the publication of the Book of Mormon, such an interested denial does not destroy the inference which has been drawn, and which does not depend upon it. Moreover there are some things clearly proved. It is certain, first, that Spaulding composed the Manuscript Found;' 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.

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 etymology, 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, and 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

all systems of human contrivance must vanish like shadows before the light of day; . that the time is not far dis

tant 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.

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 and 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.