband of the woman who had raised up all these troubles,
having declared on oath that Joseph had never made any attempt to get
money from him, and that a sum of fifty dollars, which it came out in
evidence
_____________________
came himself with a carriage, proposing to take him to his house. The
mother of the Prophet says otherwise. She states that her son received from
God the command to write to Whitmer and desire him to come
immediately, and take him home with him, as evil-disposed persons were
seeking his life. Mrs. Smith also says that it was at Waterloo that Whitmer
resided; that when Joseph's letter was given to him, a miracle was worked
to testify to him that it was the will of God that he should go to the Prophet,
and bring him back with him. The mother also says that in the journey
from Harmony to Waterloo, an angel undertook to carry the plates, so that
they might not be taken from her son by violence.
[250]
had been received by Joseph, had been a free gift of his own, entirely
unsolicited by the latter, the magistrate dismissed the case, advising the
plaintiffs never again to trouble him with their ridiculous complaints. It is
to the Prophet's mother we are indebted for these facts. Joseph does not
mention the charge in his autobiography. It must also be remarked that his
mother says, that before this affair no member of the family had ever had
anything to do with the law.
Joseph, aided by Cowdery, quietly completed his translation at the house of
the Whitmers, worthy souls, whose good offices he secured, and repaid by
revelations obtained expressly for them. He experienced nothing, on the
whole, but kindness, from the inhabitants of Seneca county. He made some
converts among them, and in June he baptized, in the waters of Lake
Seneca, two of the Whitmers, together with his brother Hyrum.
A revelation soon came (June 1829), commanding the Prophet to show
the plates to three witnesses, in order that the work of God might receive a
testimony before men. This revelation, when nominating as the chosen
witnesses, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, promised
them "the sight of the plates, of the breast-plate, of the sword of Laban, and
of the Urim and Thummim; which were given on the mountain to the
brother of Jared, when speaking face to face with the Lord."
On the faith of this Divine promise, the three witnesses
[251]
so nominated retired with Joseph into a wood hard by, and after a great
many prayers, fervently repeated over and over again, an angel appeared in
the midst of an excessively bright light, holding the plates in his hand, and
turning over the leaves one by one, so as to enable them to see the
characters distinctly. Then a voice, issuing from the light, was heard to say,
"These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been
translated by the power of God. The translation which you have seen is
correct, and I command you to bear witness to what you now see and hear."
A written record of the facts was consequently drawn up, and the three
witnesses affixed their signatures to it.
"Some time after these things had passed," says Joseph," this additional
testimony was obtained;" and he gives, without further explanation,* a
certificate signed by eight new witnesses, who are four of the Whitmers, a
person called Page, a relation of the Whitmers, and three of the Smiths.
Without attaching more importance than they merit, to these testimonials,
it is as well to observe that all they prove is that no one but Smith ever saw
the plates, since the Prophet himself avows that it was in a vision only that
they were seen by the eleven witnesses. Why got have
_____________________
* The mother of the Prophet said the plates were shown to eight witnesses
by one of the ancient Nephites, who, in a revelation made to Joseph, had
arranged an interview with them.
** See Note XIV. at the end of the work.
[252]
shown the plates, which he took the pains to shut up in a box, under lock
and key, rather than seek the intervention of the Deity, the Deus ex
machina? These plates were material things, consequently the seeing them
in a vision cannot be admitted as a proof, even by those who saw it, if they
would but reflect that Joseph was obliged to handle in order to translate
them. It therefore seems certain that no other persons ever saw the plates of
the Golden Book, that the Urim and Thummim have been seen by some
few individuals only, including the Prophet's mother, and that the
breastplate has been seen by the latter only. To establish the truth of his
assertions, why did he not show these objects to respectable witnesses other
than his family and the initiated?
The mother of the Prophet says, that after the last eight witnesses had seen
the plates which had been brought to a particular spot by one of the ancient
Nephites, the angel again appeared to Joseph, and gave them to him to take
away. It is not known what became of them from this time,* but it is
probable they will one day reappear, for Orson Pratt informs us, that Joseph
translated only the unsealed part of the book.
The translation being completed, the next thing was to find a printer. But
first a revelation ordered Oliver Cowdery to recopy the manuscript from
beginning to end, and never to have more than one copy at a time at the
printing-office,
_____________________
* See note, page 242.
[253]
so that if one happened to be destroyed or stolen, there would be another in
reserve; to have always a guard to accompany him from his house to the
office and back, and also one to watch night and day about the house, in
order to protect the manuscript.
In March 1830, a revelation was made to Joseph, commanding Martin
Harris, under pain of damnation, to sell, his effects to cover the expenses of
the publication of the Book of Mormon. A contract was made with a printer
of the name of Egbert Grandin, who for three thousand dollars engaged to
furnish five thousand copies. Harris was to pay half the cost, and the Smith
family the other half; but a thousand difficulties presented themselves,
which threatened to stay the publication. Some scamps endeavoured by
violence to destroy the manuscript, and a journalist of the name of Cole
went so far as to steal the copy, and to publish it, without authority, in the
"Dogberry Paper on Winter Hill." Lucy Smith says, that one day, when
Joseph had to go from Waterloo to Palmyra, she informed him that
some vagabonds, led by one Huzzy, intended to lay wait for him, in order to
play him some awkward prank, and that in consequence she begged him to
defer his journey. The young Prophet, however, did not heed the warnings
of his mother, and departed under the protection of God. Meeting these
ruffians, who were on the look-out for him, he went straight up to their
chief, took off his hat, and bowing, said in an easy quiet tone, " Good
morning, Mr. Huzzy." He
[254]
then did the same to the others, who, utterly confused and overwhelmed by
all this politeness and coolness, returned his bow, and went away.
Joseph had received, in June 1829, a revelation which commanded him to
institute an apostleship composed of twelve apostles, and at the same time
gave him instructions relative to the establishment of the Church of Christ.
Somewhat later, another revelation fixed the day on which he was to
organize his Church, indicated to him the mode of baptism, defined the
duties of the members of the Church, etc. etc.
In consequence of this heavenly order, on Tuesday the 6th of April, in the
year of grace 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints was
organized at Fayette, Seneca county, in the house of P. Whitmer, where six
of the initiated, including Joseph, were. The near society, then styled itself
the Church of Christ; it was not until some years afterwards that it took the
name which it now bears. The six privileged members ordained each other;
after which they received the sacrament, and were confirmed in the Church
of Christ by the Holy Ghost, who gave them the gift of prophecy. While they
were still assembled, Joseph had a revelation, in which God called upon
him, the "Seer, the Translator, the Prophet, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, the
Elder of the Church by the will of God the Father, and the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Inspired of the Holy Ghost, to lay the foundation of the
Church, and
[255]
to build it on the most holy faith; which Church was organized and
established in the year of our Lord 1830, in the fourth month and the sixth
day of the month which is called April)."
Many of the persons who were present as spectators at this meeting,
because suddenly converted, and were baptized that very day, among them
the Prophet's father and mother.*
Thus was established the Church by which Joseph Smith sought to remodel
the face of the world. In the minute drawn up in reference to this matter,
the only one of the six members whose name is mentioned is Oliver
Cowdery. It is probable that the other four were Hyrum Smith, Martin
Harris, and two of the Whitmers.**
About the same time the Book of Mormon was published, under the title
given below, which, according to the Prophet, is the literal translation of the
outer side of the last plate: --
"THE BOOK OF MORMON.
"An account written by the hand of Mormon, upon plates taken from the
plates of Nephi.
_____________________
* Joseph says that Martin Harris was baptized about the same time as his
father.
** John Hyde says ('Mormonism,' p. 200) that the six organizers were Joseph
Smith the elder, Hyrum Smith and Samuel Smith (two brothers of the
Prophet), O. Cowdery, Joseph Knight, and the Prophet himself. Joseph
Knight, of Colesville, is the person who brought the Prophet provisions
during the work of the translation.
[256]
"Wherefore it is an abridgment from the record taken from the people of
Nephi, and also from the Lamanites, written to the Lamanites, who were a
remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile; written by way
of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and revelation.
Written and sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be
destroyed; to come forth by the gift and power of God unto the
interpretation thereof: sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the
Lord, to come forth in due time by the way of the Gentile; the interpretation
thereof by the gift of God. An abridgment taken from the book of Esther
also; which is a record of the people of Jared; who were scattered at the time
the Lord confounded the language of the people when they were building a
tower to get to heaven; which is to show unto the remnant of the house of
Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they
may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off for ever; and
also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile, that Jesus is the Christ, the
Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations. And now, if there are
faults, they are the mistakes of men; wherefore condemn not the things of
God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ."
Such is the presumptuous title of the Book of Mormon, which is divided
into fifteen books, as follows: --
The First Book of Nephi.
The Second Book of Nephi.
The Book of Jacob, brother of Nephi.
The Book of Enos.
[257]
The Book of Jarom.
The Book of Omni.
The Words of Mormon.
The Book of Mosiah, to which are added the Memoirs of Zeniff.
The Book of Alma, son of Alma.
The Book of Helaman.
The Book of Nephi, son of Nephi, who was the son of Helaman.
The Book of Nephi, son of Nephi, one of the Disciples of Jesus Christ.
The Book of Mormon.
The Book of Ether.
The Book of Moroni.
Let us give a rapid summary of the Book of Mormon, as nearly as possible
as it is accepted by the Mormons themselves. It gives the history of ancient
America, from the establishment of the Hebrew colony which came from
the tower of Babel, up to the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian
era. After the confusion of tongues, the Asiatic colonists, called Jaredites,
crossed the ocean in eight ships, and landed on the coast of North America,
where they built large cities, and formed a highly civilized nation, which
flourished by commerce and industry. They subsequently became corrupt,
and their nation, after lasting fifteen hundred years, was destroyed on
account of its wickedness, about six hundred years before Jesus Christ.
[258]
A prophet named Ether, wrote their history up to and including the time
of their destruction; and the annals left by him were recovered by a colony of
Israelites, descended from the tribe of Joseph, which came from Jerusalem
six centuries before Christ, and repeopled America.
The Israelites who succeeded the Jaredites, left Jerusalem in the first year
of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah. They first betook themselves to the
coast of the Red Sea, along which they followed for some time bearing to
the south-east, and then struck off in an easterly direction, until they
reached the great ocean. Then God commanded -them to build a vessel,
which bore them safe and sound across the Pacific Ocean to South America,
on the western coast of which they landed.
In the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, when the Jews were led
captive into Babylon, some descendants of Judah, leaving Jerusalem,
reached North America, whence they emigrated towards the northern
portion of South America, where they were discovered by the descendants
of Joseph, about four hundred years after their arrival.
The descendants of Joseph almost immediately became divided into two
distinct nations, the one styled Nephites, from the name of the prophet
who was its leader. This nation was persecuted for its uprightness by the
other nation, which bore the name of Lamanites, from Laman its chief, a
very corrupt and wicked man. The Nephites emigrated towards the north of
South America, while the
[259]
Lamanites peopled the middle and southern part of that country. The
Nephites took with them a copy of the Holy Scriptures, that is to say, of the
five books of Moses, and the Prophets down to Jeremiah, on to the time at
which they left Jerusalem. These Scriptures were engraved on plates of
brass, in the Egyptian language. The Nephites, after their arrival in
America, made similar plates, on which they engraved their history,
prophecies, visions, and revelations. All these annals have been preserved
from generation to generation. The Nephites, whom God blessed for their
uprightness and their piety, prospered and spread to the east, to the west,
and to the north. They built immense cities, temples, fortresses, tilled the
soil, bred domestic animals, and, in short, became an opulent people. The
arts and sciences flourished among them.
The Lamanites, on the contrary, from the. hardness of their hearts, were
abandoned of God, and became a rude and barbarous people. Before their
rebellion they were white and handsome as the Nephites; but God cursed
them, and their white colour soon gave way to a dark hue; they became a
savage and ferocious people; they fought numerous battles with the
Nephites, but were always repulsed with loss, and the tumuli so often met
with in the two Americas, are nothing but heaps of warriors slaughtered in
those sanguinary struggles.
Then the Nephites, four centuries after their arrival, discovered the
descendants of Judah, who had quitted Jerusalem
[260]
eleven years after them, they found a numerous but ignorant people, with
scarcely a trace of civilization.
This people was called Zarahemla. As they had not brought any written
records with them, their language became corrupted, and they denied the
existence of God.
However, the Nephites entered into an alliance with them, taught them
the Holy Scriptures, brought them back to civilization, and together they
formed a single people. The Nephites built vessels on the Isthmus of
Darien, launched them on the western ocean, and set out to colonize North
America. Other colonies of Nephites emigrated overland, and in a few
centuries the whole continent became peopled. Great cities were built on all
sides by the Nephites, and even by the Lamanites. The law of Moses was
observed by the Nephites, and prophets in large numbers appeared among
them. The records of their history and prophecies were carefully preserved
by them upon tablets of gold and other metal. The Nephites recovered the
annals of the Jaredites, which were engraved upon plates of gold. These
annals, which gave the history of thirty-five centuries, from the creation of
the world, were translated by the Nephites into their own language by
means of the Urim and Thummim.
The Nephites were made acquainted with the birth and death of Christ by
certain celestial and terrestrial phenomena. As at that time they had fallen
away from the law of God, they were at the Crucifixion punished by
frightful
[261]
catastrophes, by earthquakes which raised mountains where valleys had
been before, and which destroyed their cities. Thus were accomplished the
predictions of their own prophets, and thus perished a great number of the
wicked among the Nephites, as well as among the Lamanites. Those who
survived these terrible chastisements, received a visit from Christ, who
after his Ascension came to the northern portion of South America, to
show the Nephites the wounds in his hands, his feet, and his side. At the
same time Christ abolished the law of Moses, and substituted his Gospel,
chose twelve disciples to preach his doctrine, instituted the Eucharist,
worked all kinds of miracles, expounded the Scriptures from the
commencement to his coming, and predicted everything which was to
happen before the day when he should come back in his glory, to reign over
the earth before the end of the world. These instructions were engraved
upon golden plates, and some of them are found in the Book of Mormon;
but the greater portion, still sealed up, will not be revealed unto the Saints
till a future time.
When Christ bad ended his mission among the nations of America, he re-
ascended into heaven, and his twelve disciples went forth to preach
throughout the continent. In all parts the Lamanites and the Nephites were
converted to the Lord, and walked during more than three centuries in the
paths of righteousness. But towards the fourth century of the Christian era,
they had so far departed from the
[262]
ways of God that he inflicted terrible judgments on them. At this epoch the
Lamanites dwelt in South America, and the Nephites in North America.
Before long a terrible war broke out between the two nations. Beginning in
the Isthmus of Darien, it spread on like a destroying plague, beating back the
Nephites towards the north and north-east. The whole nation of the
Nephites was encamped round the hill of Cumorah (in the State of New
York), where the plates were found, at about two hundred miles to the west
of the city of Albany. And here it was the numerous bands of the Lamanites
bore down upon them and cut them to pieces, sparing neither women,
children, nor old people. The nation of the Nephites was utterly destroyed,
with the exception of a very small number of persons who had the good
fortune to escape, amongst whom were Mormon and his son Moroni, who
were both upright men before God.
Mormon had written upon some plates a short account of the annals of
his ancestors. It is this account which is contained in the Book of Mormon,
under the special name of the Book of Mormon. Mormon subsequently
concealed, in the hill of Cumorah all the original annals he had in his
possession, except the short account he had himself engraved, which he
delivered to his son Moroni to continue. Moroni added the history of what
passed up to the year 420 of the Christian era, at which epoch, by the order of
God, he buried the annals in the hill of Cumorah,
[263]
where they remained hidden (from 420 to the 22nd September, 1827) until
an angel came down to reveal them to Joseph Smith, who, by the gift of God
and the aid of the Urim and Thummim, translated them into English.
The Indians who are now living in America are the descendants of
the Lamanites, for of the Nephites not a soul remained after the death of
Moroni.
This succinct analysis which we have here made of the Book of Mormon,
sufficiently indicates the plan adopted by Joseph Smith as the starting-point
of his divine mission. At the same time this summary gives us a due to the
circumstances which led the American Prophet to that scheme of religions
renovation which he conceived, and the audacity of which it is impossible
not to admire, even while we censure it. It would, perhaps, be difficult to
deny him genius, were it true that at the age of fifteen he had spun out of
his own brain the entire plot of this ingenious fable. But his share in the
work is perhaps less than his disciples give him credit for; and we shall
soon see that his whole merit consisted in a superiority of impudence and
imposture, which was really extraordinary, and almost miraculous, at the
age at which he devised his scheme, and with the modicum of information
he possessed.
Towards the year 1809, a Protestant clergyman, named Solomon Spaulding,
a graduate of Dartmouth, College, left Cherry Valley, New York, for New
Salem, in the State of Ohio. This part of America is rich in all kinds of
antiquities
[264]
which prove that a powerful race formerly occupied the country. Spaulding,
an inquisitive and imaginative man, was struck by these vestiges of an
obscure past. Readily subscribing to the opinion, very general at that epoch,
that the Indians of North America were the descendants of the ten lost
tribes of Israel, he conceived the idea of composing a romantic history of the
ancient race of the New World. To give greater originality to his
composition, he, as far as possible, imitated the style of the Bible, and called
his work 'The Manuscript Found.' His manuscript was never printed, but
Spaulding frequently read it to friends; so that every one in the
neighborhood had heard of this production, which moreover had no
religious aim, and which the author acknowledged to be a work of his
imagination. Spaulding died in 1816. The manuscript remained in the
hands of his family, but it appears that a copy had been made by a person to
whom it was lent, and that this copy fell into the hands of Joseph Smith.
This fact is not proved, but neither is it impossible. But what is certain is,
that Joseph must have known of Spaulding's romance, for it is proved that
the young Prophet had worked in a part of the country in which this
composition had been extensively read. It has even been stated that Sidney
Rigdon copied the manuscript and communicated it to Joseph. Although
this fact has been formally denied by Rigdon, and by Joseph, who declared
he did not know Sidney till
[265]
the publication of the Book of Mormon, such an interesting denial does not
destroy the influence which has been drawn, and which does not depend
upon it. It is certain, first, that Spaulding composed the 'Manuscript;'
secondly, that he read it to many persons; thirdly, that those who were
present at the reading of the work in question have perfectly identified it
with the Book of Mormon, most of the names being the same, such as those
of Mormon, Lehi, Nephi, Lamanites, etc. This suffices to show that Joseph
must have been acquainted with the romance, even if indeed he had not
the manuscript under his eyes. He only had to invent the religious plot, and
add it to the historical plot which he found ready-made to his hands.
Joseph himself tells us that he was deficient in education, and he proves it
in every page of the Book of Mormon. But if he were not learned, it must be
admitted that he could read, and that he read much, especially the Bible,
and theological dissertations on the meaning of Scripture. By thus mixing
up Spaulding's fiction with biblical narratives, his task, when once his plan
was conceived, became easy. It is nothing but a jumble of bad imitations of
Scripture, anachronisms, contradictions, and bad grammar.*
It would not be difficult to find in the etymology which Joseph Smith gave
of the word Mormon another proof of
_____________________
* He is constantly repeating "And it came to pass," which renders the
narrative not only heavy but ridiculous.
[266]
the utter want of honesty in the execution of the work. According to the
Prophet, the word Mormon is derived from the "reformed Egyptian" word
mon, which means good, and from the English word mor, a contraction of
more; Mormon thus meaning more good, or better. It is probable that
Joseph, in giving this etymoloy, grotesque at any rate, meant to insinuate
that the Book of Mormon is better than the Bible, a word which he states
signifies good in its widest sense. This is all very well; but then, by what
mysterious amalgamation could an English word be tacked on to an
Egyptian word? How explain, unless we attribute it to bad faith combined
with ignorance, the presence, in a manuscript assigned to the fifth century,
of a word belonging to a language which did not exist on the spot where the
prophetic manuscript was hidden, and where it was not destined to exist
until several centuries afterwards?
To those who may desire to trace back the new religion to its foundation, to
its very beginning, anci to find the prototype of the Prophet's mission, and
his supernatural fictions, it will be sufficient to call to mind the revelations
of Jane Leade, published in England, at the end of the seventeenth century.
The principal ideas which inaugurate or accompany Smith's mission, and
which he presents as his own personal inspirations, are to be found in those
celebrated reveries. For instance, Jane Leade says, "that the various existing
religions are but fictions, and that
[267]
all systems of human contrivance must vanish like shadows before. the
light of day;.... hat the time is not far distant when the eternal Gospel will be
made manifest with a power nothing can resist.... that to preach it, agents
will come who will bring back all that was lost in the first Adam, etc. etc.;"
all leading ideas in the doctrine or mission of Smith, like many others of
the same kind shadowed forth in Jane Leade's revelations, as may be
ascertained by reading the eight volumes of the theological works published
by the celebrated foundress* of the Society of the Philadelphians. Yet,
strange to say, Joseph Smith does not once speak of Jane Leade in the whole
course of his apostleship!
We will now briefly make known the origin of the famous plates, which
play the same part in Mormonism as the tables of the law in Mosaism.
On the 23rd of April, 1843, Robert Wiley found, while making excavations
in a mound in the vicinity of Kinderhook (Illinois), six plates of brass,** of a
bell-shape, as shown by the sketch we give of one of them, resembling the
glyphs of Mexico;*** these plates were covered with
_____________________
* Jane Leade, born in England in 1623, died. the 19th of August, 1704 after
having occupied a distinguished place among the most learned
Theosophists of Germany and Great Britain. Her doctrine was known to the
French Illuminati.
** See Note XV. at the end of the work.
*** There has also been found, in the United States, a small tablet of gold,
on which are engraved hieroglyphics that have a great resemblance to those
of the Egyptians. See, with respect to this, Note XVI. at the end.
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characters in vertical lines, which resembled those of which Martin Harris
showed a copy to Professor Anthon. Did Smith himself find any such
plates? Likely enough; he is known to have been called the "money-digger,"
and there would have been nothing extraordinary had he, in his frequent
diggings, been the first to find objects similar to those which we know
Wiley afterwards dug up in 1843.
As to the Urim and Thummim, this is the Seer Stone which some Scotch
American wizards used like the divining rod, to discover precious metals in
the earth. Joseph Smith has only given it a biblical name: the Urim and
Thummim,* as everybody knows, was a kind of ornament which the
Jewish high-priest wore upon his breast.
The sword of Laban, which Joseph somewhere. states he had found with
the sacred plates, has never been seen by any one.
The posterity of the Saints will doubtless regret that these holy objects have
not been put in a reliquary, to be held up to the veneration of the faithful in
future ages; but we must here admire the foresight evinced by the Prophet
in withholding from the over-curious eyes of our age, relics too likely to
compromise the success of his cause. If he had the boldness and effrontery
to impose on men through the credulity associated with their religious
feelings, he had also the sagacity to resist the temptation of supporting his
work by exhibiting the instruments of his fraud.
_____________________
* See Note XII., already mentioned, at the end of the work.
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The faculty of observation, which he possessed in an eminent degree, had
led him to seize on a weak side of human nature; and that same faculty
pointed out the limits he ought not to overstep under penalty of seeing the
fragile edifice of his dawning fortune crumble away in an instant, even as the
phantoms which swarm in darkness, vanish at the approach of light. Joseph
Smith had obtained, no matter how, the testimony of eleven witnesses, --
neither more nor less than Christ had, who declared, in sight of God and
man, that they had seen the plates; this was more than a set-off against the
necessity imposed on him by the policy which his prudence suggested, of
not exhibiting these wonderful objects to mortal eyes.
We have now witnessed the birth of Mormonism. Conceived in the midst
of mysticism, under the impression of actual ideas and feelings, it soon
disengages itself from these earnest influences, and springs forth
thoroughly armed, like Minerva of old, from the brain of its founder, not as if
it were a hallucination or a dream, but like something premeditated, like a
statue worked with thoughtfulness, if not with artistic skill. We shall
presently see how the artist fixed it on a pedestal, and attracted to it the
homage of the crowd.
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