Part 5 (1/2)
* All references to the ”Book of Doctrine and Covenants” refer to the sections and verses of the Salt Lake city edition of 1890.
Seeking confirmation, however, Harris made a trip to New York City in order to submit the characters to experts there. Among others, he called on Professor Charles Anthon. His interview with Professor Anthon has been a cause of many and conflicting statements, some Mormons misrepresenting it for their own purposes and others explaining away the professor's accounts of it. The following statement was written by Professor Anthon in reply to an inquiry by E. D. Howe:--
”NEW YORK, February 17, 1834.
”DEAR SIR: I received your favor of the 9th, and lose no time in making a reply. The whole story about my p.r.o.nouncing the Mormon inscription to be 'reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics' is perfectly false. Some years ago a plain, apparently simple-hearted farmer called on me with a note from Dr. Mitch.e.l.l, of our city, now dead, requesting me to decypher, if possible, the paper which the farmer would hand me, and which Dr. M.
confessed he had been unable to understand. Upon examining the paper in question, I soon came to the conclusion that it was all a trick--perhaps a hoax. When I asked the person who brought it how he obtained the writing, he gave me, as far as I can recollect, the following account: A 'gold book' consisting of a number of plates fastened together in the shape of a book by wires of the same metal, had been dug up in the northern part of the state of New York, and along with the book an enormous pair of 'spectacles'! These spectacles were so large that, if a person attempted to look through them, his two eyes would have to be turned toward one of the gla.s.ses merely, the spectacles in question being altogether too large for the breadth of the human face. Whoever examined the plates through the spectacles, was enabled, not only to read them, but fully to understand their meaning. All this knowledge, however, was confined to a young man who had the trunk containing the book and spectacles in his sole possession. This young man was placed behind a curtain in the garret of a farmhouse, and being thus concealed from view, put on the spectacles occasionally, or rather, looked through one of the gla.s.ses, decyphered the characters in the book, and, having committed some of them to paper, handed copies from behind the curtain to those who stood on the outside. Not a word, however, was said about the plates being decyphered 'by the gift of G.o.d.' Everything in this way was effected by the large pair of spectacles. The farmer added that he had been requested to contribute a sum of money toward the publication of the 'golden book,' the contents of which would, as he had been a.s.sured, produce an entire change in the world, and save it from ruin.
So urgent had been these solicitations, that he intended selling his farm, and handing over the amount received to those who wished to publish the plates. As a last precautionary step, however, he had resolved to come to New York, and obtain the opinion of the learned about the meaning of the paper which he had brought with him, and which had been given him as part of the contents of the book, although no translation had been furnished at the time by the young man with the spectacles. On hearing this odd story, I changed my opinion about the paper, and, instead of viewing it any longer as a hoax upon the learned, I began to regard it as a part of a scheme to cheat the farmer of his money, and I communicated my suspicions to him, warning him to beware of rogues. He requested an opinion from me in writing, which, of course, I declined giving, and he then took his leave, carrying his paper with him.
”This paper was in fact a singular scrawl. It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters, disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted, or placed sideways, were arranged and placed in perpendicular columns; and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle, divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican Calendar, given by Humbolt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was, derived. I am thus particular as to the contents of the paper, inasmuch as I have frequently conversed with my friends on the subject since the Mormonite excitement began, and well remember that the paper contained anything else but 'Egyptian Hieroglyphics.'
”Some time after, the farmer paid me a second visit. He brought with him the golden book in print, and offered it to me for sale. I declined purchasing. He then asked permission to leave the book with me for examination. I declined receiving it, although his manner was strangely urgent. I adverted once more to the roguery which had been, in my opinion, practised upon him, and asked him what had become of the gold plates. He informed me that they were in a trunk with the large pair of spectacles. I advised him to go to a magistrate, and have the trunk examined. He said 'the curse of G.o.d' would come upon him should he do this. On my pressing him, however, to pursue the course which I had recommended, he told me he would open the trunk if I would take 'the curse of G.o.d' upon myself. I replied I would do so with the greatest willingness, and would incur every risk of that nature provided I could only extricate him from the grasp of the rogues. He then left me.
”I have thus given you a full statement of all that I know respecting the origin of Mormonism, and must beg you, as a personal favor, to publish this letter immediately, should you find my name mentioned again by these wretched fanatics. Yours respectfully,
”CHARLES ANTHON.”*
* ”Mormonism Unveiled,” pp. 270-272. A letter from Professor Anthon to the Rev. Dr. Coit, rector of Trinity Church, New Roch.e.l.le, New York, dated April 3, 1841, containing practically the same statement, will be found in Clark's ”Gleanings by the Way,” pp. 233-238.
While Mormon speakers quoted Anthon as vouching for the mysterious writing, their writers were more cautious. P. P. Pratt, in his ”Voice of Warning” (1837), said that Professor Anthon was unable to decipher the characters, but he presumed that if the original records could be brought, he could a.s.sist in translating them. Orson Pratt, in his ”Remarkable Visions” (1848), saw in the Professor's failure only a verification of Isaiah xxix. 11 and 12:--
”And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed: and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Facsimile of the Characters of the Book of Mormon 072]
John D. Lee, in his ”Mormonism Unveiled,” mentions the generally used excuse of the Mormons for the professor's failure to translate the writing, namely, that Anthon told Harris that ”they were written in a sealed language, unknown to the present age.” Smith, in his autobiography, quotes Harris's account of his interview as follows:--
”I went to New York City and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Prof. Anthon, a man quite celebrated for his literary attainments. Prof. Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated, and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, a.s.syriac, and Arabic, and he said they were the true characters.”
Harris declared that the professor gave him a certificate to this effect, but took it back and tore it up when told that an angel of G.o.d had revealed the plates to Joe, saying that ”there were no such things as ministering angels.” This account by Harris of his interview with Professor Anthon will a.s.sist the reader in estimating the value of Harris's future testimony as to the existence of the plates.
Harris's trip to New York City was not entirely satisfactory to him, and, as Smith himself relates, ”He began to tease me to give him liberty to carry the writings home and show them, and desired of me that I would enquire of the Lord through the Urim and Thummim if he might not do so.”
Smith complied with this request, but the permission was twice refused; the third time it was granted, but on condition that Harris would show the ma.n.u.script translation to only five persons, who were named, one of them being his wife.
In including Mrs. Harris in this list, the Lord made one of the greatest mistakes into which he ever fell in using Joe as a mouthpiece. Mrs.
Harris's Quaker belief had led her from the start to protest against the Bible scheme, and to warn her husband against the Smith family, and she vigorously opposed his investment of any money in the publication of the book. On the occasion of his first visit to Joe in Pennsylvania, according to Mother Smith, Mrs. Harris was determined to accompany him, and he had to depart without her knowledge; and when he went the second time, she did accompany him, and she ransacked the house to find the ”record” (as the plates are often called in the Smiths' writings).
When Harris returned home with the translated pages which Joe intrusted to him (in July, 1828), he showed them to his family and to others, who tried in vain to convince him that he was a dupe. Mrs. Harris decided on a more practical course. Getting possession of the papers, where Harris had deposited them for safe keeping, she refused to restore them to him.
What eventually became of them is uncertain, one report being that she afterward burned them.
This should have caused nothing more serious in the way of delay than the time required to retranslate these pages; for certainly a well-equipped Divinity, who was revealing a new Bible to mankind, and supplying so powerful a means of translation as the Urim and Thummim, could empower the translator to repeat the words first written. Indeed, the descriptions of the method of translation given afterward by Smith's confederates would seem to prove that there could have been but one version of any translation of the plates, no matter how many times repeated. Thus, Harris described the translating as follows:--