medical men should be called in to give a professional opinion as
to the fact, from a consideration of all the symptoms, and without
reference to miraculous agency. One of these gentlemen, Mr. Mathias,
appearing incredulous of Joanna's pregnancy, was asked "if he would
believe when he saw the infant at the breast?" He protested against a
question so blasphemous; but his further attendance was dispensed with,
as she had been answered, "that he had drawn a wrong judgment of her
disorder." Mr. Mathias, too, let out some strange information, showing
that Joanna passed much of her time in bed, ate much and often, and
prayed never; but to keep up the delusion that she was with child, she,
like other ladies in that situation, had longings. On one occasion she
longed for asparagus, and ate one hundred and sixty heads, at no small
cost, before she allayed her liking.
Dr. Richard Reece[26] was now consulted by Joanna as to her pregnancy.
He was not a proselyte to her religious views, but is thought to have
been deceived by her symptoms, and declared to a deputation of her
followers his belief of her being pregnant by some means or other.
As her supposed time of deliverance approached, Joanna fell ill, and
began to doubt her inspiration, most probably by her fears awakening
her conscience; and as Dr. Reece continued in attendance, he witnessed
the following scene:--"Five or six of her friends, who were waiting
in an adjoining room, being admitted into her bedchamber, she desired
them," says Dr. Reece, "to be seated round her bed; when, spending
a few minutes in adjusting the bed-clothes with seeming attention,
and placing before her a white handkerchief, she addressed them in
the following words: 'My friends, some of you have known me nearly
twenty-five years, and all of you not less than twenty; when you have
heard me speak of my prophecies, you have sometimes heard me say that
I doubted my inspiration; but at the same time, you would never let me
despair. When I have been alone, it has often appeared delusion; but
when the communication was made to me, I did not in the least doubt.
Feeling, as I now do feel, that my dissolution is drawing near, and
that a day or two may terminate my life, it all appears delusion.' She
was by this exertion quite exhausted, and wept bitterly."
[26] Dr. Richard Reece was the son of a clergyman, and was articled
to a country surgeon. In 1800 he settled in practice in Henrietta
Street, Covent Garden, and published _The Medical and Chirurgical
Pharmacopœia_; and having received a degree of M.D. from a Scotch
university, he exercised the three professions of physician,
apothecary, and chemist. He likewise published several volumes upon
various medical subjects; and established himself in the western
wing of the Egyptian Hall Piccadilly. He assailed quackery with much
boldness; hence his mistake as to Joanna Southcote was made the most
of. He had also considerable practice, by which he gained money. He
published _A Plain Narrative of the Circumstances attending the last
Illness and Death of Joanna Southcote_.
"On reviving in a little time, she observed, that it was very
extraordinary, that after spending all her life in investigating the
Bible, it should please the Lord to inflict that heavy burden on her.
She concluded this discourse by requesting that everything on this
occasion might be conducted with decency. She then wept; and all her
followers present seemed deeply affected, and some of them shed tears.
'Mother,' said one (it is believed Mr. Howe), 'we will commit your
instructions to paper, and rest assured they shall be conscientiously
followed.' They were accordingly written down with much solemnity, and
signed by herself, with her hand placed on the Bible in the bed. This
being finished, Mr. Howe again observed to her, 'Mother, your feelings
are _human_; we know that you are a favourite woman of God, and that
you will produce the promised child; and whatever you may say to the
contrary will not diminish our faith.' This assurance revived her, and
the scene of crying was changed with her to laughter."
Mr. Howe was not the only one of her disciples whose sturdy belief was
not to be shaken by the most discouraging symptoms. Colonel Harwood,
a zealous believer, entreated Dr. Reece not to retract his opinion as
to her pregnancy, though the latter now saw the folly and absurdity of
it; and when the Colonel approached the bed on which Joanna was about
to expire, and she said to him, "What does the Lord mean by this? I am
certainly dying;" he replied, smiling, "No, no, you will not die; or if
you should, you will return again."
About ten weeks before Christmas she was confined to her bed, and took
very little sustenance, until pain and sickness greatly reduced her.
On the night of the 19th of October, a very large number of persons
assembled in the street where she lived--Manchester Street, Manchester
Square[27]--to hear the announcement of the looked-for advent; but
the hour of midnight passed over, and the crowd were only induced to
disperse by being informed that Joanna had fallen into a trance.
[27] One of Joanna's London residences was at No. 17, Weston Place,
opposite the Small Pox Hospital.
Mr. Want, a surgeon, had warned her of her approaching end; but she
insisted that all her sufferings were only preparatory to the birth
of the Shiloh. At last she admitted the possibility of a temporary
dissolution, and expressly ordered that means should be taken to
preserve warmth in her for four days, after which she was to revive
and be delivered. On December 27th, 1814, she actually died, in her
sixty-fifth year, she having previously declared that if she was
deceived, she was, at all events, misled by some spirit, either good
or evil. In four days after, she was opened in the presence of fifteen
medical men, when it was demonstrated that she was not pregnant, and
that her complaint arose from bile and flatulency, from indulgence and
want of exercise. In her last hour she was attended by Ann Underwood,
her secretary; Mr. Tozer, who was called her high priest; Colonel
Harwood, and some other persons of property; and so determined were
her followers to be deceived, that neither death nor dissection could
convince them of their error. The silencing of her preacher, Tozer,
and shutting up of the chapel which he had opened, had by no means
diminished the number of her believers.
While the surgeons were investigating the causes of her death, and
the mob were gathering without-doors, in anticipation of a riot or a
miracle, Sharp, the engraver, continued to maintain that she was not
dead, but entranced. And, at a subsequent period, when he was sitting
to Mr. Haydon for his portrait, he predicted to the painter, that
Joanna would reappear in the month of July 1822. "But suppose she
should not?" said Haydon. "I tell you she will," retorted Sharp; "but
if she would not, nothing should shake my faith in her Divine Mission."
And those who were near Sharp's person during his last illness, state
that in this belief he died. Even when she was really dead, the same
blind confidence remained. Mrs. Townley, with whom she had lived, said
cheerfully, "she would return to life, for it had been foretold twenty
years before."
Mr. Sharp also asserted that the soul of Joanna would return, it
having gone to heaven to legitimate the child which would be born.
Though symptoms of decomposition arose, Mr. Sharp still persisted in
keeping the body hot, according to the directions which she had given
on her death-bed, in the hope of a revival. Dr. Reece having remarked
that if the ceremony of her marriage continued two days longer, the
tenement would not be habitable on her return, "The greater will be
the miracle," said Mr. Sharp. Consent at last was given to inspect
the body, and all the disciples stood round, smoking tobacco. Their
disappointment was excessive at finding nothing to warrant the long
cherished opinion, but their faith remained immovable.
Her corpse was removed on the 31st of December to an undertaker's in
Oxford Street, where it remained till the interment. On the 2nd of
January, 1815, it was carried in a hearse, so remarkably plain, as to
have the appearance of one returning from rather than proceeding to
church; it was accompanied by one coach equally plain, in which were
three mourners. In this manner they proceeded to the new cemetery
adjoining St. John's Wood Chapel, with such secrecy, that there was
scarcely a person in the ground unconnected with it. A fourth person
arrived as the body was being borne to the grave; this was supposed to
be Tozer. The grave was taken, and notice given of the funeral, under
the name of Goddard. Neither the minister of St. John's, who read the
service, nor any of the subordinate persons belonging to the chapel,
were apprised of the real name about to be buried, till the funeral
reached the ground. The grave is on the west side, opposite No. 44 on
the wall, and twenty-six feet from it, where is a flat stone with this
inscription:--
"In memory of
JOANNA SOUTHCOTE,
who departed this life December 27, 1814, aged 65 years.
While through all thy wondrous days,
Heaven and earth enraptur'd gazed,
While vain Sages think they know
Secrets Thou Alone canst show;
Time alone will tell what hour
Thou'lt appear to 'Greater' Power.
_Sabineus._"
On a black marble tablet, let into the wall opposite to the above spot,
is the following inscription, in gilt letters:--
"Behold the time shall come, that these Tokens which I have told Thee,
shall come to pass, and the Bride shall Appear, and She coming forth,
shall be seen, that now is withdrawn from the Earth."
2nd of Esdras, chap. 7, verse 26.
"For the Vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall
speak, and Not Lie, though it tarry, Wait for it; Because it will
surely come, it will not tarry."
Habakkuk, chap. ii. ver. 3d.
"And whosoever is delivered from the Foresaid evils, shall see My
Wonders."
2nd of Esdras, chap. 7th, ver. 27th.
(_See her writings._)
This Tablet was Erected,
By the sincere friends of the above,
Anno Domini, 1828.
The number of Joanna's followers continued to be very great for many
years after her death: they believed that there would be a resurrection
of her body, and that she was still to be the mother of the promised
Shiloh.
The Southcotonians also still met and committed various extravagancies.
In 1817 a part of the disciples, conceiving themselves directed by God
to proclaim the coming of the Shiloh on earth, for this purpose marched
in procession through Temple Bar, when the leader sounded a brazen
trumpet, and declared the coming of Shiloh, the Prince of Peace; while
his wife shouted, "Wo! wo! to the inhabitants of the earth, because of
the coming of Shiloh!" The crowd pelted the fanatics with mud, some
disturbance ensued, and some of the disciples were taken into custody,
and had to answer for their conduct before a magistrate. A considerable
number of the sect appear to have remained in Devonshire, Joanna's
native county.
The whole affair was one of the most monstrous delusions of our time.
"It is not long since," says Sir Benjamin Brodie, in his _Psychological
Inquiries_, 3rd edition, "no small number of persons, and not merely
those belonging to the uneducated classes, were led to believe that a
dropsical old woman was about to be the mother of the real Shiloh." The
writer, however, adds that Joanna was "not altogether an impostor, but
in part the victim of her own imagination."
A small square volume of Southcotonian hymns was published, entitled,
"Hymns or Spiritual Songs," composed from the prophetical writings of
Joanna Southcote, by P. Pullen, and published by her order. "And I saw
an angel," &c.--Rev. xx. 1, 2. The "Little Flock" are thus addressed
by their "Poet Laureat:"--"By permission of our 'spiritual mother,
Johanna Southcote,' I have composed the following hymns from her
prophetic writings; and should you feel that pleasure in singing them
to the honour and glory of God, for the establishment of _her blessed
kingdom_, and the destruction of Satan's power, as I have felt in the
perusal of her writings, I am fully persuaded that they will ultimately
tend to your everlasting happiness, and I hope and trust to the speedy
completion of what we ardently long and daily pray for, namely, 'HIS
KINGDOM _to come, that_ HIS _will may be done on earth as it is in
heaven, and that we may be delivered from evil_;' that that blessed
prayer may be soon, very soon fulfilled, is the earnest desire of your
fellow labourer, Philip Pullen. London, 16th September, 1807."
"The reader of these Hymns," says a Correspondent of _Notes and
Queries_, "will not feel the spiritual elevation spoken of by Mr.
Pullen, unless, perhaps, he has, like him, drunk at that fountain-head,
_i.e._ studied the 'prophetic writings:' the songs for the now
'scattered sheep' being rhapsodical to a degree, and intelligible only
to such an audience as that some of your sexagenarian readers may have
found assembled under the roof of the 'House of God.' The leading
titles to these Hymns are, 'True Explanations of the Bible,' 'Strange
Effects of Faith,' 'Words in Season,' 'Communications and Visions,' not
published, 'Cautions to the Sealed,' 'Answers to the Books of Garrett
and Brothers,' 'Rival Enthusiasts,' and such like. Pullen, their poet,
was formerly a schoolmaster, and afterwards an accountant in London,
and is called by Upcott, in his _Dictionary of Living Authors_, 1816,
an empiric.
"A couplet in the first hymn bears an asterisk, intimating that it is
published at the particular request of Johanna Southcote; it is short,
and will afford at once a specimen of the poetical _calibre_ of the
volume, and the pith of the 'Spiritual Mother's' views:--
"_To_ FATHER, SON, _and_ HOLY GHOST,
_One_ GOD _in power_ THREE,
_Bring back the ancient world that's lost
To all mankind--and me_."
Joanna Southcote published many pamphlets, and one of her disciples,
Elias Carpenter, issued several curious and mystical tracts. The lists
of these publications are too long to be quoted here. Probably the
most complete collection preserved of the extraordinary productions
by and relating to this wonderful imposture, was that made by Sir
Francis Freeling, together with cuttings from all the newspapers, and
bound in 7 vols. 8vo, 1803 to 1815. The titles of the principal tracts
fill a page of Thorpe's Catalogue, Part III., 1850. For another very
rare collection, in 6 vols., 8vo, see J. C. Hotten's Catalogue for
October 1858. Perhaps the most tangible explanation attempted of Joanna
Southcote's mission is that by Carpenter, in the _Missionary Magazine_,
1814. To Carpenter is attributed the following anonymous work, "The
Extraordinary Cure of a Piccadilly Patient, or Dr. Reece physicked by
Six Female Physicians, 1815."
[Illustration]
Leeds: August 20, 1809.
Mr. Urban,--Herewith you receive the original seal with which that
miserable enthusiast, Joanna Southcott, imposed on the husband of Mary
Bateman, the wicked wretch who was lately tried and executed at this
place, for the murder of a woman named Perigo. It was found in their
cottage when she was taken into custody. The words are as follow:--
John Bateman,
The
Sealed of the Lord.
The Elect precious; Man's Redemption;
To inherit the tree of life; to be made
Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with
Jesus Christ.
Joanna Southcott
Feb. 12, 1806.
The Founder of Mormonism.
Joseph Smith, "the Prophet," has left to the world a short sketch
of himself and his system of Mormonism, which is one of the most
remarkable movements of modern times. He was born in the State of
Vermont, in 1805, and was brought up to husbandry. When about fourteen
years old he began to reflect upon the importance of being prepared
for a future state, and inquiring into the plan of salvation. He
tells us:--"I retired to a secret place in a grove, and began to call
upon the Lord. While fervently engaged in supplication, my mind was
taken away from the objects with which I was surrounded, and I was
enwrapt in a heavenly vision, and saw two glorious personages, who
exactly resembled each other in feature and likeness, surrounded with
a brilliant light which eclipsed the sun at noonday. They told me that
all the religious sects were believing in incorrect doctrines, and
that none of them was acknowledged of God as his Church and Kingdom.
And I was expressly commanded to _go not after them_, at the same time
receiving a promise that the fulness of the Gospel should at some
future time be made known to me."
This "fulness of the Gospel" was that revealed in _The Book of Mormon_,
of the discovery of which and its contents he says:--"On the evening
of the 21st of September, A.D. 1823, while I was praying unto God and
endeavouring to exercise faith in the precious promises of Scripture,
on a sudden, a light like that of day, only of a far purer and more
glorious appearance and brightness, burst into the room; indeed, the
first sight was as though the house was filled with consuming fire. The
appearance produced a shock that affected the whole body. In a moment,
a personage stood before me surrounded with a glory yet greater than
that with which I was already surrounded. The messenger proclaimed
himself to be an angel of God, sent to bring the joyful tidings,
that the covenant which God made with ancient Israel was at hand to
be fulfilled; that the preparatory work for the second coming of the
Messiah was speedily to commence; that the time was at hand for the
Gospel in all its fulness to be preached in power unto all nations,
that a people might be prepared for the Millenial reign.
"I was informed also concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this
country (America), and shown who they were and from whence they
came; a brief sketch of their origin, progress, civilisation, laws,
governments, of their righteousness and iniquity, and the blessings of
God being finally withdrawn from them as a people, was made known unto
me. I was also told where there were deposited some plates, on which
was engraven an abridgment of the records of the ancient prophets that
had existed on this continent. The angel appeared to me three times the
same night, and unfolded the same things. After having received many
visits from the angels of God, unfolding the majesty and glory of the
events that should transpire in the last days, on the morning of the
22nd of September, 1827, the angel of the Lord delivered the records
into my hands.
"These records were engraven on plates which had the appearance of
gold; each plate was six inches wide and eight inches long, and not
quite so thick as common tin. They were filled with engravings in
Egyptian characters, and bound together in a volume, as the leaves of
a book, with three rings running throughout the whole: it was partly
sealed. With the records was found a curious instrument, which the
ancients called _Urim and Thummim_, which consisted of two transparent
stones set in the rim on a bow fastened to a breastplate. Through the
medium of the _Urim and Thummim_ I translated the record by the gift
and power of God.
"In this important and interesting book, the history of ancient America
is unfolded from its first settlement by a colony that came from the
Tower of Babel, at the confusion of languages, to the beginning of the
fifth century of the Christian era."
It should here be noticed that the Prophet's account of his early life,
before the appearance of the angel and the discovery of the plates, is
remarkably vague. He had been very rudely educated, and for some time
got a living by trying for mineral veins by a divining rod; and some
affirm that, like Sidrophel, he used "the devil's looking-glass--a
stone," and was consulted as to the discovery of hidden treasures,
whence he had come to be commonly known as the "money-digger;" and on
one occasion he had been, at the instigation of a disappointed client,
imprisoned as a vagabond. He is also stated to have carried off and
married a Miss Hales, during the interval between the first angelic
visitation and the discovery of the plates of Nephi.
As to the _Book of Mormon_ itself, the authorship has been claimed
for one Solomon Spalding, a Presbyterian preacher, who, having fallen
into poverty, composed a religious romance, entitled _The Manuscript
Found_, which professed to be a narrative of the migration of the
Lost Tribes of Israel from Jerusalem to America, and their subsequent
adventures on the continent. The work was written but Spalding could
not find anyone who would print it, and ten years after his death, the
manuscript was carried by his widow to New York, and was stolen by, or
somehow got into the hands of, Smith, or his early associate, Rigdon.
There is nothing in the book to contradict the supposition that it is
the work of Smith himself--for as to its being a divine revelation,
the most cursory examination of the book will convince an educated man
of the utter improbability of that, if its possibility were otherwise
conceivable. Be the author who he may, Smith having obtained the
book--whether from Solomon Spalding's travelling-chest, his own brain,
or the stone-box which the angel discovered to him--thought it behoved
him to make his treasure known. At first he told the members of his own
and his father's household, and they believed the truth of his mission
and the reality of the gift. But, he says: "As soon as the news of
this discovery was made known, false reports, misrepresentations, and
slander flew, as on the wings of the wind, in every direction. My house
was frequently beset by mobs and evil-designing persons; several times
I was shot at, and very narrowly escaped; and every device was made to
get the plates away from me, but the power and blessing of God attended
me, and several began to believe my testimony."
Among these was a farmer, Martin Harris, whom Smith persuaded to
convert his stock into money in order to assist in printing the book.
But Harris wished first to consult some scholar, and Smith entrusted
him with a copy of a portion of one of the golden plates to carry to
New York. Harris took the copy to Dr. Anthon, who was unable to make
out the characters, which he described to be "reformed Egyptian"--and
this is one of the proofs "cited by Mormonite teachers of the
authenticity of the book." But Dr. Anthon's account is very different:
he tells us that from the first he considered the work an imposture,
and his account of it is the only description which has been published,
and is as follows:--"The paper was 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 sidewise, were arranged 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
Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence
it was derived."