This is an exaggerated statement of the supposed difficulty, and so

also is it an exaggerated statement concerning the geography of the

Bible. Suppose, for instance, you separate the Book of Isaiah from

the rest of the library of books comprising the Bible, and how much

of a figure does geography cut in that book? The same may be said of

the book of Psalms, the book of Proverbs, and, separating the preface

from it, the same could be said of the book of Deuteronomy. Mistakes

in criticism of the Book of Mormon are continually made through

entertaining the idea that the Book of Mormon in its structure is the

same as the Bible; that it is the translation of a people's original

literature, and that the books of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, etc., are the

books written by the men bearing those names. Whereas, what we have

is but Mormon's abridgment of the writings of those men. The Book of

Mormon, in other words, save for the writings of Nephi and Jacob (149

pages), and seven other writers [37]--whose entries upon the small

plates of Nephi make but about eight pages--is an abridged record

throughout. Historical events, doctrines, prophecies, not geographical

descriptions, the location of cities, the course of rivers, the

grandeur of mountains or the extent of valleys, will be the objective

of Mormon's research through the larger Nephite records. I may say,

therefore, in answer to this criticism of the Book of Mormon, while by

no means granting all that is claimed in respect of its geographical

defects--its imperfections in geography arise from the very nature

of the book's construction. In such a work you do not look for

geographical knowledge.

I may say also that as these pages go to press the question of Book

of Mormon geography is more than ever recognized as an open one by

students of the book. That is to say, it is a question if Mormon views

hitherto entertained respecting Book of Mormon lands have not been a

misconception by reason of premises forced upon its students by the

declaration of an alleged revelation. In a compendium of doctrinal

subjects, published by the late Elders Franklin D. Richards and James

A. Little, the following item appears:

_Lehi's Travels.--Revelation to Joseph the Seer:_ The course that

Lehi and his company traveled from Jerusalem to the place of their

destination: They traveled nearly a south, southeast direction

until they came to the nineteenth degree of north latitude; then,

nearly east of the Sea of Arabia, then sailed in a southeast

direction, and landed on the continent of South America, in Chili,

thirty degrees south latitude. [38]

The only reason so far discovered for regarding the above as a

revelation is that it is found written on a loose sheet of paper in the

hand writing of Frederick G. Williams, for some years second Counselor

in the First Presidency of the Church in the Kirtland period of its

history; and follows the body of the revelation contained in Doctrine

and Covenants, Section vii., relating to John the beloved disciple,

remaining on earth, until the glorious coming of Jesus to reign with

his Saints. The hand-writing is certified to be that of Frederick G.

Williams, by his son, Ezra G. Williams, of Ogden; and endorsed on

the back of the sheet of paper containing the above passage and the

revelation pertaining to John. The indorsement is dated April the 11th,

1864. The revelation pertaining to John has this introductory line:

"_A Revelation Concerning John, the Beloved Disciple_." But there is no

heading to the passage relating to the passage about Lehi's travels.

The words "Lehi's Travels;" and the words "Revelation to Joseph the

Seer," are added by the publishers, justified as they supposed,

doubtless, by the fact that the paragraph is in the hand writing of

Frederick G. Williams, Counselor to the Prophet, and on the same

page with the body of an undoubted revelation, which was published

repeatedly as such in the life time of the Prophet, first in 1833, at

Independence, Missouri, in the "Book of Commandments," and subsequently

in every edition of the Doctrine and Covenants until now. But the one

relating to Lehi's travels was never published in the life-time of

the Prophet, and was published no where else until published in the

Richards-Little's Compendium as noted above. Now, if no more evidence

can be found to establish this passage in Richards and Little's

Compendium as a "revelation to Joseph, the Seer," than the fact that it

is found in the hand writing of Frederick G. Williams, and on the same

sheet of paper with the body of the revelation about John, the beloved

disciple, the evidence of its being a "revelation to Joseph, the Seer,"

rests on a very unsatisfactory basis.

Yet this alleged "revelation" has dominated all our thinking, and

influenced all our conclusions upon the subject of Book of Mormon

geography. Whereas, if this is not a revelation, the physical

description relative to the contour of the lands occupied by the

Jaredites and Nephites, that being principally that two large bodies

of land were joined by a narrow neck of land--can be found between

Mexico and Yucatan with the isthmus of Tehuantepec between. If the

investigation now going on shall result in relieving us of the

necessity of considering ourselves bound to uphold as a revelation the

passage in Richards and Little's Compendium, here considered, many of

our difficulties as to the geography of the Book of Mormon--if not all

of them in fact, will have passed away. In that event much found in

this treatise of the Book of Mormon relative to the Nephites being in

South America--written under the impression that the passage in the

above named Compendium was, as is there set forth, a revelation--will

have to be modified.

And let me here say a word in relation to new discoveries in our

knowledge of the Book of Mormon, and for matter of that in relation

to all subjects connected with the work of the Lord in the earth. We

need not follow our researches in any spirit of fear and trembling. We

desire only to ascertain the truth; nothing but the truth will endure;

and the ascertainment of the truth and the proclamation of the truth

in any given case, or upon any subject, will do no harm to the work of

the Lord which is itself truth. Nor need we be surprised if now and

then we find our predecessors, many of whom bear honored names and

deserve our respect and gratitude for what they achieved in making

clear the truth, as they conceived it to be--we need not be surprised

if we sometimes find them mistaken in their conceptions and deductions;

just as the generations who succeed us in unfolding in a larger way

some of the yet unlearned truths of the Gospel, will find that we have

had some misconceptions and made some wrong deductions in our day

and time. The book of knowledge is never a sealed book. It is never

"completed and forever closed;" rather it is an eternally open book,

in which one may go on constantly discovering new truths and modifying

our knowledge of old ones. The generation which preceded us did not

exhaust by their knowledge all the truth, so that nothing was left for

us in its unfolding; no, not even in respect of the Book of Mormon; any

more than we shall exhaust all discovery in relation to that book and

leave nothing for the generation following us to develop. All which is

submitted, especially to the membership of the Church, that they may

be prepared to find and receive new truths both in the Book of Mormon

itself and about it; and that they may also rejoice in the fact that

knowledge of truth is inexhaustible, and will forever go on developing.

X.

_Of the Objection that the Transcript of Characters Made from

the Nephite Plates by Joseph Smith, a Few Lines of which have been

Preserved, Bear no Resemblance to the Hieroglyphics and Language

Characters Discovered in Central America on Stone Tablets, Maya Books

and Mexican Picture Writing_.

This is an objection most vehemently urged by Rev. M. T. Lamb, author

of "The Golden Bible," already several times quoted in this division

of my treatise. Mr. Lamb takes the three lines of characters of Joseph

Smith's transcript, and confronts them with a _fac simile_ of Landa's

Maya Alphabet, and also engravings from some of the stone tablets from

Palenque and Copan, and then triumphantly invites comparison in the

following passages:

We ask the candid reader carefully to examine these characters,

and then look back again to page 261. Those [Joseph's transcript

from the plates] are the characters Joseph Smith tells us were

universally used in Central America 1,500 and 2,000 years

ago--while the ruins, the engraved stones, the chiselled marble,

tell us that these [Mr. Lamb's reproduction of Landau's Maya

Alphabet] were the characters actually used in that locality, and

at that time. Look at the two attentively--see if you can discover

any likeness whatever between them. A woeful fatality, is it

not? that there should not happen to be even one of Mr. Smith's

characters that bears a family likeness, or the least particle

of resemblance to the characters actually used by the ancient

inhabitants of Central America! [39]

Commenting again upon the characters of Joseph Smith's transcript, Mr.

Lamb says:

The longer you look at them the more modern and familiar they will

become until Professor Anthon's designation, a "hoax" will not seem

at all surprising even to a candid Mormon. And if that word is not

the proper one, this certainly must be acknowledged, that they are

the most unfortunate specimen of ancient characters that have ever

been exhibited; for they have a fearfully suspicious look, and

it would take the clearest possible evidence to drive away that

suspicion from any intelligent and unprejudiced mind. [40]

These are rather formidable conclusions to force upon us from a basis

of comparison so narrow as that furnished by the three lines of Joseph

Smith's transcript. This preserved scrap, published first in the

"Prophet," New York, December 21st, 1844 [41] of three lines, or even

that of seven lines preserved with the Whitmer Manuscript, are evidently

not all that were submitted to Professor Anthon [42] by Martin Harris.

Professor Anthon in describing the characters submitted to him as a

transcript from the plates, says:

This paper in question was, in fact, a singular scroll. It

consisted of all kinds of singular 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, arched with various strange marks, and evidently

copied after the Mexican calendar by Humboldt, but copied in such a

way as not to betray the source whence it was derived.

Neither the three lined transcript, [43] nor the seven, meets this

description of Anthon's though they may have constituted a part, and

doubtless were a part of what was submitted to Professors Anthon and

Mitchell. But neither of the two transcripts furnishes data for the

conclusions of Mr. Lamb, since we have in them so few of the Nephite

characters as a basis of comparison. But even from data so meagre as

that furnished by these transcripts, it is possible to show that Mr.

Lamb and others who have made like objection are too hasty in their

conclusions. On a separate page, I give a photographic reproduction

of the ancient Maya Alphabet as engraved by Dr. Augustus Le Plongeon,

from the mural inscriptions of the Mayas, and the Egyptian Hieratic

Alphabet according to Messrs. Champollion, Le Jeune and Bunsen. The

whole page is a photograph reproduction of a page from the preface of

Le Plongeon's Work, "Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas and the Quiches,"

page xii.

[Tables of characters captioned "Ancient Maya Hieratic alphabet according

to mural inscriptions." and "Egyptian Hieratic alphabet according to Messrs.

Champollion, Le Jeune and Bunsen."]

[Image captioned _"Transcript of Ancient Egyptian characters from

Rawlinson's History of Egypt_.]

[Image captioned _Transcript from Nephite plates, by Joseph Smith_.]

Two things are to be observed with reference to these two alphabets:

First, the strong resemblance between many of the American and Egyptian

characters; second, the resemblance of some of the characters in

the transcript from the Nephite plates to some of the characters in

both the so-called Maya and the Egyptian Alphabet. And although the

Nephite characters are so few, and some allowance must be made for

unskilfulness in making the transcriptions, yet there is to be seen a

strong family likeness between the characters of all three productions

here presented, Mr. Lamb and others to the contrary notwithstanding.

And that family likeness between the Nephite characters and Egyptian

writing is made more impressive by the second page of _fac similies_

herewith presented, consisting first of a photographic reproduction of

a transcript, of the three kinds of writing employed by the Egyptians

in ancient times, from the work of George Rawlinson, compared with

Joseph Smith's transcript of Nephite characters. The first line from

Rawlinson's work is the Hieroglyphic form of Egyptian writing, the

second the Hieratic, the third the Demotic. [44]

It will be observed, as Mr. Rawlinson himself points out, that "there

is not much difference between the hieratic and the demotic." The

former is the earlier of the two. And now, notwithstanding the fact

that the Nephites wrote in characters that they called "Reformed

Egyptian"--which I understand to mean, in altered or changed Egyptian

characters yet, I submit, that when the transcript of Nephite

characters made by Joseph Smith is compared with the transcript from

the works of Mr. Rawlinson, there is a strong family likeness very

gratifying to believers in the Book of Mormon, and the force of

Mr. Lamb's objection on this head is destroyed by these submitted

facts, viz., the few Nephite characters preserved from Joseph Smith's

transcripts, disclose a strong family resemblance to the ancient forms

of Egyptian writing, and even some similarities to the ancient Maya

Alphabet published by Le Plongeon.

Footnotes

1. I Peter i: 18-25. Rev. xiii: 8.

2. Titus i: 1, 2.

3. Heb. x: 1.

4. I. Cor. x: 1-4.

5. Mr. Campbell cites the first edition throughout.

6. Heb. xiii: 20.

7. II. Nephi v: 26. II. Nephi vi: 2.

8. Alma v: 44. Alma xiii.

9. Judges vi: 15.

10. Judges vi.

11. See this Vol. chapter xxxv.

12. Ephesians iii: 5, 6.

13. I. Nephi x; also book of Jacob, chapter v.

14. Col. i: 2, 3.

15. Isaiah xlii: 6, 7.

16. Isaiah xlix: 6-9 et seq., specially verses 20-22. Paul himself

quotes Isaiah xlix: 6; see Acts xiii: 47. Simeon in the temple quotes

Isaiah; see Luke ii: 30, 32.

17. I. Nephi xix: 10.

18. Alma viii: 7.

19. So Hyde: "He [Joseph Smith, through the Book of Mormon] determines

none of the great questions pending in the world at large, but only

the minor difficulties that would have been likely to have reached a

western village." Hyde's "Mormonism," p. 281.

20. Moroni viii.

21. Following is Mosheim's description of baptism in the third century:

"Baptism was publicly administered twice a year, to such candidates

as had gone through a long preparation and trial; and none were

present as spectators, but such as had been themselves baptized. *

* * None were admitted to the sacred font until the exorcist, by a

solemn menacing formula, had declared them free from bondage to the

prince of darkness and now servants of God. * * * The persons baptized

returned home, decorated with a crown and white robe; the first being

indicative of their victory over the world and their lusts, the latter

of their acquired innocence." (Mosheim's Institute, Century Three,

chapter iv.) In describing baptism in the century previous--and the

same things accompanied it in the third and fourth--he tells how "the

baptized were signed with the cross, anointed, commended to God by

prayer and imposition of hands, and finally directed to taste some

milk and honey;" also how "Sponsors, or Godfathers, were employed for

adults, and afterwards for children likewise." All of which mummeries

were additions to the sublimely beautiful and simple ordinance of the

baptism of the gospel.

22. See Science of Religion, p. 193-300.

23. "The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors." (Graves), pp. 303-4.

24. Alma xxx: 44.

25. Helaman xii: 13-15.

26. "Golden Bible," p. 336.

27. "In the sixth century before our era," remarks Andrew D. White

("History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom," Vol.

I, pp. 120, 121), "Pythagoras, and after him Philolaus, had suggested

the movement of the earth and planets about a central fire; and,

three centuries later, Aristarchus had restated the main truth with

striking precision. Here comes in a proof that the antagonism between

theological and scientific methods is not confined to Christianity; for

this statement brought upon Aristarchus the charge of blasphemy, and

drew after it a cloud of prejudice which hid the truth for six hundred

years. Not until the fifth century of our era did it timidly appear

in the thoughts of Martianus Capella; then it was again lost to sight

for a thousand years, until in the fifteenth century, distorted and

imperfect, it appeared in the writings of Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa."

28. "American Antiquities" (Priest), p. 272.

29. "Ancient America," (Baldwin), p. 42.

30. "Ancient America," (Baldwin), pp. 122, 123.

31. "Conquest of Mexico," (Prescott), Vol. I., p. 103.

32. "Pre-Historic America," (Nadaillac), p. 305.

33. Bancroft's Works, Vol. II., p. 502.

34. Dr. W. M. Paden, Pastor of the first Presbyterian Church, Salt Lake

City, Utah, in a Discourse against the Book of Mormon, March 21, 1904.

35. Ibid.

36. Golden Bible, pp. 308, 309.

37. This work Vol. II., p. 138.

38. Compendium, p. 289.

39. "The Golden Bible," p. 265. I quote from the 1887 edition, which I

understand to be the revised and enlarged one. [45]

40. Ibid., p. 260.

41. "The Prophet" was a Mormon weekly periodical, published by S.

Brannan from May, 1844, to May 24, 1845.

42. A fac simile of which is given in Vol. II., p. 72.

43. Volume II., this work p. 76. This is from his letter to E. D. Howe;

in a second letter to Rev. Coit, Anthon gives a similar description.

(Ibid., pp. 79, 78.)

44. Boston 1882, two volumes. The photographed transcript will be found

in Vol. I. of Rawlinson, p. 120.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

OBJECTIONS TO THE BOOK OF MORMON (Continued).

I.

_Alleged Plagiarisms of Historical and Biblical Events_.

It is charged against the Book of Mormon that many of its historical

incidents are mere plagiarisms of historical and Biblical events. I

shall only be able to indicate a few of these charges, and point out

the means by which they may be fairly met. I call attention to the

fact, in the first place, that some of the charges are absolutely

false; that they are based on misquotations and misstated incidents.

In other cases the comparison is very much strained to get the result

of likeness, and throughout the likelihood of similarity in human

experience is entirely overlooked.

Mr. John Hyde declares that Nephi's description of the rise of a great

and abominable church immediately after the days of the Messiah on

earth, together with his description of her pride, power, and cruelty,

is a quotation from the book of Revelations, "A description of the

Church of Rome;" [1] the abduction of the daughters of the Lamanites

by the Priests of King Noah; [2] the martyrdom of Alma's converts in

the land of Ammonihah; [3] and the slaughter of the converts of Ammon

among the Lamanites, [4] are events "borrowed from the history of Nero,

Caligula, and Fox's book of Martyrs."

In Alma's conversion, he sees "an imitation of Paul's miraculous

conversion" with this difference; that Paul was struck with blindness

for three days, and Alma is struck dumb for two days! [5] In the remarks

of King Mosiah on the advantages of a government by the people as

against the rule of absolute monarchs, our author sees the doctrine

of "Vox populi vox Dei," [6] although that idea nowhere occurs in the

passage to which he gives reference, and in fact, in no passage of the

Book of Mormon. These citations from the long list that our author

makes out will perhaps be sufficient from him. Those who wish to trace

out this class of objections, as he makes them, may consult his work. [7]

A more recent writer enters into the same line of argument in greater

detail. [8] His theory is that the author of the Book of Mormon set

out to "beat the Bible" in the matter of wonderful things recorded.

Thus in the "eight barges" of the Jaredites he sees an attempt to

outdo the Bible account of Noah's "one ark." In a complete vision

granted to the brother of Jared of the pre-existent spirit-personage

of the Messiah, he sees the partial view of the same personage granted

to Moses outdone. In the fact that the Nephite prophet, Abinadi,

interpreted certain writings upon the wall of a temple, he sees an

imitation of Daniel's exploit of reading the writing on the wall of

Belshazzar's palace. In Ether's expressed doubt as to his own fate,

whether he would be granted the privilege of translation or be required

to pass through the ordeal of death, he sees the counterpart of the

story of Elijah's ascent into heaven. In the retention of three of

the Nephite apostles on earth until Messiah shall come in his glory,

he sees the New Testament intimation and the early Christian notion

that the apostle John might be granted such a privilege--if such it

could be regarded--outdone. In the signs of Messiah's birth, granted

to the Nephites--the night of continuous light and the appearance of

a new star in the heavens; as also in the signs of his crucifixion

and burial--three hours of tempest and earthquake while the Son of

Man was on the cross, and three days of darkness while he lay in the

tomb [9]--our author sees again an effort to outdo the Bible signs

accompanying Messiah's birth and death.

In the account given in III Nephi [10] of the multitude being permitted

to come in personal contact with the Savior one by one, and touch the

scars of the wounds he had received in crucifixion, Rev. Lamb sees an

effort to outdo the New Testament story of Thomas thrusting his hands

in the wounds of our Savior, that he might be convinced of the reality

of his resurrection. Indeed, the Reverend gentleman makes very much of

this circumstance. He supposes the multitude granted this privilege

numbered 2,500; and allowing that five persons would pass the Savior

every minute, giving each one twelve seconds to thrust his hand into

Messiah's side, and feel the print of the nails, would require "eight

hours and twenty minutes of time!" [11] The Reverend Gentleman, however,

neglected to give the matter due consideration. The number of the

multitude, 2,500, is given at the close of the first day's visit of

Messiah to the Nephites; whereas, the circumstance of the people being

allowed to personally come in contact with the Savior, is an event

that took place early in the day, almost immediately upon the Christ's

appearance in fact, and when the "multitude" was much smaller than

at the close of the day. Two circumstances lead to the belief that

the crowd was greatly augmented through the day. For instance, after

some considerable time had elapsed after his appearing, and after the

multitude had gone forth and felt the wounds in his hands and feet,

Jesus called for their sick and afflicted, that he might heal them. It

is unreasonable to suppose that the blind and halt and sick were with

the "multitude" when Jesus first appeared, as the latter were a party

strolling about the temple viewing the changes wrought in the land by

the recent cataclysms, while the sick and maimed with their attendants

would doubtless be at their homes. Therefore, many of the people

departed from the presence of Jesus to bring to him these afflicted

ones; and as they went on this errand of mercy they doubtless spread

the news of Christ's presence among them, with the result that the

people were gathered together throughout the day.

Again, after blessing their afflicted ones, the Lord Jesus caused

their children to be gathered together, that he might bless them;

which doubtless in many cases caused parents to hasten again to their

homes and ever as they went the news spread further and further of the

Messiah's presence, until finally, at the close of the day's gathering,

2,500 were found to be present. It by no means follows, however, that

all this number thrust their hands into the wounds of Messiah; but only

the very much smaller number that was gathered about the temple in the

land of Bountiful earlier in the day, when Messiah appeared to them.

Our author sees in these things I have quoted and some others that

he details, plagiarisms of Bible events; and concludes that the Book

of Mormon, instead of being what it claims to be, is largely but a

collection of Bible events distorted by Joseph Smith's inventions.

It places a Christian minister, believing as he does in the divinity

of both the Old and New Testament, at a very great disadvantage to

make this kind of an argument. Suppose we were to apply it as a test

of the New Testament? We could then say that the ascension of Jesus,

recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, is but an imitation of the

glorious ascension of Elijah into heaven in the presence of a host of

angels. [12] We could say that the special miracles wrought by the hands

of Paul so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs

and aprons to the afflicted, and "the diseases departed from them and

the evil spirits went out of them," is but an imitation of what Elijah

did when he sent his staff by the hands of his servant, commanding him

to lay it on the face of the dead child of his Shunammite friend to

restore him to life. [13]

"It might be said, also, that in the subsequent conduct of Elijah in

restoring this same child to life, we have the original of the New

Testament story of Jarius's daughter. [14] In this same chapter of

Kings we have the following story of Elisha's miraculously feeding a

multitude:

And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God

bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears

of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people,

that they may eat. And his servitor said, What, should I set this

before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they

may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave

thereof. So he set before them, and they did eat, and left thereof,

according to the word of the Lord.

"Who can doubt," the Biblical sceptic might ask, "but what this story

inspired that of the Evangelists concerning the miraculous feeding of

five thousand people, in a desert place, from five loaves, and two

fishes. [15] The excess of people mentioned in the New Testament--five

thousand thus miraculously fed as against Elijah's one hundred--"could

be pointed to as an effort of the New Testament writer to merely

"outdo" in the marvelous the miracles of the Old Testament.

Again, it might be continued that the story of tenth Revelations, where

a little book is given to John the apostle to eat, one that should

be bitter in his belly, but in his mouth sweet as honey, is but a

plagiarism of a very similar story told in Ezekiel where that prophet

is commanded to eat the roll of the book, and it was in his mouth "as

the honey for sweetness." [16]

Thus we might continue in drawing such parallels, but there would be

neither profit nor argument in doing so. Such procedure is scarcely

worthy the name of criticism. It reminds one of Shakespeare's Rosalind

finding the doggerel verses of the love-sick swain, Orlando, hanging

upon the trees of the forest of Arden, and of Rosalind reading them--

From the east to the western Ind,

No Jewel is like Rosalind.

All the pictures fairest lined,

Are but black to Rosalind.

Let no fair be kept in mind,

But the fair of Rosalind.

Which doggerel the more sensible Touchstone, listening to--and

impatient at withal--finally breaks in upon the fair reader with:

"I'll rhyme you so eight years together, dinners and suppers and

sleepin-hours excepted:--for a taste--

If a hart do lack a hind,

Let him seek out Rosalind.

If the cat will after kind,

So be sure will Rosalind.

Winter garments must be lined,

So must slendor Rosalind.

They that reap must sheef and bind,

Then to cart with Rosalind.

Sweetest nut hath sourest rind,

Such a nut is Rosalind.

So with like result one might run on with this kind of argument

based upon the Book of Mormon's alleged plagiarisms from the Hebrew

scriptures.

II.

_The Absence of Book of Mormon Names Both of Place and Persons in

Native American Language_.

It is objected to the Book of Mormon that there nowhere appears in

native American languages Book of Mormon names. "During the one

thousand years of their recorded history," says one, "as given in

the Book of Mormon, the old familiar names of Lehi, Nephi, Laman,

Lemuel and others are constantly recurring; they held on to them with

reverential pertinacity. If the Book of Mormon were a true record

we should find these names in abundance among various Indian races

scattered over both continents." The absence of Book of Mormon names in

the native language, is held to be fatal testimony against the claims

of the Book of Mormon by this writer. [17]

One recognizes here a real difficulty, and one for which it is quite

hard to account. It must be remembered, however, that from the close of

the Nephite period, 420 A. D., to the coming of the Spaniards in the

sixteenth century, we have a period of over one thousand years; and we

have the triumph also of the Lamanites over the Nephites bent on the

destruction of every vestige of Nephite traditions and institutions.

May it not be that they recognized as one of the means of achieving

such destruction the abrogation of the old familiar names of things

and persons? Besides there is the probable influx of other tribes and

peoples into America in that one thousand years whose names may have

largely taken the place of Nephite and Lamanite names.

I have already suggested that the name "Nahuas" and the adjective

derived from it, "Nahuatl," are probably variations of the names

"Nephi" and "Nephite," derived, it may be, together with the Bible

names "Nepheg," "Nephish," "Nephishesim," and "Naphtali" from a common

Hebrew root. [18] Also, that the name "Hohgates," by which names the

seven mythical strangers were called who in ancient times settled at

Point St. George on the Pacific coast near San Francisco, is a survival

of the Book of Mormon name "Hagoth," who is prominent in the Book of

Mormon narrative as the man who first started maritime migrations from

South America, northward along the Pacific coast of North America. [19]

Mr. Priest, the author of "American Antiquities," declares that the

word "Amazon," the name of the chief river of South America, is an

Indian word. [20] Early in the century in which Messiah was born, four

of the sons of the Nephite king, Mosiah II, departed from Zarahemla on

a mission to the Lamanites. At that time the Lamanites occupied the

lands formerly possessed by the Nephites, previous to the migration of

the more righteous part of that people to Zarahemla--the old "land of

Nephi." This land, so far as can be determined, corresponds somewhat

to the modern country of Ecuador and perhaps the northern part of

Peru. [21] In this region, it will be remembered, the river Amazon takes

its rise. The leader of the Nephite missionary expedition referred

to was Ammon, doubtless the oldest son of King Mosiah II. [22] Such

were the achievements of this man; such his rank, and such his high

character that it is not difficult or unreasonable to believe that his

name was given by the people to the principal stream of the land, and

that it has survived under the modern variation of the name Amazon.

Again, the word "Andes," the name of the chief mountain range in South

America, is quite generally supposed, if not conceded by the best

authorities, to come from the native Peruvian word "Anti," meaning

copper. [23]

The Peruvians, in order to cultivate some mountainous parts of their

country, terraced the mountain sides, facing the same with stone. These

terraces the Spaniards called "Andenes," whence some suppose the name

"Andes." "But the name," says Prescott, "is older than the Conquest,

according to Varcilasso, who traces it to 'Anti,' the name of a

province that lay east of Cuzco. 'Anta,' the word for copper, which was

found abundant in certain quarters of the country, may have suggested

the name of the province, if not immediately that of the mountains." [24]

In any event we have the words "Anti" and "Anta" established as native

American words, and the word "Anti" is of frequent use in the Book of

Mormon in a number of compound words, such as "Anti-Nephi-Lehi," the

name of a Lamanite king or chief about B. C. 83. [25] The same name was

given to his people, that is, they were called "Anti-Nephi-Lehi's," [26]

and possibly it may have been given to the land they occupied. If so

it accounts for the word "Anti" surviving as the name of a province,

according to Garcilasso, lying east of Cuzco.

We also have the word "Antiomno," [27] the name of a Lamanite king;

"Antionah," the name of a chief; "Antionum," both the name of a

man, [28] and also the name of a city; [29] also the word "Antiparah," a

Nephite city; [30] "Antipas," the name of a mountain; [31] and "Antipus,"

the name of a Nephite military leader. [32]

It is true these words in the Book of Mormon, are written as simple

words, but they are susceptible of being regarded as compound words, as

follows: "Anti-Omno," "Anti-Pas," "Anti-Parah," and so following. If

the Peruvian terraces derived their name from this native word "Anti,"

then when applied to Nephite lands Anti-Onum would doubtless mean the

terraced lands of Onum, and Anti-Parah, the name of a city, would

doubtless be the terraced city of Parah, and so following.

But after all this is said it is still a matter of regret that more of

the Nephite names, both of men and countries, have not survived in the

native American languages. Still the field of knowledge of American

antiquities has not yet been thoroughly explored, and when its buried

cities and monuments shall be more thoroughly known all the evidences

that can be demanded along these lines will doubtless be produced.

III.

_Nephi's Temple_.

First Nephi gives the following account of building a temple in the New

World:

And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after

the manner of the temple of Solomon, save it were not built of so

many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land;

wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon's temple. But

the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon;

and the workmanship thereof was exceeding fine. [33]

This statement is unfairly dealt with by objectors. They generally

represent it as saying that Nephi, in this description, holds out the

idea that he duplicated Solomon's temple, excepting as to the richness

of the materials employed in its construction. Then an elaborate

description of the greatness and architectural grandeur of Solomon's

temple is given. Attention is also called to the fact that the Hebrew

nation bent all their energies through seven years of activity in

constructing the temple of Solomon; that they were aided by surrounding

peoples, notably by King Hiram and the Tyrians.

After all this is explained then comes what is supposed to be an

insurmountable difficulty, namely: Lehi's colony that came from

Jerusalem to America was a very small one, consisting of two families

only, Lehi's and Ishmael's, and in addition the man Zoram, perhaps not

exceeding a score of adult persons on their arrival in the promised

land. Then after some time this colony is divided; the more righteous

branch following Nephi, and the wicked following his elder brothers

Laman and Lemuel. So that it is safe to conclude that during the

lifetime of the first Nephi the colony remained a very small one;

and since this temple was built about thirty years after the colony

departed from Jerusalem, the Nephite division of it could not have

included more than one hundred adults. How, then, it is triumphantly

asked, could this small colony duplicate Solomon's temple, renowned for

its architectural beauty and greatness, and which required seven years

for the nation of the Hebrews to construct, assisted by surrounding

people and the great treasuries which David, in his reign, had

accumulated for that sacred purpose?

The answer to the objection is to be found in a denial of the

construction put upon Nephi's description of his temple. That

description does not warrant the conclusion that Nephi's temple was a

duplicate of Solomon's, except as to the "manner of the construction,"

from which it is to be inferred that the general plan of the structure

followed that of Solomon's, but it does not follow that it was anything

like Solomon's in the extent or largeness of it; but in the arrangement

of its courts; its several divisions and subdivisions were built

"after the manner" and for the purposes for which Solomon's temple was

constructed. So that the labored argument as to the inability of so

small a colony as Lehi's duplicating Solomon's temple is merely so much

wasted energy, since no one is bound to hold that in its dimensions

and greatness the Nephite Temple equaled Solomon's temple. It was only

like unto Solomon's temple in its arrangement and uses, but doubtless

by this colony was regarded as a very great achievement, as undoubtedly

it was, and they would likely speak of it in the superlative degree of

admiration in describing it.

IV.

_The Difficulty of Iron and Steel Among the Nephites_.

The Book of Mormon repeatedly affirms the Nephite knowledge of the

fusion of metals, and their knowledge and use of both iron and steel.

As many writers on American Antiquities deny the knowledge and use of

these metals by the ancient Americans, their alleged existence in the

Book of Mormon is generally regarded as a capital objection to that

record. Not all the influential writers, however, are on that side of

the question.

"There is no evidence," says Bancroft, "that the use of iron was

known except the extreme difficulty of clearing forests and carving

stone with implements of stone and soft copper." [34]

Referring to some of the stones in the ruins of Peruvian buildings,

Prescott remarks:

Many of these stones were of vast size; some of them being full

thirty-eight feet long, by eighteen broad, and six feet thick. We

are filled with astonishment when we consider that these enormous

masses were hewn from their native bed and fashioned into shape by

a people ignorant of the use of iron. [35]

But why could not the argument of Wilkinson be followed when confronted

with a similar problem respecting the ancient Egyptian works in stone?

He allowed that the achievements of that ancient people in quarrying

and shaping huge blocks of stone to be an evidence of their knowledge

and use of iron, but that its tendency to decomposition and oxidation

prevented any specimens of it from being preserved. [36]

Later, notwithstanding Prescott's disagreement with the argument, some

of the best authorities sustained the conclusions of Wilkinson. George

Rawlinson, for instance, in his "History of Ancient Egypt," says:

In metals Egypt was deficient. * * * * Copper, iron, and lead do,

however, exist in portions of the eastern desert, and one iron mine

shows signs of having been anciently worked.

"Then," he remarks, "the metal is found in form of specular and red

iron ore. Still, none of these metals seem to have been obtained by the

Egyptians from their own land in any considerable quantity. In a foot

note he says this mine lies in the eastern desert between the Nile and

Red Sea, at a place called Hammami." [37] Later, he says:

It has been much questioned whether iron was employed at all by

the Egyptians until the time of the Greek conquest. The weapons

and implements and ornaments of iron which have been found in

the ancient cities are so few, while those of bronze are so

numerous, and the date of the few iron objects discovered is so

uncertain that there is strong temptation to embrace the simple

theory that iron was first introduced into Egypt by the Ptolemies.

Difficulties, however, stand in the way of a complete adoption of

this view. A fragment of a thin plate of iron was found by Col.

Vyse imbedded in the masonry of the great pyramid. [38]

Continuing, he says:

Some iron implements and ornaments have been found in the tombs

with nothing about them indicative of their belonging to the late

period. The paucity of such instances is partially, if not wholly

accounted for, by the rapid decay of iron in the nitrous earth

of Egypt, or when oxidized by exposure to the air. It seems very

improbable that the Hebrew and Canaanites should for centuries have

been well acquainted with the use of iron, and their neighbors

of Egypt, whose civilization was far more advanced, have been

ignorant of it. On these grounds the most judicious of modern

Egyptologists seem to hold, that while the use of iron by the

Egyptians in Pharaonic times was at the best rare and occasional,

it was not wholely unknown, though less appreciated than we should

have expected. Iron spear-heads, iron cycles, iron gimlets, iron

bracelets, iron keys, iron wire were occasionally made use of,

but the Egyptians on the whole were contented with their bronze

implements and weapons, which were more easily produced and which

they found to answer every purpose. [39]

May it not be argued with equal reason, that the Lamanites, after the

conquest of the Nephites, found themselves in the same condition, that

is, it was easier for them to convert copper into such implements as

they desired than iron, until finally the use of iron was discontinued

and the art of manufacturing it lost.

Baldwin says of the Peruvians:

Iron was unknown to them in the time of the Incas, although some

maintain that they had it in the previous ages, to which belong the

ruins of Lake Titicaca. Iron ore was and still is very abundant in

Peru. It is impossible to conceive how the Peruvians were able to

cut and work stone in such a masterly way, or to construct their

great roads and aqueducts without the use of iron tools. Some

of the languages of the country, and perhaps all, had names for

iron; in official Peruvian it was called "quillay," and in the old

Chilian tongue "panilic." "It is remarkable," observes Molina, "that

iron, which has been thought unknown to the ancient Americans,

has particular names in some of their tongues." It is not easy to

understand why they had names for this metal, if they never at any

time had knowledge of the metal itself. In the "Mercurio Peruano,"

(tome i., p. 201, 1791), it is stated that, anciently, the Peruvian

sovereigns, "worked magnificent iron mines at Ancoriames, on the west

shore of Lake Titicaca;" but I can not give the evidence used in

support of this statement. [40].

DeRoo says:

Iron seems to have been unknown in America at the time of the

Spanish discovery, but the Mound-Builders' graveyards, afford proof

that they not only knew it, but manufactured it into tools and

implements. In the sepulchral mound at Marietta (Ohio) there was

found in the year 1819 a little lump of iron ore that had almost

the specific gravity of pure iron, and presented the appearance of

being partially smelted, while in the mound at Circleville oxidized

iron was unearthed in the shape of a plate. [41]

Referring again to what was found in the mound at Marietta, he says:

In June of 1819, upon opening a mound at Marietta, some very

remarkable objects were discovered, consisting of three large

circular copper bosses thickly overlaid with silver, and apparently

intended as ornaments for a buckler or a sword-belt. On the reverse

were two plates fastened by a copper rivet or nail, around which

was a flaxen thread, while between the plates were two small pieces

of leather. The copper showed much signs of decay; it was almost

reduced to an oxide; but the silver, though much corroded, resumed

its natural brilliancy on being burnished. In the same tumulus was

also found a hollow silver plate six inches long and two broad,

intended apparently as the upper part of a sword-scabbard. The

scabbard itself seems to have perished in the course of time, as no

other portion of it was found, with the exception of a few broken,

rust-eaten pieces of a copper tube, which was likely intended for

the reception of the point of the weapon. [42]

Josiah Priest has the following passages on the subject of the

discoveries of iron in the mounds of America:

We have examined the blade of a sword found in Philadelphia, now

in Peel's Museum, in New York, which was taken out of the ground

something more than sixty feet below the surface. The blade is

about twenty inches in length, is sharp on one edge, with a thick

back, a little turned up at the point, with a shank drawn out

three or four inches long, on which was doubtless, inserted in

the handle, and clenched at the end. It is known that the swords

of all ancient nations were very short, on which account, their

wars on the field of battle, were but an immense number of single

combats. [43]

Describing what was found in one of the mounds at Circleville, in Ohio,

upon the authority of Mr. Atwater, who was present when the mound was

opened, he says:

The handle, either of a small sword, or a large knife, made of an

elk's horn; around the end where the blade had been inserted, was

a ferule of silver, which, though black, was not much injured by

time; though the handle showed the hole where the blade had been

inserted, yet no iron was found, but an oxide or rust remained,

of similiar shape and size. The swords of the ancient nations of

the old world, it is known, were very short. Charcoal, and wood

ashes, on which these articles lay, were surrounded by several

bricks, very well burnt. The skeleton appeared to have been burnt

in a large and very hot fire. * * About twenty feet to the north of

it (i. e. the skeleton) was another, with which was found a large

mirror. * * * On this mirror was a plate of iron, which had become

an oxide, but before it was disturbed by the spade, resembled a

plate of cast iron. The mirror answered the purpose very well for

which it was intended. [44]

Iron was known to the antediluvians; it was also known to the

ancients of the west. Copper ore is very abundant, in many places

of the west; and, therefore, as they had a knowledge of it when

they first came here they knew how to work it, and form it into

tools and ornaments. This is the reason why so many articles

of this metal are found in their works; and even if they had a

knowledge of iron ore, and knew how to work it, all articles made

of it must have become oxidized as appears from what few specimens

have been found, while those of copper are more imperishable. [45]

Quoting Mr. Atwater again, Priest says:

There is a tradition (among the Indians) that Florida had once been

inhabited by white people, who had the use of iron tools; their

oldest Indians say, when children, they had often heard it spoken

of by the old people of the tribe, that anciently, stumps of trees

covered with earth, were frequently found, which had been cut

down by edged tools. Whoever they were, or from whatever country

they may have originated, the account, as given by Morse, the

geographer, of the subterranean wall found in North Carolina, goes

very far to show they had a knowledge of iron ore; and consequently

knew how to work it, or they could not have had iron tools, as the

Shawanese Indians relate. [46]

Again:

On the river Gasconade, which empties into the Missouri, on the

southern side, (about 70 miles west of St. Louis) are found the

traces of ancient works, similar to those in North Carolina. In

the saltpetre caves of that region, the Gasconade country, in

particular, were discovered, when they were first visited, axes

and hammers made of iron; which led to the belief that they had

formerly worked those caves for the sake of the nitre. Dr. Beck,

from whose Gazetteer of Missouri and Illinois, (p. 234), we have

this account, remarks, however, that "it is difficult to decide

whether these tools were left there by the present race of Indians,

or a more civilized race of people. * * * * This author considers

the circumstance of finding those tools in the nitre caves, as

furnishing a degree of evidence that the country of Gasconade river

was formerly settled by a race of men who were acquainted with

the use of iron, and exceeded the Indians in civilization and a

knowledge of the arts. [47]

In the town of Pompey, Onondaga county, New York, in one of the mounds

where Mr. Priest describes the finding of glass, he also says:

In the same grave with the bottle was found an iron hatchet,

edged with steel. The eye, or place for the helve, was round, and

extended or projected out, like the ancient Swiss or German axe. *

* * * In the same town, on lot No. 17, were found the remains of a

blacksmith's forge; at this spot have been ploughed up crucibles,

such as mineralogists use in refining metals.

These axes are similar, and correspond in character with those

found in the nitrous caves on the Gasconade river, which empties

into the Missouri, as mentioned in Professor Beck's Gazatteer of

that country. * * * * * Within the range of these works have been

found pieces of cast iron, broken from some vessel of considerable

thickness. These articles cannot well be ascribed to the era of the

French war, as time enough since then till the region around about

Onondaga was commenced to be cultivated, had not elapsed to give

the growth of timber found on the spot, of the age above noticed;

and, added to this, it is said that the Indians occupying that

tract of country had no tradition of their authors. [48]

Again he states:

Anv'ls of iron have been found in Pompey, (Onondaga county) in

the same quarter of the country with the other discoveries, as

above related; which we should naturally expect to find, or it

might be inquired how could axes, and the iron works of wagons, be

manufactured? [49]

As I have before remarked, it has been contended that the ancient

Americans knew nothing of the fusion of metals, but the presence

of these materials for such purpose goes far towards dispelling

that opinion. It is true that Mr. Priest advances the opinion that

this forge and these crucibles found in New York, may have been of

Scandinavian origin; still that is but a conjecture, and here I wish to

introduce the testimony of Columbus, quoted by Nadaillac, who says:

The Mayas knew nothing of iron; copper and gold were the only

metals they used, and it is doubtful whether they understood

smelting metals. Christopher Columbus is said, however, to have

seen, off the coast Honduras, a boat laden with crucibles, filled

with ingots of metal and hatchets made of copper which had been

fetched from a distance. ("Prehistoric America," p. 269).

Speaking again of discoveries in the ancient tumuli of America, Priest

says:

A vast many instances of articles made of copper and sometimes

plated with silver, have been met with on opening their works.

Circular pieces of copper, intended either as medals or breast

plates, have been found, several inches in diameter, very much

injured by time. In several tumuli the remains of knives, and even

of swords, in the form of rust, have been discovered. * * * * * But

besides, there have been found very well manufactured swords and

knives of iron, and possibly steel, says Mr. Atwater; from which

we are to conclude that the primitive people of America, either

discovered the use of iron themselves, as the Greeks did, * * * *

or that they carried a knowledge of this ore with them at the time

of their dispersion. [50]

Speaking of the discovery of a skeleton of a man in one of the mounds

of Merrietta, Ohio, he says:

Two or three pieces of a copper tube were also found with this

body, filled with iron rust. The pieces from their appearance

composed the lower end of the scabbard near the point of the sword,

but no sign of the sword itself, except a streak of rust its whole

length. [51]

A. J. Connant, A. M., member of the St. Louis Academy of Science, and

of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, published

the following, in 1879:

From an interesting account of certain mounds in Utah, communicated

by Mr. Amasa Potter to the Eureka Sentinel, of Nevada, as copied by

The Western Review of Science and Industry, I make the following

extracts: The mounds are situated on what is known as the Payson

Farm, and are six in number, covering twenty acres of ground. They

are from ten to eighteen feet in height, and from 500 to 1,000 feet

in circumference. "The explorations divulged no hidden treasure so

far, but have proved to us that there once undoubtedly existed here

a more enlightened race of human beings that that of the Indian who

inhabited this country, and whose records have been traced back

hundreds of years." While engaged in excavating one of the larger

mounds, we discovered the feet of a large skeleton, and carefully

removing the hardened earth in which it was embedded, we succeeded

in unearthing a large skeleton without injury. The human framework

measured six feet, six inches in length, and from appearances it

was undoubtedly that of a male. In the right hand was a large

iron or steel weapon, which had been buried with the body, but

which crumbled to pieces on handling. Near the skeleton we also

found pieces of cedar wood, cut in various fantastic shapes, and

in a state of perfect preservation; the carving showing that the

people of this unknown race were acquainted with the use of edged

tools. [52]

Mr. Conant also refers with approval to several passages I have already

quoted from Dr. Priest's works, and adds on his own account:

There are certain facts which have been quoted from time to time,

which fit into none of the popular theories concerning the state

of the arts of the Mound-builders. It has been stated, and often

repeated, that they had no knowledge of smelting or casting

metals, yet the recent discoveries in Wisconsin of implements of

copper cast in molds--as well as the moulds themselves, of various

patterns, and wrought with much skill--prove that the age of

metallurgical arts had dawned in that region at least.

And again: what shall be said concerning the traces of iron

implements which have been discovered from time to time in the

mounds, but more frequently at great depths below the surface of

the soil. Though accounts of such discoveries are generally from

reliable sources, they have latterly received no attention, and

always have been considered as so much perilous ware which no one

cared to handle. [53]

After referring to their stupendous works in stone, and their skill in

the fine arts, involving the most delicate carving, Mr. Conant remarks

of the old American race who wrought them:

And it is difficult to conceive how, without cutting implements

equal, at least, to our own in hardness, such delicate and such

stupendous works could have been executed. And to the question

whether they possessed a knowledge of working iron, the wise

man will hesitate long before he answers in the negative. It

should be remembered, too, how quickly--unless under most

favoring conditions--iron corrodes to dust and leaves scarcely a

trace behind. The piles of the Swiss lake-dwellings, the cedar

posts of the mounds, may endure for ages, while iron--so hard,

and more precious than gold in the advancement of the world's

civilization,--speedily melts away before the gentle dews and air

of heaven. [54]

There is more to the same effect, but our limits will admit of no

further quotations.

V.

_The Horse and Other Domestic Animals of the Book of Mormon_.

It has to be conceded that the weight of assertion on the part of

writers on American antiquities, is against the existence of the horse,

cow, ass, goat, sheep, etc., in America within historical times, and

before the advent of Europeans. There is no evidence developed so far

that satisfactorily proves that any of the native races of America,

wild or civilized, had any knowledge of the horse and other domestic

animals named at the time of the discovery of America by the Europeans.

The Book of Mormon, however, repeatedly and most positively declares

that all these animals existed in great numbers. The first Nephi, for

instance, says:

We did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the

wilderness, that there were beasts in the forest of every kind,

both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat

and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which were for

the use of men. [55]

The same animals, with others, are enumerated as existing also in

Jaredite times, and in the reign of King Emer--the fifth of the

Jaredite line of kings--that people are said to have had--

All manner of cattle, of oxen, and cows, and of sheep, and of

swine, and of goats, and also many other kind of animals which

were useful for the food of man; and they also had horses, and

asses, and there were elephants and cureloms, and cummoms; all of

which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants, and

cureloms, and cummoms. [56]

It is to be observed, curiously enough, that elephants are spoken of

as being in use for domestic purposes in connection with the horse and

cattle, etc., and it is rather a striking circumstance that the remains

of these animals, together with those of man, have been unearthed in

various parts of the American continent, though their existence is

accredited to very ancient times--to ages long prior to either Nephite

or Jaredite times. [57]

It is held, of course, by opponents of the Book of Mormon that this

apparent conflict between the book and the supposed facts, as they are

declared to be by the writers on such subjects, constitutes a grave

objection to the claims of the Book of Mormon. And, indeed, in the

present state of our knowledge upon the subject, it has to be admitted

that it constitutes one of our most embarrassing difficulties. Still

it should be remembered that there is a wide difference between a

difficulty for which one has not at hand an adequate explanation, and

one that would be fatal to the claims made for the Book of Mormon. The

fact has to be admitted that the native Americans seemed to have had

no knowledge of the horse at the time of the discovery of America, but

that does not necessarily carry with it the conclusion that he did not

exist and was not used a thousand years before that time. His apparent

extinction may be and is sarcastically referred to as "a very strange

thing," still, "strange things" do sometimes happen; and the extinction

of species of animals is not an unknown thing in the history of our

earth. Indeed our scientists are confronted by just such--nay, with

the identical "strange occurrence;" namely, the sudden and complete

disappearance of the horse from the American continents. First let me

explain that the result of recent long continued investigation upon the

subject leads our scientists to the conclusion that North America was

the original home of the horse--the place of his "evolution." In the

Century Magazine, for November, 1904, is a very elaborate and very able

article on "The Evolution of the Horse in America," really a study of

the "Fossil Wonders of the West," by Henry Fairfield Osborn, Professor

of Zoology in Columbia University, and Curator in the American Museum

of Natural History. Speaking of the migration of the horse from America

to Europe, he says:

About the early or mid-Pliocene period there apparently occurred

the long journey of the true American breed horses into Asia and

Europe and over the newly made land-bridge of Panama or of the

Antilles into South America. That the true Old World horse actually

came from America is inferred because of the sudden appearance

in the Upper Pliocene of the Siwalik Hills of northern India, in

northern Italy, and in England, of five species of the true horse,

of which no ancestors have been found in either Europe or Asia.

Another strong argument for their American origin is found in

the simultaneous appearance in the same countries of the camel,

which we positively know to have been an exclusively American-bred

animal. It is possible, however, that in unexplored portions

of northern Asia the evolution of true horses may have been

progressing. I am sanguine that traces of this great exodus and

migration of the horses will be discovered in the rocks of northern

Asia, and that this great problem in the history of the horse will

be solved in favor of America.

Speaking further of the horse in America in very ancient times, our

author says:

The preglacial or earliest Plieistocene times in America, as in

Europe were of temperate climate with increasing coldness. The

country was covered from north to south with three noble species

of elephants, namely, the northern mammoth, the Columbian mammoth,

and the imperial mammoth or elephant of Texas; there were also

large and small camels, and a variety of large ground-sloths which

had recently made their way over the new land bridge from South

America. The great number and variety of our preglacial horses

speak for favorable conditions, and constitute an additional

proof of the American-origin theory. In 1826 Mitchell aroused

wide-spread interest by the discovery of the first true fossil

horse of America, found near the Navesink Highlands of New Jersey.

This was seventy-eight years ago; it antedated by a quarter of a

century Leidy's discoveries in Nebraska. The wide geographical

range, as well as the great variety in size and breed of the

American preglacial horses, is indicated by the following facts.

One animal (Equus complicatus), about the size of a small western

broncho, originally found near Natchez, has been traced all

over the Southern States from the isles of the Gulf of Mexico

to South Carolina. A larger horse with very elaborate grinding

teeth has been found in the Northeastern and Middle States. On

the extreme western coasts of California and in Oregon occurs the

large "Pacific horse" perhaps closest to the existing species of

horse. In Nebraska we quarried a whole season, securing remains of

hundreds of horses belonging to another species. In a portion of

this quarry all the larger limb bones were found broken in two.

This suggested to me the possibility that these larger bones, the

only ones known to have contained marrow, had been broken by man,

who was primitively a great marrow eater, but we searched in vain

for any collateral evidence of this hypothesis. To my knowledge,

no human remains have been found associated with those of the

fossil horse in North America; but I confidently expect that such

association will be discovered, as it has been in South America. By

far the largest species of either wild or domesticated horse known

has been determined by Mr. Gidley in Texas, and has appropriately

been called the "giant horse." The grinding teeth exceed those of

the Percheron draft-horse by one third. At the other extreme is

a diminutive horse, discovered both in Florida and in the valley

of Mexico.* * * * * * A more welcome discovery could hardly be

imagined, therefore, than that by our party, in 1899, on the

eastern edge of the Llana Estacado of Texas. It was no less than a

small herd of six or seven preglacial horses. * * * * * * This true

American horse was certainly rather ungainly-looking, proportioned

like the larger primitive horses of Europe, with long body, short

limbs, sloping sides, and quarters like those of some of the

zebras. Like the early cave-horses of Europe, it had a large head,

convex forehead, stout limbs, spreading hoofs and splint-bones

which represent the last of the lateral toes.

Then, coming to the strange circumstance of the total "elimination of

the horse from the American continents," the professor says:

When we look back upon the enormous antiquity of our horse, upon

the ceaseless trials of nature by which it was produced, and upon

the splendid varities of breeds which roamed over the country in

preglacial times, we cannot but regard the total elimination of

this race as a calamity for the North American continent. * * * *

There is no doubt that we supplied South America with the horses

which under the peculiar conditions there began to separate into

a number of distinct breeds. The extremely short-limbed Hippidium

of the pampas of Argentina was contrasted with the more normal

long-limbed horses found in various parts of South America. The

horse also persisted in South America until the advent of man;

during the Upper Pleistocene lake formations its remains are found

associated with chipped stone implements, with pottery and fire

refuse, proving that it was both hunted and eaten. The evidence,

however, for the total extinction of the horse is as strong in

South as it is in North America, and it is generally accepted that

in 1530 Mendoza reintroduced the horse into the La Plata region,

just as the Spaniards reintroduced it into our Southern States.

The rapid spread of several breeds of horses in South America

and of the mustangs in North America bespeak highly favorable

conditions of life. Many of these horses have reverted to a very

primitive condition, notably the striped yellow duns of Mexico.

The increasing cold and the advancing ice sheet of the glacial

period are commonly assigned as the cause of the extinction of

American horses. The fact that most of our native fauna became

extinct at the same time lends probability to this theory. But

this does not explain the elimination which also occurred to the

south in Central and South America, and for other reasons it seems

to me that the temperature theory is not adequate to explain all

the facts. The great herds of kiangs, or wild asses, and other

breeds which subsist under the extreme conditions of the northern

winters, as well as the survival of the horse through the glacial

period in Europe, demonstrate the capacity of this family to endure

cold. Another class of causes which should certainly be taken into

consideration is the occurrence of a wide-spread epidemic among

the quadrupeds, such as the rinderpest of Africa, or that which is

spread by the tsetse-fly. In certain parts of South America the

puma is an animal especially destructive to horses.

May not the last named class of causes be as confidently relied upon to

explain the apparent extinction of the horse in America since the close

of the Nephite period, as to explain his extinction in the more ancient

preglacial times?

What is more embarrassing than the apparent absence of knowledge of the

horse by the natives at the time of the European discovery of America,

is the absence of any positive and abundant evidence of the remains

of the horse in the tumuli or other ruins of the land; and an absence

also of any drawing or other representation of the horse in the native

picture writing or sculpture, while many other animals and birds and

fish are frequently represented both in picture writing and sculpture.

Kitto notes the fact, however, that from the account of the burial of

Jacob, [58] and from the Song of Moses, [59] it is clear that horsemen

were a part of the Egyptian army, and yet there is but one solitary

specimen of a man on horseback amongst the infinite variety of

sculptured representations of their manner and customs. [60]

Daniel G. Brinton, one of the most competent writers upon the subject,

says:

There is no doubt but that the horse existed on the continent

contemporaneously with post-glacial man; and some palaeontologists

are of opinion that the European and Asian horses were descendants

of the American species; [61] but for some mysterious reason the

genus became extinct in the New World many generations before its

discovery. [62]

May it not be possible that a too great antiquity is claimed for most

of the evidences of the existence of these animals in the western

world? The convictions of Nadaillac, concerning the non-existence of

the horse in America within historical times (and previous to the

Spanish invasion), was well nigh shaken by some of the discoveries of

Charnay. The latter, "in the execution of a mission entrusted to him

by the French government, superintended the excavation of some tumuli,

mountains of rubbish probably, which had covered for many centuries

the relics of the ancient Toltecs"--the native Americans who most

resemble the Nephites, judging from their traditions. One dwelling,

which Charnay unearthed, "consisted of twenty-four rooms, two cisterns,

twelve corridors, and fifteen little staircases of extraordinary

architecture and thrilling interest."

"This is not all," continues Charnay. "In the midst of fragments of

pottery of all kinds, from the coarsest used in building, such as

bricks, tiles, water-pipes, to the most delicate for domestic use,

I have picked up enamels, fragments of crockery and porcelain, and

more extraordinary still, the neck of a glass bottle iridescent like

ancient Roman glass."

"Amongst the debris," says Nadaillac, "lays the bones of some

gigantic ruminants (perhaps bisons?), the tibia of which were about

one foot three inches long by four inches thick, the femur at the

upper end about six inches by four inches. Admitting that there

is no mistake, these facts are absolutely new, for previously it

was considered that the early Americans did not know how to make

either glass or porcelain, and that before the arrival of the

Conquistadors (the Conquerors, the Spaniards) none of our domestic

animals were known in America, but that of the oxen, horses, and

sheep living there at the present day are all descended from

ancestors imported from Europe."

"The excavations have also yielded some little chariots that

Charnay thinks were the toys of children. Now, supposing these toys

to have been a reproduction in miniature of objects used by men, we

must conclude that the Toltecs employed carriages, and that their

use was not only given up, but absolutely unknown on the arrival

of Cortes. These discoveries, we can but repeat, greatly modify

the conclusions hitherto accepted. But are these really original

productions? May they not have been imported? This is after all

doubtful, and new proofs are needed to establish certainly that

the objects discovered really date from the pre-Columbian period

before we can admit that in the eleventh century the Toltecs

possessed domestic animals, that they knew how to make and fashion

porcelain, glass, perhaps even iron, for Charnay also collected in

his excavations several iron implements. [63]

Priest, in his "American Antiquities," speaks of "a great number of

tracks, as turkeys, bears, horses, and human beings, as perfect as they

could be made on snow or sand," found impressed in the surface of a

solid rock on a certain mountain in the State of Tennessee, situated a

few miles south of Braystown. He says, "that these are the real tracks

of the animals they represent, appears from the circumstance of this

horse's foot having slipped several inches, and recovered again; the

figures having all the same direction, like the trail of a company on a

journey." [64] Referring later to this subject, he says:

The horse, it is said, was not known in America till the Spaniards

introduced it from Europe, after the time of its discovery by

Columbus, which has multiplied prodigiously on the innumerable

wilds and prairies of both South and North America; yet the track

of a horse is found on a mountain of Tennessee, in a rock of the

enchanted mountain, as before related, and shows that horses were

known in America in the earliest ages after the flood. [65]

The question, then, for the present may be stated thus: The Book of

Mormon positively testifies to the existence, in America, of these

animals in both Jaredite and Nephite times. There have been discovered,

by the researches of men, abundant evidences of the horse's existence

in America, but they claim a very much greater antiquity for that

existence than Book of Mormon times. It must be admitted that the

weight of evidence, though not all the evidence, as it stands at

present, is with those who make such claims; still it may be reasonably

claimed, as for instance in the evidence found by Charnay and referred

to in the passage I have quoted from Nadaillac, that some of the

evidence points to a more recent existence of the horse on the American

continents. Very much more evidence may yet be hoped for on the subject

as explorations shall become more perfect and more extensive.

Relative to other domestic animals, Bancroft says, speaking of those in

Central America:

Turkeys, ducks, geese, and other fowl were domesticated; and pigs,

rabbits, and hares are mentioned as having been bred. Multitudes of

bees were kept for their honey and wax, and hives are spoken o, by

Las Casas without description. Gomera says the bees were small and

the honey somewhat bitter. [66]

It has sometimes been questioned whether bees were found in America;

and their supposed non-existence has sometimes been urged as an

objection to the Book of Mormon, which positively states that the

Jaredites brought with them to the northern continent "deseret," which

by interpretation is "honey bee." [67]

The foregoing passage from Bancroft, and very much more evidence that

might be quoted, sets that question at rest.

Relative to other domestic animals referred to, the cow, goat, sheep,

etc., is a subject much more easily disposed of, for the mountain

sheep and great herds of buffaloes may be the domesticated animals of

ancients gone wild.

VI.

_The Barges of the Jaredite Colony_.

The story of the migration of the Jaredite colony from the coast of

Asia to America in eight barges, driven across the seas by strong

winds, has been an incident ridiculed by nearly every writer against

the Book of Mormon from the beginning. Rev. Alexander Campbell

especially makes merry over it, and disgraces himself by the garbled

and unfair manner in which he relates the story. [68] But it was

reserved for Rev. M. T. Lamb to make the most of such objections as may

be urged against these barges. [69]

Omitting all reference to his silly ridicule and "smartness," in which

he but mimics the methods among infidel writers when dealing with the

story of "Noah's deluge," the objection against the Jaredite migration

and barges may be stated thus:

1. The barges are too small and too few in number to carry Jared's

colony, the animals they are said to have taken with them, and the

necessary provisions.

2. Each barge had an opening in the top of it for the admission of air

into the vessel, which could be closed at will in the event of there

being danger of submersion. A similar opening made in the bottom of the

barge but capable of being kept closed--and when closed water tight--at

the will of the occupants--is regarded as unnecessary and ridiculous.

3. The provisions made for lighting the interior of the barges by means

of transparent stones made luminous by the touch of God's finger, is

unusual and just subject for ridicule.

4. The length of the voyage (344 days), being propelled by furious

winds, the eight barges keeping together till their arrival at the

promised land--is all regarded as too wonderful for belief.

Let us now consider these several objections one by one.

1. The barges are inadequate to convey the colony to America. They are

said to have been small and light on the water. But how small? The

length is described as "the length of a tree." [70] But of what tree? A

tree one hundred feet long, or one two hundred feet long, or longer?

Who may tell? Small; but small in comparison of what? Perhaps small in

comparison of the ark, the traditions concerning which were well known

to Jared and his brother, for they lived but a few generations removed

from the time of its construction. The size of the ark is variously

given because of the variations in the length of the cubit, by means of

which its dimensions are described. The one usually accepted, however,

omitting fractions of feet, is as follows: 525 feet in length; 87 feet

in breadth; 52 feet in height. [71]

If this vessel was in the mind of the Jaredite who described the barges

as "small," and he meant they were small in comparison of the ark, they

could still be good-sized vessels, notwithstanding the descriptive term

"small;" as they also could be good sized vessels notwithstanding the

length of them is described as the length of a tree, since they could

be, if some trees were in the mind of the writer, from one to three

hundred feet in length. The breadth and depth of them is not given,

but doubtless those dimensions would be in good proportion of their

length, for their safety, and not at all as the width of a tree is to

its length.

As to their being inadequate for the colony of Jared and the animals

they brought with them to the New World, it should be remarked, in the

first place, that the colony of Jared was small. A number of years

after the arrival of the colony in America, the two principal families,

that of the Prophet Moriancumr and of Jared, are given as follows:

The former had of sons and daughters twenty-two, while the number of

sons and daughters of the latter were twelve. How many of these sons

and daughters were born after the colonies arrived in America is not

known, but the numbers are given in connection with the statement that

the brother of Jared--Moriancumr--was become old and was anxious to

make some provisions for the settled government of the people. The

"friends of Jared and his brother" at the time of the departure of the

colony from Babel are set down as "twenty-two souls," but how many

were born of these after the colony arrived in America is not known;

but certainly these figures make it clear that the colony of Jared was

small.

Secondly, it should be remarked that the number of animals the colony

brought with them in the barges may not be determined, but most likely

the number was few, and mainly for breeding purposes in the new home to

which the people were being led.

In view of these reflections, the writer is of the opinion that the

candid reader will find no insuperable difficulties in the way of

accepting the barges as adequate to the conveyance of the colony from

one land to another.

I know there is no particular progress made in the matter of removing

one difficulty by pointing to another of like nature, especially such

difficulties as Mormon believers of the Bible, as well as sectarian

believers of it, are equally under obligations to explain as best they

may. Still I think it proper to remark that sectarian ministers, who

are confronted with the difficulties which infidels present concerning

the inadequacy of Noah's ark to house Noah and his family and all

the animals that they were to take into the ark with them, with the

necessary food supplies for the five months through which the flood

prevailed, (the very lowest estimate of the time) cut a sorry figure

when making mouths at Jared's barges.

2. Relative to the openings in the top and bottom of the barges which

has been so fruitful a source of merriment for reverend opponents

of the Book of Mormon, it is only necessary to say that the opening

provided for at the bottom of the barges was doubtless some merely

emergency provision.

3. There is nothing in the matter of the transparent stones made

luminous by being touched by the finger of God that is too much for

a reasonable credulity in one who believes in God and his power. The

stones, called Urim and Thummim, in the breast-plate of the Jewish High

Priest were made luminous under the power of God, and through them in

some mysterious way the will of God was communicated to a prophet.

It is no more marvelous that God, at the solicitation of one prophet

should make transparent stones luminous, by touching them with his

finger, than that he should write his law upon the tablets of stone

with his own finger for another prophet; [72] or that he should make

a bush luminous, for that matter, or cause it to burn and yet not be

consumed. [73]

Especially is belief in the possibility of making these stones luminous

easy since the recent discovery of radium by those eminent French

chemists, M. and Mme. Curie. Radium is a substance procured from

pitchblende, which has not only the peculiar power of radiating light,

but which has the power also of imparting to certain other substances,

for a time at least, the same property. These eminent chemists were

also the first to isolate from other substances, another metal which

they called "polonium," after Poland, the native country of Mme. Curie.

Speaking of this latter metal before the Chemical Congress at Berlin,

in 1903, W. Markwald said of it:

In a much higher degree even than radium it possesses the

property of shining in the dark, and although it is known that

actual particles infinitesimally small are being shot out from it

continually--a fact which is proved by magnetic experiments--this

strange substance does not seem to exhaust itself, nor to lose

its luminous power with the passage of time. Here, therefore, is

a hint, at least, of the future possibility of a constant and

brilliant illuminant generated without heat or combustion.

An editorial writer of "The Medical News," commenting on Professor

Markwald's paper, said:

Professor Markwald's demonstrations at Berlin make it clear that

polonium is capable of communicating its radiant energy to many

other substances in a very marked way.

In the presence of this knowledge concerning the qualities of these

newly discovered metals, it is becoming for even supposedly hardheaded

scientists to stop ridiculing the "luminous stones" of Jared's barges,

while sectarian ministers, professing to believe in the omnipotence of

God. [Text unreadable] splendidly displayed according to accounts given

in the Hebrew scriptures, never had any case against the "luminous

stones," and their ridicule from first to last has been unbecoming.

4. The adequacy of the eight barges to carry the colony of Jared,

together with the seeds and animals they brought with them to the

New World is established the moment it was proved that they may have

been and doubtless were of considerable size; and by the same fact

the difficulty of the length of the voyage was overcome; while the

matter of keeping the barges together is a marvel of our opponent's own

creation.

While it is true that no direct mention is made of any steering

apparatus, it does not follow from this silence that there was no means

for steering provided, [74] and an "outlook" from the opening in the

upper side of the barge was not impossible. Indirectly, the matter

of "steering" is mentioned as a factor in preparing the barges. For

Moriancumr (the brother of Jared), the prophet leader, in praying that

some means of light might be provided, also said: "O Lord, in them

there is no light, whither shall we [by which we shall?] steer?"

Some provision evidently had been made for steering the barges which

needed only the convenience of light to render it adequate.

These considerations dispose of the difficulties of the barges keeping

together.

_The Marvels of Liahona--"Compass."_

This divine instrument, found by Lehi at his tent door, while still in

the wilderness of Arabia, and which he describes as a "round ball of

curious workmanship" of fine brass, within which were two spindles, of

which Nephi says: "and one pointed the way whither we should go into

the wilderness, and * * * I, Nephi, beheld the pointers which were in

the ball; that they did work according to the faith and diligence and

heed which we did give unto them." [75]

This curious instrument in an incidental way is called a "compass"

in several passages. [76] Whereupon, our opponents seek to bring the

Book of Mormon in conflict with supposed historical facts by insisting

that the Book of Mormon speaks of the people being in possession of "a

mariner's compass, long before the invention of such an instrument!" [77]

The director of the Nephites makes no pretentions to being a "Mariner's

compass" of man's invention, and surely the description given

above, supplemented as it is by a fuller description in the Book of

Alma, where it is called "Liahona," must dispel all thought of this

instrument being considered as an ordinary compass, such as is invented

by men for navigating purposes; and which, as everybody knows, has

but this one quality, namely, its needle constantly points northward

because of the magnetic pole force, and mariners knowing one direction

may ascertain others. The silliness of argument, which even supposedly

grave and reverend historians and essayists descend to on such a

point, is illustrated by an alleged incident with which Linn stoops to

render his pages luminous, by pretending to quote the manner in which

"Mormons in Utah" are supposed to explain the alleged anachronism of

the "compass." He says:

The ease with which such an error could be explained is shown in an

anecdote of a Utah Mormon, who, when told that the compass was not

known in Bible times, responded by quoting Acts xxvii: 13, where

Paul says: "And from thence we fetched a compass!"

That is, to quote the passage in full--"From thence we fetched a

compass, and came to Rhegium."

This is merely the repetition of an old, silly story told against the

Mormons long before they arrived in Utah, and was invented by the Rev.

Henry Caswell, author of "The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century,"

published in 1843. It is of that order of stuff as the tales about the

Prophet Joseph attempting to walk on the water, and his pretending to

raise the simulated dead.

The antiquity of the compass really, of course, is of no importance in

this discussion, since it is not claimed that "Liahona" is a compass,

but an entirely different instrument, "and the Lord prepared it;"

still, in passing, it may be well to point out that those who have

attempted to make capital out of this supposed anachronism have not

stated the whole truth concerning the compass.

"The directive power of the magnet," says a respectable authority

"seems to have been unknown in Europe till late in the 12th

century. It appears, however, on very good authority, that it was

known in China, and throughout the east generally, at a very remote

period. The Chinese annals indeed assign its discovery to the year

2634 B. C., when, they say, an instrument for indicating the sun

was constructed by the emperor Hou-angti. At first, they would

appear to have used it exclusively for guidance in traveling by

land." [78]

VII.

_The Weight of the Plates_.

An objection is urged against the credibility of Joseph Smith's account

of carrying the plates of the Book of Mormon home from the Hill

Cumorah. It is claimed that on account of their great weight it would

be impossible for him to carry them a distance of some two miles and

repel successfully the three assaults which he alleges were made upon

him enroute.

Hyde estimates that a mass of gold plates of the dimensions given, 7x8

inches and 6 inches thick, would weigh 200 pounds. [79] Many others

have echoed this objection, and have adopted Hyde's data upon which it

is founded. To increase the difficulties they also say, that "besides

these plates he had, according to his third story, a breast-plate of

brass, Laban's sword, the crystal interpreters, the 'brass ball with

spindles,' the director of Lehi. Yet he packs his horse load, keeps

these large and awkward shaped things completely concealed, and, at the

same time, beat off and outruns two empty-handed men a distance of two

miles! Statements must be probable, and, therefore, these ought to be

rejected." [80]

This is a misrepresentation. The Prophet did not carry these "awkward

shaped things" with him at the time he carried home the plates and

repelled the attacks of his assailants. He carried with him the plates

only on that occasion. The other articles, or as many of them as he

had--I have nowhere found in any narrative of Joseph Smith's, or one

by any responsible person associated with him, that he took possession

of the sword of Laban or Lehi's director--he carried home at other

times. [81]

In passing, I call attention to the fact that nearly every

objection urged against the Book of Mormon has in it the element of

misrepresentation. If the main fact contended for in the foregoing

objection is true, namely, that the plates weighed 200 pounds, and

therefore were too heavy for Joseph Smith to carry two miles and at

the same time repel his assailants, why add the untruths of the rest

of the statement? If the conclusion as to the weight be true, would

not that be difficulty enough to present? It may be a little apart

from the main question here to call attention to this tendency of

misrepresentation in all the objections urged, yet the very strangeness

of the circumstance tempts one to notice it, and it reveals the fact

that those who are making objections to the Book of Mormon are not

quite certain of the strength of such objections as may be urged while

rigidly adhering to the facts in the case.

Without accepting or rejecting the conclusions relative to the probable

weight of the plates--for it is largely matter of speculation in any

case, and the conclusions urged may or may not be near the truth; and,

moreover, ground for the difficulty presented would exist if it could

be established that the plates weighed 90 or even 50 pounds, wo we will

not haggle about the number of pounds in weight--it is conceded that

the weight was considerable. In fact, I have already urged that it was

a matter which impressed itself upon the minds of the Eight Witnesses,

who incidentally say that they saw and "hefted" them. [82]

Replying to this objection it is to be urged, first of all, that Joseph

Smith was a strong, athletic young man; and aroused as he was under the

stress of the excitement of the occasion, he would be wrought up to his

highest physical tension, and when so aroused the limits of what may be

done by men in the way of feats of strength and agility have not yet

been found. Of course there is yet to be reckoned with the power which

God could, and which perhaps he did impart to the young Prophet. If

that be accepted as a factor in the event, the objection based on the

weight of the plates is swept aside. It matters not, then, whether the

weight be 50 or 200 pounds. The difficulty is as easily overcome in the

one case as in the other. But when a natural, ordinary source can be

appealed to for explanation of such a circumstance as is before us, I

do not care to appeal to the supernatural, to the miraculous; and I am

of opinion that when the unusual personal strength of Joseph Smith is

taken into account, and that the young man was aroused to his highest

physical tension by the excitement of the circumstances under which he

was acting, I think he could accomplish the things he claims to have

performed though the weight of the plates be conceded as considerable.

In conclusion, on this head, I call the attention of the many sectarian

"Reverends" who make much of the apostate Hyde's objection, and use his

data for arriving at the weight of the plates, to the fact that it ill

becomes them to urge this objection, while they have to account to an

unbelieving world for the marvelous feats of strength and endurance of

many Bible characters, and especially of Samson, for twenty years Judge

of Israel. What of this man, bare handed, meeting a lion and overcoming

him? What of one lone man, with so poor a weapon as the jaw bone of an

ass, slaying a thousand men of a war-like people? What of his carrying

away bodily, together with the posts and iron bar which fastened them,

the huge gates of the city of Gaza? And finally of his pulling down the

great central pillars of the temple of Dagon, so that the temple fell,

slaying himself and a host of the Philistines?

If these "Reverend" gentlemen shall say in reply to this that each of

these feats of strength and others accredited to Samson is in every

case preceded by the statement, "the Spirit of the Lord began to move

him," or "the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him;" and that

when at last he was caught weakly in the lap of the false Delilah,

and in accounting for that weakness it is said, "he wisted not that

the Lord was departed from him"--in a word, if his strength is to be

accounted for by referring its origin to the Spirit of God resting upon

the man, wayward though he was in some respects, that argument must

count as much in explaining Joseph Smith's feat of carrying the Nephite

plates home and repelling his assailants as in accounting for Samson's

exploits.

_The Death of Shiz_.

The description given in the Book of Mormon of the death of Shiz, the

Jaredite leader who fought Coriantumr, "the last of the Jaredites," is

regarded as an objection to the Book of Mormon. The description follows:

And it came to pass that when Coriantumr had leaned upon his sword,

that he rested a little, he smote off the head of Shiz that Shiz

raised upon his hands and fell; and after that he had struggled for

breath, he died. [83]

It is claimed that this represents an impossible thing--a man with his

head stricken off rising upon his hands! And yet equally marvelous

things of this nature have occurred, and are matters of record.

Mr. G. W. Wightman, of the Seventeenth Lancers of the British Light

Brigade, and a survivor of the wild charge at Balaclava, relates, in

the "Electric Magazine" for June, 1892, the incident of Captain Nolan's

death during that charge. Captain Nolan was of the Fifteenth Hussars,

and he met his fate, according to Wightman, as follows:

We had ridden barely two hundred yards and were still at the

"trot," when poor Nolan's fate came to him. I did not see him

cross Cardigan's front, but I did see the shell explode, of which

a fragment struck him. From his raised sword-hand dropped the

sword, but the arm remained erect. Kinglake writes that "what had

once been Nolan' maintained the strong military seat until the

'erect form dropped out of the saddle;' but this was not so. The

sword-hand indeed remained upraised and rigid, but all other limbs

so curled in on the contorted trunk as by a spasm, that we wondered

how for the moment the huddled form kept the saddle."

It is quite as remarkable that a man stricken unto death by the

fragment of a shell should continue erect in the saddle, with sword-arm

upraised and rigid, while the other limbs so curled in on the contorted

trunk that those who saw him "wondered how the huddled form kept the

saddle," as that a man as his head is stricken off should momentarily

rise on his hands.

Mr. Wightman, in the same article, relates the still more remarkable

case of Sergeant Talbot's death:

It was about this time that Sergeant Talbot had his head clean

carried off by a round shot, yet for about thirty yards farther

the headless body kept the saddle, the lance at the charge firmly

gripped under the right arm. [84]

After this well attested fact, and many others of a similar nature

that might be cited, it is not worth while being skeptical about Shiz

convulsively rising on his hands for a moment after his head was

stricken off.

_Concluding Reflections_.

The foregoing are not all the objections urged against the Book of

Mormon, but they are the chief ones and the only ones I consider worthy

or necessary of notice here; and even some of these scarce pass muster

on the score of being worthy of consideration. I have already called

attention to the tendency of misrepresentation in these objections;

it is a characteristic of all objections that I have ever seen urged

against the Book of Mormon. Why it is so I shall leave those to

explain who make the objections. The arguments made against the Book

of Mormon, especially those made by professed ministers of the Gospel,

are wonderfully similar in spirit to those made by skeptics against

the Hebrew scriptures, and in fact against all written revelation. The

same scoffing at miracles; if they differ from those of the Bible--and

sometimes when this difference is one only of degree--then it is

argued that they cannot be true, because of said differences; if the

miracles resemble those of the Bible--however remotely--then they are

plagiarisms of the Bible, and are idle imitations unworthy of belief.

The same old complaint of skeptics is made against the inadequacy

and imperfections of the language--the language is not that of an

All-Perfect Deity--it is unlike what might be expected of God, the

human elements are all too apparent. And so one might continue through

the whole gamut of criticism against the Book of Mormon.

Sectarian divines who would complain bitterly of such arguments if

used against the Bible, do not hesitate to employ them and couple

with them all the bitterness, ridicule, sarcasm, ribaldry, inuendo,

and even misrepresentation that a certain class of skeptics have

employed against the Bible. I do not mention these things in the way of

complaint; I only want to point to the fact of them, that the reader,

with me, may wonder at them and ask himself the question, why is this

the case?

And now a final word as to these objections. Are all the objections

to the Book of Mormon satisfactorily answered? Are all difficulties

which they represent removed? Frankly, no; they are not. Every one

must feel that. But, on the other hand, do these objections that are

not entirely and satisfactorily answered constitute an insuperable

difficulty in the way of a rational faith in the Book of Mormon? My

answer is, they do not. Nor does incompleteness of evidence on any

particular point necessarily mean error as to the general result of

the evidence. But a little more time, a little more research, a little

more certain knowledge, which such research will bring forth, will

undoubtedly result in the ascertainment of facts that will supply the

data necessary for a complete and satisfactory solution of all the

difficulties which objectors now emphasize, and on which they claim a

verdict against the Book of Mormon.

Meantime, do not our opponents recognize the fact that some

responsibility devolves upon them in the controversy? What of the

positive evidences and arguments advanced in favor of the Book of

Mormon? Have we not a clear right to expect and demand a recognition of

these, or else a clear confutation of them? It is nugatory, as George

Stanley Faber successfully contended respecting infidel arguments

against the Christian religion--it is nugatory to say that the

evidences in favor of the Book of Mormon are weak and unsatisfactory,

while yet no regular confutation or that evidence, and those arguments

are brought forward. To state difficulties, paraphrasing Faber, [85]

is one thing; to refute evidence and answer argument is another. The

work which we have the right to demand of our opponents is a work in

which they shall go regularly through the treatise, say of Charles

Thompson, of Orson Pratt, or Parley P. Pratt, or George Reynolds, [86]

and last, and perhaps least, the less worthy treatise of these

pages, taking argument after argument, necessarily showing its utter

inconclusiveness, and the inconclusiveness of the whole cumulative

evidence and argument, bringing out the triumphant conclusion that the

evidences in support of the claims of the Book of Mormon are too weak

and unsatisfactory to command reasonable assent.

This is what is incumbent upon the opponents of the Book of Mormon. The

mere statement of difficulties is not sufficient; for be it remembered

that mere difficulties though unanswered, or even unanswerable, cannot

set aside direct and positive evidence. "A negative presumption," says

John Fiske, "is not created by the absence of proof in cases where,

in the nature of things, proof is inaccessible," [87] as is the case

in respect of some proof to meet objections urged against the Book of

Mormon. Again our author says: "No amount of negative evidence can

outweigh a single well-established item of positive evidence." [88] And

again: "Negative evidence, as every one knows, is a very unsafe basis

of argument. A single item of positive evidence will always outweigh

any amount of negative evidence." [89] The positive evidence that stands

for the claims of the Book of Mormon become the difficulties that our

opponents must overcome before they can hope to overthrow the claims

made for the Nephite record. Until this is done, I shall hold that the

mass of evidence which it has been the effort of the writer through

these pages to set somewhat in order, is sufficient, both in quality

and quantity, to fill the mind who pays attention to it with a rational

faith in the Book of Mormon--THE AMERICAN VOLUME OF SCRIPTURE.

THE END.

Footnotes

1. Nephi xiii: 14.

2. Mosiah xx.

3. Alma xiv.

4. Alma xxiv.

5. Mosiah xxvii: 18-23.

6. Mosiah xxix.

7. "Mormonism" (1857) pp. 280-282.

8. "The Golden Bible," Rev. M. T. Lamb, (1887), chapter v.

9. Elsewhere on the subject of these signs given to the Nephites, I

have said: "I think I see something very beautiful and appropriate

in these marvelous signs. I think it is fitting that he who is

described in the four Gospels as well as in the fifth (III. Nephi,

Book of Mormon) as the 'Light and Life of the world,' should have his

entrance into earth life proclaimed by a night in which there should

be no darkness, and that a new star for a season should appear in the

heavens, to be a witness to the people that 'the Life and Light' of

mankind had indeed come into the world. And equally appropriate is it

that when he who is described as the 'Life and Light of the world'

is laid low in death, the world should have the testimony of light

eclipsed. I see a beautiful appropriateness in these signs, and in them

I see added pictures in the life and career of the Lord Jesus Christ."

("The Fifth Gospel," a Discourse by the writer replying to criticisms

of Dr. W. M. Paden on III. Nephi, Defense of the Faith and the Saints,

pp. 381-2.)

10. III. Nephi xi.

11. "The Golden Bible," p. 162.

12. Compare II. Kings ii: 7-13 and Acts i: 4-9.

13. Compare Acts xix: 11, 12, Acts v: 15 with II. Kings iv: 29.

14. Compare Matthew ix: 18-26 with II. Kings iv: 32-37.

15. Matthew xiv: 15-21.

16. Compare Rev. x: with Ezekiel ii and iii.

17. See "The Golden Bible," pp. 273-283.

18. Chapter xxxvi this work.

19. See Ibid, chapter xxxiv.

20. "American Antiquities," p. 355.

21. Dictionary of Book of Mormon (Reynolds) p. 223, also Mos. xxviii.

22. Mosiah xxvii: 34. I take it that the sons of the king are named in

the order of their ages and Ammon is named first.

23. Century Dictionary, word Andes. The Encyclopaedia Britannica gives

the word "Anti" as the probable origin of the word "Andes;" also "Anta"

or "Tapir;" and "Antis" the name of a tribe resident in the mountains

of Peru.

24. Conquest of Peru, Vol. I., p. 113, note.

25. Alma xxiv: 3-5.

26. Alma xxiii: 17.

27. Alma xx: 4.

28. Mormon vi: 14.

29. Alma xxxi: 3.

30. Alma 56: 4.

31. Alma xxxvii: 7.

32. Alma 56: 9.

33. II. Nephi v: 16.

34. "Native Races," (Bancroft), Vol., IV, p. 779.

35. "Conquest of Peru," (Prescott), Vol. I., p. 37.

36. The argument is briefly stated by Prescott, and he cites

Wilkinson's "Ancient Egypt," Vol. III., pp. 246-254.

37. "History of Ancient Egypt," George Rawlinson, M. A., Vol. I., p. 97.

38. In a note he cites the fact that the British museum possesses

several specimens of Egyptian iron, but three of these seven or eight

specimens he declares to be of modern date. Vol. I., p. 519.

39. "History of Ancient Egypt," Vol. I, pp. 519, 520.

40. "Ancient America," (Baldwin), pp. 248, 249.

41. "History of America before Columbus," (DeRoo) Vol. I., p. 67.

42. Ibid. p. 68, 69.

43. "American Antiquities," p. 141.

44. Ibid. p. 185.

45. Ibid. p. 225.

46. Ibid. pp. 238, 239.

47. "American Antiquities," pp. 241, 242.

48. "American Antiquities," pp. 260, 261.

49. Ibid. p. 263.

50. Ibid. p. 265.

51. Ibid. p. 269.

52. "Foot-prints of Vanished Races in the Mississippi Valley," pp. 67,

68.

53. Ibid. p. 108, 109.

54. Ibid. pp. 109, 110.

55. I. Nephi xviii: 25. The animals named in this passage are

repeatedly referred to in all parts of the Book of Mormon.

56. Ether ix: 18, 19.

57. Pre-Historic America, (Nadaillac), pp. 15-28.

58. Gen. i: 9.

59. Exod. xv: 1, and xiv: 26.

60. "Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature," (Kitto), Vol. II., p. 973. He

quotes Wilkinson as the authority for the above. Vol. I., p. 289.

61. This opinion is defended by Max Schlosser in the "Archiv fur

Anthropologie," 1889, s. 132.

62. "The American Race," (Brinton), p. 51.

63. "Pre-Historic America," (Nadaillac), p. 357.

64. "American Antiquities," p. 157.

65. Ibid. p. 263.

66. "Native Races," Vol. II., pp. 721-722.

67. Ether ii:3.

68. Following is Campbell's account of the barges: "Moroni writes

the Book of Ether, containing an account of the people of Jared, who

escaped from the building of the tower of Babel unconfounded in his

language. These people of Jared God marched before in a cloud, and

directed them through the wilderness, and instructed them to build

barges to cross the sea; and finally they built eight barges, air

tight, and were commanded to make a hole in the top to admit air, and

one in the bottom to admit water;(!) and in them were put sixteen

windows of molten stone,(!) which when touched by the finger of Jesus,

became as transparent as any glass, and gave them light under 'the

mountain waves' and when above the water.(!) * * * * And the eight

barges after swimming 344 days, arrived on the coast of the land of

promise!"

69. "Golden Bible," (Lamb), p. 3.

70. Ether 2: 17.

71. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, (Hackett's edition) Vol. III., p.

2178.

72. Exodus xxxi: 18.

73. Ibid. iii: 2.

74. I have usually found in personal controversies on this point, that

our opponents depended upon the statement in the Book of Mormon to

the effect that these "barges" should be as a "whale in the midst of

the sea." (Ether ii: 24). To which the answer is obvious; namely, it

does not follow that they were to be like a "tailless," that is to say

"redderless," whale.

75. I. Nephi xvi, II. Nephi v: 12.

76. I. Nephi xviii: 12-21.

77. "Story of the Mormons," (Linn) p. 97. This writer attributes the

possession of the "compass" to the Jaredites. Whether it is the slip

of a careless writer or an effort on his part to make the matter of

the "compass" in the Book of Mormon more ancient, is a question for

him or his friends to explain. Many other writers in their anxiety to

find anachronisms in the Book of Mormon refer to this "compass." Lamb

is positively dishonest in the matter, since he assumes the existence

of two instruments. One he calls the "Director," and applies to it

the description given above in the text, and the other he calls the

"Compass," though clearly this latter word is used in an incidental way

in describing the "Director." This is the only way he could create the

longed for anachronism, and hence he adopted it. This may secure his

fame for ingenuity, but what of his honesty? (See "The Golden Bible"

Chapter III., Subdivisions "C" and "D").

78. "Universal Knowledge," (Chambers) p. 203.

79. Following is the method by which he arrives at this conclusion:

"The plates of gold measure 7x8 inches, and six inches thick, and are

fastened through the back edge with three rings. A box of tin, 10x14,

and 3 inches deep, weighs about 125 lbs. gross. The box may weigh 10 lbs.,

leaving the net weight of tin 115 lbs. Now 10x14x3: 115 :: 7x8x6 : 92 lbs.

Had these gold plates been tin, they would have weighed about 90 lbs.

But the relative weight of tin and gold is as 19.25 to 7.58. So that

7.58 : 19.25 :: 92 : 220.44. Hence, this mass of gold plates, as they

were not so compactly pressed as boxed tin, would have weighed nearly

200 lbs." (Hyde's "Mormonism," p. 244).

80. Hyde's "Mormonism," p. 244.

81. See this Work, Vol. II, ch. iv.

82. This Work, Vol. II, p. 281.

83. Ether xv: 30-31.

84. I am indebted to the kindness of the late Joseph Rich, son of

the late Apostle Charles C. Rich, for these two items. He was kind

enough to mark the passages and send me the article from the "Electric

Magazine," June, 1892.

85. "Difficulties of Infidelity," Sec. I.

86. It is a pleasure to note the work of this my brother, and fellow

President in the First Council of the Seventies in this field of Book

of Mormon labor. I feel myself much indebted to him because of his

great achievements in this field of research.

First, for his excellent Book of Mormon Chronological Table, published

now for many years in connection with the late Elder F. D. Richards'

"Compendium."

Second, for his "Myth of the Manuscript Found."

Third, for his "Dictionary of the Book of Mormon."

Fourth, for a series of articles in the "Contributor," (Vol. 5) on the

History of the Book of Mormon.

Fifth, for a second series of articles in the "Contributor" (Vol. 17)

under the title "Evidences of the Book of Mormon; Some External Proofs

of its Divinity."

Sixth, and last, and greatest achievement of all, I thank him for his

"Complete Concordance of the Book of Mormon." The amount of patient,

pains-taking labor required for the production of this magnificent work

will never be known to the general reader. Only the close student of

the Nephite Scriptures will ever really appreciate it. What Cruden and

Young have done for Bible students, Elder Reynolds has more abundantly

done for Book of Mormon students. The Elders of the Church through all

generations to come will, I am sure, feel deeply grateful to Elder

Reynolds for his great work which will stand as a monument to his

pains-taking habits of thorough application to a task; but what is

better still, the work will stand as a monument of his love for the

Book of Mormon.

87. Studies in Religion, p. 78.

88. Cosmic Philosophy, Vol. I., p. 81.

89. Ibid. Vol. III., p. 60.1.