Erohably had all that experience: but when he clothed is communications with the sauctity of absolute and di-
vine tmth, the acceptance or rejection of which was to be ' the salvatiou or damnation of the world,' it was simply the operation and assertion of that yet uncomprehended mysterious influence that has been 'ie.'cperienced by both good aud bad men iu all ages aud iu all countries within the historical ken of man. With the developmeuls which have followed, the life of the Mormon Prophet is easily understood, lie was but the vehicle of 'spirit communi- cation,'and when he erred it was not intentumal impost- ure or deliberate fraud, hut in the native honesty of liis simple nature he believed too much. ... It does not seem possible that he could have borne up through his whole life of persecution, aud have lived aud died maintaining the truth of his story, if the book had beeu a fraud. . . . That some of those ancient iidiabitaius may have made aud engraved plates, aud that they did so fur a purpose- whatever that might be— is very possible. The relics of sculpture and paiutiug suggest also the probability of en- graving. Other persous besides Joseph Smith have dis- covered in the ground similar plates, bearing evidence of a great antiquity, and as time rolls on there may yet be many similar discoveries. There need be no difliculty,then, in accepting Joseph's story of finding the plates; it is what is claimed to be the contents of the plates that is incredible. If no living person fabricated for Joseph Sndth the ISookof Mormon, and if Joseph did not use the manuscript of Solo- mon Spaulding, the Mormon may very properly ask, 'Who, then, was the author of the book?' To this query the Bonk of Abraham is the answer. (See below,:!.) In the preceding chapter, the Prophet's 'translation' of the papy- rus fouud with the Iv_'yiilian mummies is evidently uu- trne; yet Josepli Smitij sat with his amauneusis, and, by ' the gift of God,' believed he was giviug a truthful trans- j latioii. The scientist says that the whole story is untrue; that the Prophet's version of the hieroglyphics is a perfect I romance ; that the hieroglyphics had no more allusion to i the Abraham of Mosaic histoiy than they had to do with Abraham the martyred ])resi(ient of the United States. When Joseph Smith translated the Suuk of Mormon by the means of bis Uriin and Thnmmim, the 'reformed Egyptian' was evidently not transformed before his eyes i into the translated tex"t, or 'the <:ift ami power of God' j used peculiarly bad En<.'lish. He •razed upon that Urim j and Thnmmim until his mind became [jsychologized, and I the impressions that he received he dictated to his scribe. With such a conclusion, the anachronisms of the book, ! the quotations from the Old and New Testaments, aud 1 the language of modern preachers aud writers are ac- I counted for. That there is such a mental condition in I human life as clairvoyance, in which persons are strange- j ly operated upon, and can mentally perceive what to the natural eye is unseen, is a belief as old as the history of ' man ; and that, when the mind ispyschologized by a cim- dition of its own, or by the operation of external iullii- ences, singular impressions or revelations are had, few people to-day dispute. That Joseph Smith was in these experiences one of the most remarkalde men that ever lived, those outside of Mormonisin akoLretlier, who knew him intimately, testify. He believed that his gifts were divine, and liis impressions were icvelations from theAl- iniL'hty Creator. To insi-t that theie weie deliberate im- posture and deliberate falseliood at the oriL'iii of Mormon- ism is to challenge the veracity and honesty of the hun- dreds and thousands of persons who accept that faith and who testify that they knoto of its truth. It is more rational and co'nsistent to admit that what such a body of people allege that they have experienced is probably true in staletnent, than to deny it and brand it as impost- ure; but it does nut follow that the interpretation which any of them put u]ion their experience is itself true. They may he fully ])ersiiaded that they have had visiinis, dreams, the minisieriiiix oi' anjels, and have heard the 'voice of God,' ;ill wiinessiiiir to the tiuth of the divinity of Alormonisin, for all this has been asserted again and again by very many others besides Joseph Smith — men, and women too, wh(> have claimed to have received di- vine missions. Outside of all religious enthusiasm, also, there are tens of tlnnisauds of men aud women — sober, re- [ liable, and truthful in every relation aud business of life— with as unchan^'eable convictions as ever the Mormons had that thev have i)ersonally experienced all these ex- traordinary phenomena. The trouble with the .'Mormons and with all this class of believers is, not iu what they have e.\i)erienced, but the after-interpictation th.it they may have put upon it. . . . There have been multitudes I of jiersons in the world who have believed and asserted th.it to theni, and to them onlv, God L'ave visions, dreams, aiiirel-visits, the power of liealiui: the sick and 'casting out devils ;' .iiid they have declared that these were i)roots of the heavenlv origin of the faith which thev proclaimed, and this it is "that the Saints have been taULrht by the modern apostles to regard as special and particular to ; them, while it has beeii a peculiarity common to the re- ! ligious experience of all the world, and is an evidence of I nothing more than a certain conditicm of mind that ren- ders such manifestations possible with jjcrsons adapted naturally to receive them. . . . That Joseph thouixht Mo- roni and some of those ancient j)ersona;.'es whom he men- ' tions in his biography api)eareu to him is no (loul)t true; I that they used him for their purposes Spiritualists all be-