SECTION THE THIRD:

FIRST REDACTION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

Chapter I.

Sidney's Editorial Handicraft

Before the present investigation shall be brought to a close, it will be suggested that Mr. Rigdon had occasion to make two separate redactions of the Book of Mormon, the first of these being performed at Pittsburgh and Bainbridge from January 1823 to the autumn of 1826, and the second in or near Harmony township, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1829. In this chapter, a general outline of the work he undertook and accomplished will be supplied without distinct reference to these two separate redactions, which elsewhere will be treated in their proper place and order. Where citations occur, let it be had in mind that the edition of the Book of Mormon that is referred to is the one designated as the "second electrotype edition," which has received a "division into chapters and verses with references by Orson Pratt sen." and was published at Liverpool in 1881.

There is no special reason to suspect that Mr. Rigdon made any change in the first portion of the title as he found it on Spaulding's manuscript. It reads as follows: "The Book of Mormon: an Account Written by the hand of Mormon upon Plates taken from the Plates of Nephi." It was a device of Mr. Spaulding's literary invention to represent Mormon, the last prophet of the Nephite people who passed away about the year 400 of the present era (Mormon 8:1-6), as having composed an abridgment of the history of his nation from the moment when, as a mere handful, they quitted Jerusalem in the first year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, until their final extinction about a thousand years later. The whole of the Book of Mormon was given out by Spaulding to be nothing other than an abridgment of the material contained in certain ancient records that had been transmitted to the hands of this Mormon, the latest prophet. That abridgment is plainly mentioned at the "Words of Mormon" 1:3. At the 5th verse of the same chapter, it is also denominated the "record" of Mormon.

Not very far from the close of the abridgment of Mormon, that worthy allows himself to speak of his work in the terms following:

"And it hath become expedient that I, according to the will of God that the prayers of those who have gone hence, who were the holy ones, should be fulfilled according to their faith, should make a record of these things which have been done; yea, a small record of that which hath taken place from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem even down until the present time; therefore, I do make my record from the accounts which have been given by those who were before me until the commencement of my day: and then I do make a record of the things which I have seen with mine own eyes" (3 Nephi 5, 14-17). The above record or abridgment embraced in Spaulding's copy all of the material that was given from the opening page of the volume down to the closing word of the Fourth Book of Nephi. At that point, having reached his own age, the prophet Mormon continued the record by composing in his own name as an eye-witness of the events that were at the moment transpiring, a small book which he also designates as the Book of Mormon.

It is possible that Mr. Spaulding did not feel much concern to explain these details of his scheme to his simple-minded neighbors at Conneaut; it was sufficient for their purposes that the work should be styled the "Manuscript Found"; they would have no particular curiosity to look narrowly into the plan according to which their friend was constructing it. But when Rigdon came upon it in January 1823, it probably bore upon its title page nothing but the name Book of Mormon, and Sidney never heard of the title "Manuscript Found" until ten years later in a conference with D.P. Hurlbut at Kirtland, that information was conveyed to his ears. When Mrs. Spaulding (Davison), therefore, in 1839, charged that Rigdon had recast the Mormon Bible from a volume entitled the "Manuscript Found," he was able to make a reply that looks something like a denial; he had enjoyed no acquaintance with the work under that name; it had come into his hands as the Book of Mormon and not as the "Manuscript Found."

As it left the hand of Spaulding in Pittsburgh, the Book of Mormon was just what its title page declares and nothing different, namely "an Account Written by the Hand of Mormon!" This account is further affirmed by the title-page to have been written "upon Plates." These "Plates of Mormon" have a history of their own. The prophet himself reports: "And behold I do make the record on plates which I have made with mine own hands" (3 Nephi 5:11). The process by which these plates were manufactured is suggested by a remark that falls from Moroni, the son of Mormon, who added a few words to his father's history after the death of Mormon. He declares: "Behold my father hath made this record and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone" (Mormon 8,5).

The title page further asserts that in addition to the account being written "upon Plates," it was also "taken from the Plates of Nephi." This signifies that the historical material embraced in the plates of Mormon was compiled from the records that had been inscribed by his predecessors upon the "Plates of Nephi!" Mormon himself reports: "Therefore I have made my record of these things according to the record of Nephi which was engraven on the plates which were called the plates of Nephi!" (3 Nephi 5:10). The phrase "Plates of Nephi" was a technical term whose signification requires to be explained. When Nephi, the son of Lehi, came forth from Jerusalem in the first year of Zedekiah, he commenced to keep the annals of his people by means of engravings upon certain plates which he had made with his own hands (1 Nephi 1:17). No matter who might write on these plates in the generations after the death of Nephi or into whose hands they were delivered for preservation, they were always known as the "Plates of Nephi" (Alma 37:2-4; 3 Nephi 5:10; Mormon 2:17-18).

The title page of the Book of Mormon, therefore, indicates that it is an account written by the hand of the prophet Mormon and that the historical material included in the abridgment which he composed was "taken from the Plates of Nephi." In a word, it is clear from the title page that there was nothing else in the entire Book of Mormon as it left the hand of Mr. Spaulding but the account written by the hand of Mormon.

But in the form under which Mr. Rigdon turned the volume over to Smith, there was something else besides an account written by the hand of Mormon; in fact, the account of Mormon is not reached until the reader comes to page 158 of Orson Pratt's edition, at the beginning of the Third Book of Nephi. The entire volume up to that point is occupied by the contents of certain "small plates" of which it is important to give a brief history.

The books included in the "small plates" are First and Second Nephi, the Book of Jacob, of Enos, Jarom, and Omni—six in all. After the prophet Nephi had been engaged for some length of time in the labor of engraving his records upon the "Plates of Nephi," he is represented to have obtained a command from the Lord to make certain other plates to be kept separate from the "Plates of Nephi" (2 Nephi 5:30; compare 1 Nephi 19:2). This second lot of plates is first called the "small plates" at Jacob 1:1; but farther on, that designation becomes usual (Jarom 1:2, 11). It is distinctly recognized that they were made by the hand of Nephi (Jacob 3:13). At the close of the Book of Omni, these small plates are said to be full (Omni 1:30); they extend no farther than the verse just now cited. They were then transmitted from hand to hand until, in the fourth century after Christ, they were discovered by the prophet Mormon in the course of a search among the archives of his people (Words of Mormon 1:3). Although Mormon had already completed and engraved an abridgment made by himself of the events that had transpired as far as the reign of this king Benjamin, he was so much pleased with the contents of these "small plates" that he laid aside this section of his abridgment, which was never heard of anymore. He says: "Wherefore I choose these things (small plates) to finish my record upon them which remainder of my record I shall take from the plates of Nephi" (Words of Mormon 1:5), just as he had previously done in the case of that portion of his abridgment which was now rejected (Words of Mormon 1:3). By means of this kind, Mr. Rigdon's Book of Mormon comes to contain these "small plates" of Nephi in place of the first portion of the account or abridgment by the hand of Mormon. The title page, however, was not altered by Mr. Rigdon so as to take account of his alteration of Spaulding's plan. It should read thus: "The Small Plates of Nephi and the Book of Mormon, an Account Written by the Hand of Mormon," etc., in order to fit the contents as Sidney disposed of them.

What motive was in operation to induce Mormon to reject so much of his own abridgment in favor of these small plates of Nephi? It was done for the reason that these small plates "pleased him because of the prophecies concerning the coming of Christ" (Words of Mormon 1:4). Nephi himself several times alludes to the nature of the contents of these "small plates." The history of his people, "their wars and contentions and destruction," were enjoined to be engraved upon the large plates which Nephi had made before receiving any command concerning the small ones; on these latter, however, the "more sacred things" were to be kept for the knowledge of his people (1 Nephi 19:4-5). In the Book of Jacob, it is mentioned a provision that "if there were preaching which was sacred, or revelation which was great, or prophesying, that I should engraven the heads of them upon these plates, and touch upon them as much as it were possible, for Christ's sake, and for the sake of our people" (Jacob 1:4). Accordingly, Nephi refers to the circumstance that "a more history part are written upon mine other plates" (2 Nephi 4:14), meaning the large plates of Nephi. This purpose is likewise fully exhibited in 1 Nephi chapter 6 and chapter 9.

It is now in order to discuss the real origin of the so-called "small plates" and to suggest the reason why Sidney did not accept Spaulding's abridgment of Mormon in the first as well as in the latter portion of his labors. When he first took up the volume of Mr. Spaulding, finding it was entirely as well as voluminously devoted to the external history of the Nephites and Lamanites, it is likely he conceived that, in order to render it suitable for the chiefly religious purpose he had in mind, it would be indispensable that he should rewrite the whole of it, leaving out the "more history part" and only appropriating the thread of the narrative together with such points of detail as might commend themselves to his judgment. This was an excellent conceit, and if it had been retained to the end, it is possible that the Book of Mormon would never have attained one-half its present tiresome proportions.

Sidney, however, was a lazy scamp from his cradle up; but for that defect, it is more than possible he would have been the successor of Joseph at the death of the prophet in 1844. When he had proceeded in his task as far as the close of the Book of Omni, his industry failed him; it was always short of breath; the process of rewriting would be too burdensome, and he resolved to content himself with an easier method. Consequently, he returned to the text of Spaulding, only inserting here and there larger or shorter religious harangues set down on separate sheets of paper for the purpose of imparting a religious character to the story.

Mr. Spaulding is believed to have written the "Words of Mormon" in the character of a preface to his copy of the Book of Mormon, wherein, after the fashion of the "Introduction" to the Honolulu manuscript, the nature of the work and its claims were duly set forth. Inasmuch, however, as Sidney had rewritten the earlier section of Spaulding's history under the character of the "small plates" of Nephi, it would not be appropriate in his redaction to insert this preface until he came to the point where he introduced Mormon's abridgment. Accordingly, the "Words of Mormon" were transferred from their rightful place at the opening of the book to a position in front of the Book of Mosiah, where the prophet Mormon is first allowed to be heard from. It is hardly necessary also to suggest that these "Words of Mormon" must have been altered by Sidney to suit the altered plan which he had conceived and employed and the altered place they occupied.

That part of Spaulding's work which Mr. Rigdon laid aside and replaced by these "small plates" of his own construction was not immediately thrown away; he preserved it for future use. It was customary to speak of it as the "words which are sealed" (2 Nephi 27:10), and when he brought the plates from the hill of Cumorah, Joseph Smith professed to have found a portion of them "sealed up"; yet, the assurance was given that "the day cometh when the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the housetops" (2 Nephi 27:11). But before a convenient time arrived to send these sealed words forth, E.D. Howe appeared with his pesky volume entitled "Mormonism Unveiled," which contained the testimony of eight witnesses from Conneaut who might be too uncomfortably familiar with these sealed words if they should be given to the public. The project was therefore surrendered incontinently, and the seals which bound that part of Spaulding's work, known as the "sealed plates," were likely committed to the flames.

It has already been signified that the "small plates," or that section of Spaulding's volume that was entirely rewritten by Mr. Rigdon, comprise the following six books: First and Second Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom, and Omni. Turning away from these to consider the abridgment of Mormon, or that portion of Spaulding's work which Mr. Rigdon permitted to stand without any important alteration except the insertion of such religious matter as was adapted for his purpose, it will be perceived that this Book of Mormon, in the proper sense of the term, embraces seven portions, namely The Words of Mormon, and the Books of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, Third and Fourth Nephi, and the Book of Mormon. It will be remembered that the "small plates" embrace the space of 157 pages, or the first selection of Orson Pratt's edition: the abridgment of Mormon, or the book of Mormon proper, and closes on page 570 of Mr. Orson Pratt's edition. In this portion of the volume the hand of the editor was duly active, but chiefly in the way of interminable and wearisome interpolations. That remark applies particularly to the Book of Alma.

Immediately following the Book of Mormon appears the Book of Ether, which has already been mentioned as the second literary venture of Mr. Spaulding, composed perhaps just after the production of the recently discovered Honolulu manuscript, and just before the production of the Book of Mormon. Proof that it was in existence before the Book of Mormon may be gained form the circumstance that it is several times mentioned in the Book of Mormon. In the original language which, however, is not mentioned by name, the Book of Ether was written on twenty four plates of gold. An account of the discovery of these plates of gold may be read at Mosiah 8, 7-10. They were discovered by the servants of a certain king Limhi, who had sent forth upon a tour of investigation for the purpose of finding out the land of Zarahemla, which was the fatherland of the people of Limhi. Unsuccessful in this exertion, the servants of Limhi "traversed in a land among many waters; having discovered a land which was covered with bones of men and of beasts, &c., and was also covered with bones of every kind" (Mos. 8,8). This land was subsequently designated by the Nephite people as the "land of Desolation", a title derived from the fact that the people who first inhabited it were become extinct. It was situated just north of the Isthmus of Darien, the people of Limhi who discovered the 24 plates had passed through or around the land of Zarahemla , which lay to the south of the Isthmus in search of it, and had penetrated the extreme southern district of the north American continent.

None of the subjects of king Limhi were able to interpret the characters that were recorded upon the gold plates (Mosiah 8,11). Very solicitous to become acquainted with their contents Limhi applied to a ceratin Ammon for light, and way by him reforred to king Mosiah (Mos. 8, 14). A briefer notice of these same transactions is also given at Mosiah 21, 25-28. Another passage likewise in the Book of Mosiah supplies a notice of the skill of king Mosiah in the task of interpretation, and of the "interpreters" which he employed for the purpose. It is said that he "translated them by the means of those two stones which were fasted into the rims of a bow" (Mos. 28,13).

The substance of the contents of the plates of gold as translated by king Mosiah is given as follows: "Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records, behold it gave an account of a people who were destroyed; from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the great tower, at which time the Lord confounded the language of the people; and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, even from that time until the creation of Adam" (Mos. 26, 17).

Further distinct mention of the plates of gold may be found at Alma 37, 21. These somewhat minute descriptions of the Book of Ether indicate pretty certainly that this book was in existence before the completion of the Book of Mormon. It is possible that Mr. Spaulding during the period when he was engaged upon the Book of Mormon, might have quitted that work long enough to produce the Book of Ether, but the most likely conclusion seems to be that he had completed it before the Book of Mormon was commenced.

When Mr. Rigdon came to the task of editing the Book of Ether he forgot certain things that had been said concerning that performance in the Book of Mosiah, which clearly represents that it was translated from a language unknown to any of the Nephites by the inspired skill of king Mosiah. No attention was given to this inspired translation; the Book of Ether in its opening sentences makes the following statements: "And now I Moroni, proceed to give an account of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed by the hand of the Lord upon the face of this north country. And I take mine account from the twenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ehter" (Ether, 1, 1.2). In other wordss Moroni went directly to the original on the plates of gold and entirely neglected the translations which had been made by king Mosiah. In its exisiting form the Book of Ether is an abridgment of the work as Spaulding left it behind him; much of the original material is left out, especially that poriton of it in which Spaulding sets forth his notion regarding the "creation of the world, and also of Adam, and an account from that time even to the great tower, and whatsoeer things transpired among the children of men until that time" (Ether, 1,3).

Farther, it is not clear that Moroni the son of Mormon had any right to undertake an abridgment of the Book of Ether. His father declares that he had "hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to him, by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates, which I gave unto my son Moroni" (Mormon 6,6).” By this it would appear that Moroni had no access to the twenty four plates nor to the abridgment of Mormon, nor to any other portion of the collection of plates that were retained in the archives of the Nephite people. His only stock in trade was a few blank plates which his father had committed to his care for the purpose of supplying upon them an engraved record of the events that might fall out between the death of Mormon and the death of Moroni. The latter so understood his task, and declares: "Behold I, Moroni, do finish the record of my father Mormon. Behold I have but few things to write, which things I have been commanded by my father" (Mormon 8,1). It was a lapse of memory on the part of Mr. Rigdon to give Moroni access to the golden plates after they had been hidden by his father in the hill where Joseph Smith subsequently claimed to have found them undisturbed.

But Moroni did not possess a sufficient amount of blank plates upon which to engrave the abridgment which he supplies of the Book of Ether. The fewness of the plates has already been mentioned; only enough of them apparently were committed to the hand of Moroni to enable him to complete the two last chapters of the Book of Mormon, namely Mormon chapters 8 and 9. Moroni himself complains there of the contracted space: "And behold I would write it also, if I had room upon the plates; but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone; my father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolks, and I have not friends nor whither to go" (Mormon 8,5). His plates, it seems were barely sufficient to permit him to complete the Book of Mormon that had been left unfinished by his father, and it is difficult to comprehend the means by which he was enabled to find other plates upon which to record this abridgment of the Book of Ether.

This objection likewise holds good against the Book of Moroni which stands after the Book of Ether at the close of the volume: in case Moroni was not in possession of a sufficient number of blank plates to add more than two chapters to the writings of his father where did he obtain a sufficient number of these to compose not only an abridgment of the Book of Ether, but in addition the Book of Moroni also? This latter book bears every kind of evidence of being the exclusive production of Mr. Rigdon. It comprises a sort of recapitulation of the special doctrines and of the church order for the behoof of which Sidney had embarked upon the enterprise he had in hand. It was not an ill device in the art of book making to collect as he here had done, all his leading ideas in the form of a tract placed at the close of the volume, where it would be likely to arrest the attention of readers, who are very prone to search in such a place for the conclusion of the whole matter. The historical feature is almost ignored in this portion of the performance; it is devoted to such topics as the credenda and the agenda which the editor of Mr. Spaulding's manuscript was solicitous should prevail, among the Disciples to whose communion he then belonged, and among all men. These notions were the result of the influence which Mr. Campbell had exerted upon Rigdon and of the literalizing bent and instructions he had derived from that source. They had been diligently elaborated in his quiet Patmos which he seems to have withdrawn for the purpose of "studying the Bible". These ideas and the whole Book of Mormon constitute Mr. Rigdon's reply to the interrogatory which a certain "diligent student of the Bible" had caused to be inserted into the issue of the Christian Baptist for August 182, as follows: "The order of the first churches, when supernatural gifts were abundant, being discovered; what if any example, will it for to us who live in these last days, when supernatural gifts have ceased"? Mr. Rigdon always meant what he promised when he spoke of returning to the "ancient order of things".

Chapter II

Several Points of Detail.

Although a great variety of artifices have been employed by the editor of the Book of Mormon to cover up his tracks and to cast a mist about the method of his procedure it is believed that the leading facts of the business have been successfully divined and set forth in the preceding chapter. It has there been signified that the Book of Mormon as it came from the hand of Mr. Spaulding consisted of two main sections; namely the so called abridgment of Mormon (Words of Mormon 1,3.5), and the Book of Ether. In Mr. Rigdon's redaction of Spaulding's work, however, there are four several parts. The first of these comprises the "small plates", which it has been suggested was that portion of the performance which Rigdon entirely recast and rewrote, though keeping in view all the way the outline of Spaulding's historical narrative. It extends to the close of the Book of Omni.

The second part embraces that portion of the abridgment of Mormon which Rigdon for reasons that were satisfactory to himself neglected to rewrite. Here he was content to inject interpolations of greater or less extent. This part extends to the close of the Book of Mormon on page 570 of the edition of Mr. Orson Pratt.

The third section of Rigdon's Book of Mormon is occupied by the Book of Ether in which Spaulding had set forth his notions respecting the earliest origin of the Indians of North America as distinguished from the Nephites who first settled in South America.

It is likely as before suggested that this Book of Ether was the second effort which Mr. Spaulding made in the enterprise of setting forth the origin of our Indian tribes and antiquities. The first effort has been already mentioned in the case of the 28 rolls of parchment upon which he claimed to have found recorded in the Latin tongue an account of the fortunes of a party of Romans who were reported to have been driven by shipwreck to this continent (Howe, p. 268). Several of the witnesses whom Mr. Howe consulted regarding this translation from the Latin were aware of its existence, but they claim that Spaulding "told them that he had altered his first plan of writing, by going farther back with dates". The Book of Ether would appear to have been the first result of this change of plan. As has been suggested above the fact that Ether's narrative was fabled to have been engraved on plates of gold, instead of rolls of parchment, and that the plates are of nearly the same number as the parchments may be explained by reference to the close connection of the two undertakings in the order of time and invention.

At this point, however, a difficulty may be found in the apparent ignorance of Spaulding's neighbors at Conneaut touching the Book of Ether. If it had been produced at an early period of his literary career, why should these neighbors, who appear to have lived on an intimate footing with him, produce no hint of its existence? Whatever theory may be assumed to meet this objection it is clear from the Book of Mormon itself that Ether's work was in existence before that performance was half completed. The Book of Mosiah mentions it and prepares the way for its insertion into the production of Spaulding. In Mosiah 8,9 information is given of the discovery of the Book of Ether, and in Mosiah 28,17 the account of its successful translation into the language of the Nephites may be read.

The fourth division of Rigdon's redaction of the Book of Mormon is the Book of Moroni, a production which as has been previously intimated owes its origin entirely in the hand of the editor. It may not be amiss to compare this circumstance with the fact that Joseph Smith in relating at a subsequent period the first appearance of the angel to him on the night of the 21st of September 1823 declares that this heavenly visitant affirmed- that his name was Moroni. (Pearl of Great Price, p. 62). The selection of this name -for his angel would be not unnatural on the supposition that he had obtained assurances that Mr. Rigdon was the same as the prophet Moroni who composed the closing portion of the Book of Mormon. Smith was very fond of indirections of this nature. It is an occasion for surprise that among the different parties who were given out to be progenitors of the American Indians no prominent place was assigned for the "Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. If Rigdon had been the original author of the work it is very possible that they would have held the position of honor. A feat of that kind would have been about the level of his tastes and resources. However the "Lost Tribes" were not wholly passed by: they were often and tenderly remembered, but beyond certain hints towards the "north countries" (Ether 13,11) and the "isles of the sea" (2 Nephi 22,4), no assertion was ventured regarding the place of their present habitation. In these "north countries" they were subsequently represented as being surrounded by mountains of rocks and ice which prevented their egress to join in "the gathering" of Israel (Doctrine and Covenants, divided into verses, with references, by Orson Pratt, Sen., Salt Lake City 1880, Section 133, v.26). A competent authority, Mr. Ezra Booth in Howe's Mormonism Unveiled p. 186, declares that the Mormons have discovered that the above mentioned "north countries' are contiguous to the North Pole. In the citation just now given from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants Joseph Smith consoles his followers with the promise that in due season these imprisoned tribes shall "smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence", after which release from confinement they will repair to his own Zion where it is intimated they will be received with a degree of enthusiasm.

It is likely that the suggestion of the Egyptian dialect in which the plates of Nephi are fabled to have been composed was derived from Mr. Spaulding. It first occurs in 1 Nephi 1,2 and is repeated in Mosiah 1,4. It was certainly an awkward thing to represent a community of Jews who had emigrated from the city of Jerusalem as speaking and writing in the Egyptian language: but it might easily be foreseen that Mr. Spaulding would by some means be called upon to give proofs of his ability to make translations from the Hebrew, in case he had asserted that the plates of Nephi had been originally composed in the Hebrew speech. It would not be difficult to evade any ordinary hazards on this score if he named the language of the Egyptians. No wandering Rabbi or other scholar who was likely to visit Conneaut could be expected to be an expert in Egyptology.

When, however, Martin Harris went to the city of New York for the purpose of laying before the savants of the town such transcripts from the original plates as Joseph. Smith had placed in his keeping for their inspection (2 Nephi 27,15—18), it is conceivable that Professor Charles Anthon, after slightly viewing the specimens of hieroglyphic chirography may have hazarded the opinion that there were no Egyptian characters among those which were laid before him. Reflections upon this or a similar casualty would appear to have borne the fruit that might have been anticipated. In Mormon 9,32 another barrier was prudently erected against possible embarrassments. At this place it is said: "And now behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge in characters which are called among us the Reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us according to our manner of speech". Certainly here would be found ample protection against scholars of any faculty whatever, Henceforth the phrase "Reformed Egyptian" became prevalent in the ranks of Mr. Rigdon's adherents. But in order that no slightest loophole might remain at which danger should find entrance it was added in Mormon 9,34: "But the Lord knoweth that none other people knoweth our language, therefore, he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof". It would be futile for any philologist to attempt the task of deciphering the contents of the plates on which the Book of Mormon was said to have been originally transcribed; this labor could only be achieved by means of the "interpreters" which had been divinely prepared and preserved.

In the month of July 1835 a wandering showman arrived at Kirtland with a collection of mummies and several papyri which contained specimens of the genuine Egyptian language. Coming into possession of these Joseph proceeded to interpret them. His success was highly satisfactory to his followers, but unhappily the original document was entrusted to the care of M. Jules Remy, who placed it before a French scholar, M. Theodule Devéria, who occupied a piece on the staff of the Museum of the Louvre. The results to which M. Deveria attained were in every point different from those to which his inspiration had directed the "translator" of the Mormon communion (A Journey to Great Salt Lake City. By Remy & Brenchley. London 1861. Vol. II, pp. 536-546). It was & cool and almost cruel thing for M. Remy in this way to expose the ignorance and knavery of a prophet to whom if appearances may be trusted the Mormons in Salt Lake City had the liveliest sort of expectation they should in due time welcome him as a convert. More earnest anticipations were seldom more painfully disappointed (Reny & Brenchley, Vol. 1, 213).

The design which Rigdon had in view of altering the opinions and the practices of his brethren of the Disciples communion in such a way as that they should "speak where the Scriptures speak, and be silent where they are silent" sat very near to his heart. If he could but procure the adoption by Mr. Campbell of the ancient order of things" touching the gift of speaking in unknown tongue, of working miracles of communing with angels, the gift of inspiration and revelation, as well as in those few minor points upon which his friend and admired leader already insisted, his cup of satisfaction would be quite filled up. Such a result would have been ample compensation for all the struggles and the anxieties he had endured in the weary months when he was wrestling with the manuscript of Mr. Spaulding. Then indeed, he would feel that himself and the Disciples in whose interests he was toiling would have a reasonable foundation for the boast so often heard among them, that after an apostacy of fourteen centuries or longer, primitive Christianity had been "restored” by themselves. In the existing conditions of the case Rigdon honestly believed that the work of "restoring Christianity" was only half done, and that it was even better not to make a start than to leave off where Mr. Campbell had left off,

Nevertheless, there was one single point in which Mr. Rigdon felt that it would be out of the question for him to "speak where the Scriptures speak". His literalism went very far, but polygamy was an extreme to which he was unwilling to follow it. In the 0ld Testament -- which must be allowed to be a part of the Scriptures in accordance with which he proposed to "speak". It was beyond any controversy clear that David and other valued saints had a plurality of wives. Therefore, but in plump contradiction of his own cherished principle, Mr. Rigdon at this point decided to enter a caveat, Accordingly in the Book of Jacob 2,24-26, may be read the accompanying provisions: "Behold David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.

Wherefore saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph. Wherefore I the Lord will not suffer that this people shall do like them of old.

Wherefore, my brethren, hear me and hearken to the word of the Lord; for there shall not any men among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none, For I the Lord delighteth in the chastity of women, and whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord".

This precaution against the dangers of his own tendency was well meant enough; but it was unavailing. The poor man had been caught in the strongest current of literalism; it was impossible to prevent that it should soon or late carry him sheer over the precipice. It might be in the power of Mr. Campbell who had not gone to the lengths of Rigdon to recover himself and retrace his steps.