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I. Woodbridge Riley (1869-1933) The Founder of Mormonism (NYC: Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1903) |
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1902 review | Daryl Chase Thesis (1931) | Fawn M. Brodie book (1945)
Kessinger-Publishing reprint edition (also on-line at Google Books)
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T H E F O U N D E R O F M O R M O N I S M A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF JOSEPH SMITH, JR. BY I. WOODBRIDGE RILEY ONE-TIME INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH NEW YORK UNIVERSITY WITH AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE BY Prof. GEORGE TRUMBULL LADD § NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1903 |
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[ xi - xix ]
1 Partisan Treatment of Joseph Smith's Character. -- Advantages of the Standpoint of Physiological Psychology. -- The Man in His Maturity Described by Eye-witnesses. -- 'A Phenomenon to be Explained,' -- Smith's Ability and His Absurdities. -- His Writings Supplemented by Suppressed Sources. -- The Origin of Mormonism. -- Its Impelling Forces in the Eighteenth Century. -- Joseph's Strange Ancestry. -- His Grandfather Mack's Narrative. -- The Latter's Life of Adventure and Hardship. -- The Old Soldier's Ailments and His Religious Experiences. -- He Sees Visions and Hears Voices. -- Similar Experiences of the Grandson. -- Mack's Belief in Faith Healing and Miraculous Cures. -- Erratic Tendencies Transmitted. -- The Prophet's Mother. -- Her Book, and its Works of Wonder. -- Her Revivalistic Dream. -- The Smith Pedigree Traced Back to 1666. -- The Prophet's Father, His Restlessness of Mind and Body. -- His Seven Dreams. -- Their Local Color. -- Their Incorporation Into the Book of Mormon. -- Their Mystic Interpretation. -- Their Physiological Basis. Elements of Illusion and Hallucination. -- They Reflect the Dreamer's Notions and Beliefs. -- Relation to the Visions of Joseph, Junior.
CHAPTER II
37 Western New York in 1815. -- Backwardness of the Country. -- Mental Effects: Lack of Education, Scarcity of Books. -- Religious Literature Predominant. -- Some Rationalism, More Sectarianism. -- Fanatic Sects. -- Revivals, Their Unnatural Methods and Abnormal Results. -- The Young Bewildered From the Clash of Creeds, Depressed From the Sombre Theology. -- Joseph Smith's Account of His First Three Visions. -- The Psychology of Such Religion. -- Emotional Pressure and Resultant Hallucinations. -- Religious Hypnosis and the Abnormalities of Conversion. -- Parallel with John Bunyan. -- Joseph Smith's Greater Abnormalities Due to Heredity. -- His Neuropathic Ancestry. -- His Grandfather's 'Fits.' -- Neural Instability of the Second Generation. -- Joseph's Juvenile Ailments. -- Causes Provocative of His First Seizure. -- Intoxication and the Second Seizure. -- Psychophysical Description of the First Two 'Visions.' -- Melancholic Depression and Infernal Phantasms. Smith Neither Demented nor a Dissembler. -- His Condition Probably Epileptic. -- Its Non-discovery Due to Ignorance of His Parents. His Fanciful Explanations. -- The Symptoms Inadvertently Given in the Biographical Sketches and Elsewhere. -- Correlation of Ancestry and Progeny. -- Seizures Infrequent and Cure Spontaneous. -- After Effects on His Character. -- His Mental Ability and Emotional Instability. -- Interpretations of His Followers.
CHAPTER III
77 An Alleged Indian Record in 'Reformed Egyptian.' -- The Psychological Problem Twofold. -- Belief in the Actuality of the 'Gold Plates.' -- Theory of Their Levitation. -- The So-Called Transcription. -- Its Transmission and Translation. -- Judgments of Early Critics. -- Pronounced Untranslatable. -- Analogous to Automatic Writing. -- A Home-made Production. -- Concealed Autograph. -- Joseph Smith a Crystal Gazer. -- Reversal of Signature. -- Unconscious Cerebration. -- The Visions of Moses. -- The Revised Translation of the Bible. -- Confidence in His Own Learning. -- His Interpretation of the Word Mormon. -- His Early Ignorance. -- His Use of Men, not Books. -- Sidney Rigdon. -- Joseph as a Linguist. -- The Book of Abraham. -- Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon. -- Changes in It and in the Printed Editions. -- The Cowdery Manuscript One of Several. -- The First Duplicate Copy. -- Disappearance of the First Original. -- Joseph's Three Scribes. -- Characteristics and Date of the Alleged Original. -- The Cowdery Copy Probably the Nearest to the Original. -- Proof from the Famous Anti-Polygamy Passage. -- The Author's Preface. -- Agreement with Joseph's Confession of Illiteracy
CHAPTER IV
105 Size and Aim of the Book. -- Contents According to the Prophet. -- Admission of Authorship. -- The Environment Suggests the Sources. -- A Scriptural Paraphrase. Biblical Borrowings. -- Biographical Hints. -- The Dream of Nephi and of Joseph Smith, Senior. -- Grammatical and Rhetorical Errors. -- Geography made Indefinite and History Obscure. -- Visions of America. -- Joseph's Imaginative Gifts. -- Lamanites are Modern Indians in Disguise. -- The Aboriginal Monuments of New York State. -- Theories of Indians being the Lost Tribes of Israel. -- Joseph's Summary. -- Parallels with Priest's American Antiquities. -- Local Sources of These Theories. -- Popular Errors in the Narrative. -- Joseph's Fanciful Explanations. -- Mental Habits of the Lamanites. -- Their Resemblance to Local Sects. -- The Speech of Nephi Traced to its Sources. -- Joseph's Dependence on Local Theology.
CHAPTER V
139 Joseph's Imagination Stronger Than His Reason. -- His Theory of the Usefulness of Evil. -- His Emotional Revolt Against Calvinism -- Allusions to Baptist Doctrines. -- The Methodist Exhorter and the Speech of Amulek. -- The Mormon Hierarchy. -- The Clash of Creeds not Harmonized. -- Three Minor Movements Reflected. -- Tirades Against Romanism, Infidelity and Free Masonry. -- The Book of Mormon as a Criterion of Mental Habits. -- Joseph's Constructive Imagination; its Materials and Limitations. -- A Good Memory, but a Poor Judgment. -- Mixture of Sense and Nonsense. -- A Fanciful Family and an Emotional Environment. -- The Marks of the Book are the Marks of the Man. -- Mental Restlessness Characteristic of the West. -- A Comparison with Young Chatterton and the Rowley Myth. -- The Literature of Disguise in America. -- The Spaulding Theory Untenable. -- The Book of Mormon Authentic and Indigenous. -- The Gradual Evolution of the Work.
CHAPTER VI
175 This Title a Growth. -- Variety in Prophecies. -- Common Belief in the Predictive. -- The Millerites. -- Joseph's Indefinite Millennium. -- Some Timely and Untimely Warnings. -- The Personal Element. -- Prophecy of the Civil War. -- Joseph the Seer. -- His Crystal Gazing. -- The Prevalent use of ~ Seeing Stones.' -- Joseph as a 'Peeper' and as an 'Interpreter.' -- Methods of Auto-Hypnosis. -- How Joseph 'Translated.' -- Abnormalities in the Book of Mormon. -- Similarities to the Trance Medium. -- Automatic Writing. -- Joseph and His Scribes. -- Clairvoyant and Telepathic Embellishments. -- Self-deception and Conscious Duplicity. -- Methods of Concealment. -- The Ecstatic Condition. -- Joseph Applies to Others the Principles of Suggestion. -- Persecuted and Made Notorious. -- His Acts as a Revelator.
CHAPTER VII
209 The Testimony of Three Witnesses. -- Was it an Hypnotic Hallucination? -- Three Productive Factors. -- The Suggestibility of Cowdery.- -- His Expectant Attention Aroused by Smith. -- The Latter's Preparatory Successes. -- The Baptismal Vision. -- Whitmer's Persistent Belief. -- Hypnotism Suggested as a Cause. -- The Third Witness Less Susceptible. -- How Harris was Approached by Smith. -- The 'Eye of Faith' and Long Continued Prayer. -- Joseph's Account of the Vision of the Gold Plates. -- Pseudo-Explanations of Smith's Influence. -- Alleged Magnetic Influence. -- The Religious Leader's Captivation. -- Varieties of Hallucination. The Vision of the Plates Induced by Positive Suggestion. -- Loss of Extra-Mental Consciousness but not of Memory. -- Association of Ideas. -- Additional Incentives to the Psychic Mirage. -- The Testimony of Eight Witnesses. -- Various Theories. -- Collective Hypnosis. -- Epidemics of Hallucination. -- Scanty Historic Connection with Other Movements. -- Smith's Case Sporadic, His Achievements Empirical. -- Western New York an Occult Locality. -- Swedenborgianism. -- Mesmerism. -- Animal Magnetism. -- Spiritualism. -- Primitive Beliefs of the Minor Sects. -- Mormon Metaphysics. -- Smith a Crass Materialist. -- His Crude Explanations. -- His Tests for Evil Spirits. -- His Editorial on 'Try the Spirits.'
CHAPTER VIII
245 'Great Manifestations of Spirits.' -- The Outward Signs of the Growth of Mormonism. -- Elements of Success. -- A Patriotic Bible. -- Profuse Revelations. -- The Book of Commandments. -- Its Relation to the Book of Mormon. -- A Book of Discipline, of Exegesis, and of Business. -- Revamped Into the Doctrine and Covenants. -- Its Canonization. -- The Latter-day Dispensation. -- Its Puny Beginnings. -- Sectarian Narrowness and Pride. -- Joseph's Opportunism. -- The First Miracle. -- Restoration of Primitive 'Gifts.' -- Newel Knight, the Demoniac. -- Devils 'Spiritually ' Viewed. -- Faith in Joseph Smith. -- The Coming of Sidney Rigdon. -- His Influence Over Smith. -- His Mental Unsoundness. -- His Frenzied Preaching. -- Revival Ecstasy in the Western Reserve. -- The Kirtland Frenzy. -- 'Gifts' of Tongues, of Interpretation, of Prophecy. -- The Philosophy of Religious Mania. -- Joseph's Theory of False Spirits. -- The Power of the Priesthood. -- Other 'Mighty Works.' -- Catalepsy and Obsession. -- Smith's Final Standpoint of Repression. -- The Mormon Missionaries and the Demoniacs. -- Hypnotic Suggestion and Unbelief. -- Collective Hysteria and 'Evil Spirits.' -- Witchcraft and Black Art. -- Mormon Demonology.
CHAPTER IX
283 Casting Out Devils Leads to Casting Out Diseases. -- Joseph 'Rebukes' the Cholera. -- His Followers Demand Miracles of Healing. -- His early Ignorance and Overconfidence. -- His Later Crude But Real Knowledge of Mental Healing. -- Mormon Medicine. -- The Doctrine of Signatures, and Indian Herb Remedier,. -- Joseph's Uncle, Jason Mack, an Alleged Faith Healer. -- The Irvingites and Miracles. -- The Faith Promoting Series. -- Holy Oil and Consecrated Flannels. -- The Insistence on Faith, and Mental Suggestion. -- Subjective Expectations. -- 'Silent Treatment.' -- The Mischief Done by the Missionaries. -- Public Opposition. -- Credulity of the Laity. -- Smith Recognizes Certain Limitations. -- Seven Lectures on Faith. -- The Approximation to Suggestive Therapeutics. -- Stress on the Mystical and Sacerdotal. -- The Variety in Joseph's 'Cures.' -- His Failures with Children. -- His Authority Over Adults. -- Ephemeral Results. -- One Authentic Success. -- Due to Simple or Hypnotic Suggestion ~ -- Joseph's Medieval Point of View. -- The Use of the Talisman. -- The Prophet's Impressive Manner. -- Favorable Conditions Among the Mormons. -- Wholesale 'Cures,' and Collective Hypnosis.
CHAPTER X
305 Last Proofs of Smith's Restlessness and Instability. -- Communism in Goods and in Wives. -- Joseph the Socialist. -- Communistic Societies in this Country. -- The Shakers, and Owen's New Harmony. -- How Smith Derived His Views.--Rigdon's Kirtland Common Stock Company. -- Smith's Biblical Embellishments. -- Tithing. -- Joseph the Financier. -- The Safety Society Bank and the Nauvoo House. -- Plans and Specifications for the New City of Zion. -- Smith's Various Commercial and Ecclesiastical Schemes. -- Joseph the Soldier. -- Mormondom a Military Church. -- Joseph the Agitator. -- His Strange Mastery of His Followers. -- How He Gained the Ascendancy. -- Excommunication of the Three Witnesses. -- Conflict Between Church and State. -- Mental Effects of these Vicissitudes. -- His Political Abnormalities. -- A Candidate for the Presidency. -- His Views on the Government. -- His Last Utterances. -- His Colossal Conceit. -- The Final question: Was He Demented or Merely Degenerate? APPENDICES 331 I. CONTENTS OF THE BOOK OF MORMON 343 II. EPILEPSY AND THE VISIONS 367 III. THE SPAULDING-RIGDON THEORY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON 397 IV. POLYGAMY AND HYPNOTISM 427 V. SUMMARY 443 VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY |
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CHAPTER I ANCESTRY AND DREAMS TO read the flux of books on the founder of Mormonism, one might think there were no middle course between vilification and deification. To sectarians Joseph Smith appears an ignoramus, a fanatic, an impostor, and a libertine; to his followers --- a prophet, a seer, a vicegerent of God, and a martyr. 1 While two generations of writers have been presenting Smith's character in its mental and moral extremes, they have been ignoring the all-important physical basis of his personality. If a solution of his perplexing individuality is wanted, the pathological grounds must be examined. The state of his body goes far to explain the state of his __________ 1 Compare the early official Mormon organ, the 'Times and Seasons,' 6, 855: -- 'Joseph Smith. With his friends. -- God's vicegerent, a prophet of Jehovah, a minister of religion, a lieutenant general, a preacher of righteousness, a worshipper of the God of Israel, a mayor of a city, a judge upon the judicial bench. With his enemies. -- A tavern keeper, a base libertine, a ruler of tens of thousands and slave to his own base unbridled passions, a profane swearer, a devotee of Bacchus, a miserable bar-room fiddler, an invader of the civil, social and moral relations of men.' 4 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM mind, and his ancestry to explain both. Like the distorted views of his grandfather 'Crook-necked Smith' Joseph's mental abnormalities are to be connected with physical ills. Before getting at the roots of his ramigerous family tree and grubbing in the neural subsoil, it is well to obtain an idea of what the man was like in his maturity. Within a year of Smith's death and in the heyday of his power, four different persons visited Nauvoo, met the head of the Mormon Church, and wrote down what they saw. As outsiders their impressions are worth having. The first 2 said that General Smith was not a fool, but somewhat of a jockey; that his socialistic schemes were crude, but that he had a clear insight into the grosser principles of human nature. The next eyewitness was an Englishwoman, the sister of a Mormon convert. With feminine intuition she saw into the paradoxical nature of the man, and pictures __________ 2 'Universalist Union,' 9, 376. Interview of 'W. S. B.' August 20, 1843. 'Joe Smith is not a fool, though he is somewhat of a jockey. He has a clear insight into the grosser principles of human nature and adapts himself and his theories to a taste and disposition he finds common enough among men -- credulity and self interest. Assuming much for himself, and promising everything to his followers, he is able to draw around him a class of men who prefer being led to being starved... he sets up that he and his followers are superior to all other men.... Theirs is the crudest kind of socialism.' ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 5 him as sensual 3 and shrewd, boastful and popular, conceited and kind-hearted. If these descriptions are objected to as prejudiced, there remain two accounts which the Mormons quote with approval. The first was given by the legal counsel of the Saints in their Missouri troubles. He portrays Smith as of unprepossessing appearance, ordinary conversational powers, and limited education, and yet withal of indomitable perseverance, strange and striking views and great influence over others, enemies __________ 3 Joseph Smith is a large, stout man, youthful in his appearance, with light complexion and hair, and blue eyes set far back in the head, and expressing great shrewdness, or I should say, cunning. He has a large head and phrenologists would unhesitatingly pronounce it a bad one, for the organs situated in the back part are decidedly most prominent. He is also very round shouldered. He had just returned from Springfield, where he had been upon trial for some crime of which he was accused while in Missouri, but he was released by habeas corpus. I, who had expected to be overwhelmed by his eloquence, was never more disappointed than when he commenced his discourse by relating all the incidents of his journey. This he did in a loud voice, and his language and manner were the coarsest possible. His object seemed to be to amuse and excite laughter in his audience. He is evidently a great egotist and boaster, for he frequently remarked that at every place he stopped going to and from Springfield people crowded around him, and expressed surprise that he was so "handsome and good looking." He also exclaimed at the close of almost every sentence, "That's the idea!"... They say he is very kind hearted, and always ready to give shelter and help to the needy.' -- Charlotte Haven. 'A Girl's Letters from Nauvoo,' January 22 and February 13, 1843, in the Overland Monthly, December, 1890. 6 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM and followers alike. 4 Of all these pen portraits, the latest is probably the most impartial. As the church historian gives it only in part, 5 it is needful __________ 4 P. H. Burnett, 'Recollections of an Old Pioneer,' 1890, p. 66: -- 'Joseph Smith, Jr., was at least six feet high, well formed, and weighed about 180 pounds. His appearance was not prepossessing and his conversational powers were but ordinary. You could see at a glance that his education was very limited. He was an awkward but vehement speaker. In conversation he was slow, and used too many words to express his ideas, and would not generally go directly to a point. But, with all these drawbacks, he was much more than an ordinary man. He possessed the most indomitable perseverance, was a good judge of men, and deemed himself born to command and he did command. His views were so strange and striking, and his manner was so earnest, and apparently so candid, that you could not but be interested.... He had the capacity for discussing a subject in different aspects, and for proposing many original views, even of ordinary matters. His illustrations were his own. He had great influence over others.... In the short space of five days he had managed so to mollify his enemies that he could go unprotected among them without the slightest danger.' 5 Contrast G. Q. Cannon, 'The Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet,' p. 355, with Quincy, 'Figures of the Past,' PP. 376-399: -- 'It is by no means improbable that some future textbook, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet. And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants. History deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this. The man who established a religion in this age of free debate, who was and is to-day accepted by hundreds of thousands as a direct emissary from the Most High, -- such a rare human being is not to be disposed of by ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 7 to sum up the whole. In May, 1844, forty-three days before his assassination, Smith was visited at his headquarters by Josiah Quincy, who left __________ pelting his memory with unsavory epithets. Fanatic, impostor, charlatan, he may have been; but these hard names furnish no solution to the problem he presents us.... The most vital questions Americans are askiiig each other to-day have to do with this man and what he has left us.' * * * * * * 'General Smith proceeded to unfold still further his views upon politics. He denounced the Missouri Compromise as an unjustifiable concession for the benefit of slavery. It was Henry Clay's bid for the presidency. Dr. Goforth might have spared himself the trouble of coming to Nauvoo to electioneer for a duellist who would fire at John Randolph but was not brave enough to protect the Saints in their rights as American citizens. Clay had told his people to go to the wilds of Oregon and set up a government of their own. Oh yes, the Saints might go into the wilderness and obtain justice of the Indians, which imbecile, time-serving politicians would not give them in the land of freedom and equality. The prophet then talked of the details of government. He thought that the number of members admitted to the Lower House of the National Legislature should be reduced. A crowd only darkened counsel and impeded business. A member to every half million of population would be ample. The powers of the President should be increased. He should have authority to put down rebellion in a state without waiting for the request of any governor; for it might happen that the governor himself would be the leader of the rebels. It is needless to remark how later events showed the executive weakness that Smith pointed out, -- a weakiness which cost thousands of valuable lives and millions of treasure ; but the man mingled Utopian fallacies with his shrewd suggestions. He talked as from a strong mind utterly unenlightened by the teachings of history.'8 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM him 'a phenomenon to be explained.' The general was described as 'a man of commanding appearance; capacity and resource were natural to his stalwart person; and left an impression of rugged power.' But there were not only high lights in the picture. Smith gave the impression of kingly power, but his talk was garnished with forcible vulgarisms; he had a statesmanlike prevision in advocating the buying of slaves, eleven years before Emerson advocated that scheme, but with it all betrayed unexampled absurdities in showing off his museum, containing Egyptian mummies and the autograph of Moses. 'The man,' says Quincy in conclusion, 'mingled Utopian fallacies with his shrewd suggestions. He talked as from a strong mind utterly unenlightened by the teachings of history.' Personal interviews furnish as good a way as any to get at a solution of 'the enigma of Palmyra.' Since these are few and fragmentary, recourse must be had to information furnished by the prophet under his own name. But, again, since Smith's writings have all the defects of personal interviews of an author with himself, there is need of considerable reading between the lines. This is fortunately supplied by various early works, which were so strongly apologetic that they were ultimately suppressed. For example, Smith's Journal ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 9 and his Hisiory, 6 are supplemented by Thompson's __________ 6 Compare H. H. Bancroft, 'History of Utah,' p. 109: -- 'The most complete history of the early Mormon church is the Journal of Joseph Smith, extracts from which were made by himself, so as to form a consecutive narrative, under title of History of Joseph Smith, and published in "Times and Seasons" beginning with Vol. III. No. 10, March 15, 1842, and ending February 15, 1846, after the prophet's death. The narrative would fill a good-sized 12mo volume. It is composed largely of revelations, which, save in the one point of commandment which it was the purpose specially to give, are all quite similar. Publication of the "Times and Seasons" was begun at Commerce, afterwards called Nauvoo, Illinois, November, 1839,and issued monthly. The number for May, 1840, was dated Nauvoo. Later it was published semi-monthly, and was so continued till February, 1846. It is filled with church proceedings, movements of officers, correspondence of missionaries, history, and general information, with some poetry....' 'At the organization of this church, the Lord commanded Joseph the prophet to keep a record of his doings in the great and important work that he was cominencing to perform. It thu sbecame a duty imperative. After John Whitmer and others had purloined the records in 1838, the persecution and expulsion from Missouri soon followed. When again located, now in Nauvoo, Illinois, and steamboat loads of emigrants were arriving from England via New Orleans, the sound thereof awakened an interest in the country that led Hon. John Wentworth, of Chicago, to write to the prophet, Joseph Smith, making inquiries about the rise, progress, persecution, and faith of the Latter-day Saints, the origin of this work, the "Book of Mormon," the plates from which the record was translated, etc.; and it is the answer to this letter contained in "Times and Seasons," March 1, 1842, that precedes or prefaces the present history of Joseph Smith, which is the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This request of Mr. Wentworth's seemed to forcibly remind the prophet of the importance of having the history of his wonderful work restored to such a condition that correct information could be given to editors, authors, publishers, and any or all classes of inquirers that might 10 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM Evidences 7 and Lucy Smith's Biographical Sketches, the latter being a sort of homeopathic antidote to her son's unctuous autobiography. 8 So much for the sources, now for the movement and the man. __________ apply, and he undertook with his clerks, recorder, and all available aid from private journals, correspondence, and his own indelible memory, and made it a labor to get his own history, which was indeed that of the church in all the stages of its growth, while he remained with his people, compiled and written up to date, which with his own current journal enabled the historian to complete the history to the time of his assassination, with the utmost fidelity to facts as they occurred. Our method of verification, after compilation and rough draft, was to read the same before a session of the council, composed of the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles, and there scan everything under consideration.' Richards' 'Bibliography of Utah,' MS., 2-6. 7 Charles Thompson, 'Evidences in Proof of the Book of Mormon,' p. 186. 'Let us here enumerate all the accusations against him: "a money digger, a fortune teller, intemperate, a profane swearer, quarrelsome, a liar and a deceiver."' 8 The History of Joseph Smith, as given in the 'Times and Seasons,) 3, 326-945, is conveniently reprinted in the 'Pearl of Great Price.' The opening paragraphs, as here quoted, are followed by the accounts of the three Visions (See Chapter II Environment and Visions). 'Owing to the many reports which have been put in circulation by evil designing persons in relation to the rise and progress of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, all of which have been designed by the authors thereof to militate against its character as a Church, and its progress in the world, I have been induced to write this history, so as to disabuse the public mind, and put all inquirers after truth in possession of the facts as they have transpired in relation both to myself and the Church so far as I have such facts in possession. In this history I will present the various events in relation to this Church, in truth and righteousness, as they have transpired, or ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 11 Mormonism began before its founder. However strange was the appearance of this new prophet, whose 'creed was singular and wives plural,' there were preparatory influences back of him. The cult was no more peculiar than its causes. It was in western New York that the son of an obscure farmer gazed in his magic crystal, automatically wrote 'a transcription of gold plates,' dictated the Book of Mormon, and after strange signs and wonders, started his communistic sect. The movement arose between 1820 and 1830; its impelling forces began two generations before. Joseph Smith dreamed dreams, saw visions, and practiced healing by faith; so did his father, his mother and his maternal grandfather. It is with the latter that the investigation properly begins, for there are extant hitherto unused materials antedating the Revolutionary War. About 1810, Solomon Mack, a __________ as they at present exist, being now the eighth year since the organization of the said Church. I was born in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and five, an the twenty-third day of December, in the town of Sharon, Windsor County, State of Vermont, My father, Joseph Smith, senior, left the State of Vermont, and moved to Palmyra, Ontario (now Wayne) County, in the State of New York, when I was in my tenth year. In about four years after my father's arrival at Palmyra, he moved with his family into Manchester, in the same county of Ontario. His family consisted of eleven souls, namely: my father, Joseph Smith, my mother, Lucy Smith (whose name previous to her marriage was Mack)....' 12 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM broken down old soldier, put forth a pamphlet with this suggestive title: -- A Narrative of the Life of Solomon Mack, containing an account of the many severe accidents he met with during a long series of years, together with the extraordinary manner in which he was converted to the Christian Faith. To which is added a number of Hymns, composed on the death of several of his relations. Windsor: Printed at the expense of the author. 9 In this rare Yankee chap-book there earliest appears the proneness of the Smith tribe to illusions of the mind. These are described, towards the close of the book, with an air of simple belief. But before that there are two-score ill-spelt pages, which throw a flood of light on the life of one of the dependent classes a hundred years ago. Yet along with its quaint fancies and pleasing humors, Mack's little work discloses three poor traits of the writer's descendants, -- their illiteracy, their restlessness and their credulity. Lucy Mack, daughter of the fighting beggar-man and mother of the prophet, in her own book smoothed the style and corrected the grammatical errors of the Narrative. Lest the raciness and air of truth be left out, it is well to return to the original. The author opens with a quaint appeal __________ 9 Of the two reputed copies, the one in the Berrian Collection, is here used. ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 13 to the piety of his hearers and recounts the hardships of an apprentice bound out to farm work: -- 'My father went to the door to fetch in a back-log, and returned after a fore-stick and instantly droped down dead on the floor. You may see by this our lives are dependant on a sumpreme and independent God.... My Master was very careful that I should have little or no rest. From labour he never taught me to read or spoke to me at all on the subject of religion.... My mistress was afraid of my commencing a suit against them, she took me aside and told me I was such a fool we could not learn you. I was never taught even the principles of common morality, and felt no obligation with regard to society; and was born as others, like the wild ass's colt. I met with many sore accidents during the years of my minority.' 10 The writer next gives an instance of his practical cleverness, but adds thereto a confession of his lack of book learning. Recounting his adventures in the French and Indian war, near Fort Edward in 1757, he says: 'I espied at about thirty rods distance, four Indians coming out of the wood with their tomma-hawks, scalping knives and guns. I was alone, but about twenty rods behind me __________ 10 'Narrative,' pp. 3-4. 14 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM there was a man by the name of Webster. I saw no other way to save myself only to deceive them by stratagem -- I exclaimed like this -- Rush on! rush on! Brave Boys, we'll have the Devils! We'll have the Devils -- I had no other weapon only a staff; but I ran towards them and the other man appearing in sight, gave them a terrible fright, and I saw them no more but I am bound to say the grass did not grow under my feet.' * * * * * * 'In the spring, 1754, I set out on another campaign. I went to Crown Point, and there I set up a sutler's shop which I kept two years, by means of a clerk I employed for that purpose, not knowing myself how to write, or read, to any amount, what others had written or printed.' 11After giving the author's further experiences as a backwoodsman in Connecticut, an artilleryman in the American army, a sailor from Liverpool to Mount Desert and a privateersman in Long Island Sound, the Narrative is taken up with an Iliad of woes, a list of sufferings and accidents doubtless lengthened out to create sympathy and make the little book sell. In Mack's catalogue of fever sores, smallpox, and broken bones there is little of really vital interest, until mention is made of falling fits. __________ 11 'Narrative,' pp. 5, 9. Table of Errata in Appendix makes the date 1754 to be 1759. ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 15 These are causally connected with the seizures which afflicted his descendant sixty years later. The case leads like epilepsy; at any rate, thus early appear those symptoms, which go far to explain the 'visions and revelations' and other abnormalities of grandfather and grandson alike. But to resume the story at a later point: With his bodily sufferings in old age, Solomon's religious experiences begin and there are blended with these certain chracteristic mental hallucinations the narrator continues: -- 'In the 76th year of my age, I was taken with the Rheumatism and confined me all winter in the most extreme pain for most of the time. I under affliction and dispensation of providence, at length began to consider my ways, and found myself destitute of knowledge to extole me to enquire. My mind was imagining, but agitated. I imagined many things; it seemed to me that I saw a bright light in a dark night, when contemplating on my bed which I could not account for, but I thought I heard a voice calling to me again. I thought I saw another light of the same kind, all which I considered as ominous of my own dissolution. I was in distress that sleep departed from my eyes and I literally watered my pillow with tears that I prayed eagerly that (lod would have iiiercy on me.' 12 __________ 12 'Narrative,' p. 19. 16 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM Psychologically these phenomena will demand closer scrutiny, historically they are by no means unique. From the bishop of Hippo to Jonathan Edwards, such visions and voices have had mystic interpretation. 13 The fantasies of the simple minded Revolutionary soldier may be connected with the past, their real significance lies with a coming generation. To the grandfather these impressions are vague, inchoate and hard to explain; to the grandson they are clear manifestations with a definite purpose, -- they are messages of the angel Nephi announcing the Mormon dispensation. The last pages of the Narrative are of interest as disclosing an almost medieval way of looking at peculiar mental experiences. This New Englander of the eighteenth century felt and thought like the English Puritan of the sixteenth. Mack's confession, for example, intimately resembles Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. There bodily ailments are followed by mental apparitions, but the two are scarce conjoined; it did not occur to the inspired tinker, that his physical hardships on Hounslow Heath were a cause of his imaginary fights with Apollyon in Bedford Gaol. So is it here, -- the physical cause is stated, but the religious interpretation is predominant: -- __________ 13 Compare 'Revue Philosophique,' 44, 636, -- H. Joly, 'Psychologie des Saints.' ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 17 'Another night soon after I saw another light as bright as the first, at a small distance from my face, and I thought I had but a few mpments to live, nod not sleeping nights, and reading, all day I was in misery; well you may think I was in distress, soul and body. At another time, in the dead of the night I was called by my Christian name, I arise up to answer to my name. The doors all being shut and the house still, I thought the Lord called and I had but a moment to live.... I have often thought that the lights which I saw were to show me what a situation I was in.... The calls, I believe, were for me to return to the Lord who would have mercy on me.' 14 It is this referring of everything unnatural to the supernatural that continued as a mark of Joseph's family during three generations; dreams are warnings, visions are messages from on high. Even more characteristic is the belief in healing, by prayer. The prophet constantly practiced this on his followers; his mother gave several instances; while his grandfather cited his own case at the end of his life: -- 'All the winter I was laid up with the rheumatism.... I thought like this as I was setting one evening by the fire, I prayed to the Lord, if he was with me that I might know it by this token -- that my pains might all be eased __________ 14 'Narrative.' p. 22. 18 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM for that night; and blessed be the Lord, I was entirely free from pain that night.' 15 There remains one more incident which clearly displays the heights to which a persistent credulity may go, for the tale is repeated by Joseph Smith's mother. The old man gives in his appendix the following curious story: -- 'Quite a mericle of my daughter in the town of Sunderland in the State of Massachusetts, the wife of Joseph Tuttle. She was sick about one year.... For three days she eat only the yolk of one egg -- she was an anatomy to appearance. Her friends were often weeping around her bed expecting every moment to be her last. The day before her recovery, the doctor said it was as much impossible to raise her, as it would one from the dead. The night following she dreamed a dream; it was that a sort of wine would cure her; it was immediately brought to her, and she drank it. The next morning she awoke and called to her husband to get up and make a fire -- he arose immediately, but thought she was out of her head; but soon he found to the contrary; quickly she arose up on end in the bed (said the Lord has helped body and soul) and dressed herself.... Soon after the same morning she went to the house of her father-in-law, (which was about ten rods) and back again on her feet her eyes and countenance appeared lively and bright as ever it was in her past life.' 16 __________ 15 'Narrative,' p. 12. 16 'Narrative,' pp. 42, 43. -- A psychological explanation of this incident would puzzle a member of the Society for Psychical Research. It miglit be labelled a symptomatic dream, such as when the somnambulist, ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 19 The study of the Mormon leader's ancestry is more than a study in atavism: nature has not skipped a generation. The erratic tendencies in Joseph's mind appear constitutional because they are continuous. His mother acknowledges as much in her Biographical Sketches 17 of her son, which, at __________ or the deep sleeper, is alleged to diagnose the disease and to prescribe the remedy. This theory is based on the fanciful induction that, inasmuch as states of the internal organs are prevocatives of dreams, the dream-desires have value as curative instincts. But over against this theory is the fact, that, even in the waking condition, there is but a vague consciousness of the seat of organic sensations. The incident, nevertheless, has value. It throws light on the mental development of both Solomon and his daughter, for reliance on the health-prescriptions of dreamers was a superstition of the middle ages. -- Compare Du Prel, 'The Philosophy of Mysticism,' Volume 1, Chapter 5 'Dream a Physician.' Contrast Sully, in Encyclopaedia Brittannica, 7, 459. 17 The full title reads: 'Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and his Progenitors for many generations.' The book's authenticity is undeniable. Published in Liverpool in 1853 for Orson Pratt, it was put forth with a flourish of approbation and publicly commended in the official foreign organ of the Mormons. The Millennial Star, XV. 169, 682, gives these two notices: 'The manuscripts containing this information, with the exception of the portion relating to his martyrdom, were written by the direction and under the inspection of the prophet.... Being written by Lucy Smith, the mother of the prophet, and mostly under his inspection, will be ample guarantee of the authenticity of the narrative.' Orson Pratt's preface to the book begins: -- 'The following pages... were mostly written previous to the death of the prophet, and under his personal inspection. Most of the historical items and occurrences related have never before been published. They will therefore be exceedingly interesting to all Saints, and sincere inquirers after the truth.' 20 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM first, had a wide circulation as 'Mother Smith's History,' but has since been discredited by the Utah Mormons, for it tells too plain a story. 18 From this now scarce work, Joseph's mental outfit is seen to be largely a matter of inheritance. In his maternal grandfather there is disclosed an unthinking credulity, in his mother a positive hankering after the supernatural. She notes with relish every detail of her husband's seven dreams, as well as all the omens, visions and faith cures of her seven brothers and sisters. This book is all important as a source, yet a question of historic validity arises. If it was written 'under the inspection of the prophet,' may not its facts have been garbled? It was the practice of Joseph, as head of his church, to work over and amend his earlier writings; such are the grammatical corrections in the Book of Mormon and the doctrinal changes in the Book of Commandments. The doubt as to validity is legitimate, but the solution is at hand. In these Biographical Sketches there are published 'historical items and occurrences' -- of such a kind that Joseph the wonder-seeker did not want them changed. The book teems with dreams, visions and miraculous cures. These were, in truth, 'events of infinite importance' to one who was not wont to distinguish between subjective illusions and objective realities. __________ 18 A. T. Schroeder, 'The Origin of the Book of Mormon,' p. 55. ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 21 If, then, the book has not been seriously tampered with, because its subject-matter exactly suited the mind of the prophet, some plain facts about this 'remarkable family' may be extracted from it. To begin with, the education of Lucy Mack was of the most meagre sort. 19 Closely related to the partial illiteracy of the mother is her entire credulity. She too believes in miraculous recovery, and in dreams as heavenly admonitions. Her version of her sister's unexpected upraising is more sensational than the parallel account of Solomon. Mrs. Tuttle being bedridden for two years, suddenly exclaims: 'The Lord has healed me, both soul and body -- raise me up and give me my clothes. I wish to get up.' Connected with this recovery is the inevitable vision. The patient gives the recital of the strange circumstance in the crowded church, and addresses the audience as follows: 'I seemed to be borne away to the world of spirits, where I saw the Saviour, as through a veil, which appeared to me about as thick as a spider's web, __________ 19 'The Narrative'of her father discloses this. 'In 1761,' Solomon Mack is made to say, 'we moved to the town of Marlow. When we moved there, it was no other than a desolate and dreary wilderness. Only four families resided within forty miles. Here I was thrown into a situation to appreciate more fully the talents and virtues of my excellent wife; for, as our children were deprived of schools, she assumed the charge of their education, and performed the duties of an instructress.' 22 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM and he told me that I must return again to warn the people to prepare for death... that if I would do this my life would be prolonged.' 20 It was on these fables of the family and tales of a grandfather that the incipient prophet was fed. 21 But this is only a beginning of the signs and wonders among Joseph's people. His mother also hears a supernal voice and has a miraculous recovery. Sick of a hectic fever and meditating upon death, she heard a voice saying: 'Let your heart be comforted.' From that time, she asserts, she became quite well as to bodily health, but her mind was considerably disquieted. It was naturally in this period, when there was only a 'faint glimmer of light beyond the gloom,' that the author's most notable psychic experience took place. A condensed extract will give the spirit of the dream: -- 'While we were living at Tunbridge, my mind became deeply impressed with the subject of religion. I began to attend Methodist meetings and, to oblige me, my husband accompanied me; but when this came to the ears of his father and eldest brother they were displeased. I was considerably hurt by this; after praying some time I fell asleep and had the following dream: __________ 20 'Biographical Sketches,' pp. 25, 26, 47. 21 Compare 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 108. In 1827 Joseph takes a 'hint from the stratagem of his Grandfather Mack.' ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 23 I thought that I stood in a large and beautiful meadow , a pure and clear stream of water ran through the midst of it. I discovered two trees standing upon its margin. I gazed upon them with wonder and admiration and I saw that one of them was surrounded with a bright belt that shone like burnished gold. Presently, a gentle breeze passed by, and the tree encircled with this golden zone, bent gracefully before the wind. I turned my eyes upon its fellow, which stood opposite but it was not surrounded with the belt of light as the former, and it stood erect and fixed as a pillar of marble. I wondered at what I saw, and said in my heart, What can be the meaning of all this? And the interpretation given me was, that these personated my husband and his oldest brother, Jesse Smith; that the stubborn and unyielding tree was like Jesse; that the other, more pliant and flexible, was like Joseph my husband; that the breath of heaven, which passed over them, was the pure and undefiled Gospel, which Gospel Jesse would always resist, but which Joseph, when he was more advanced in life would hear and receive.' 22 Already there is disclosed a threefold resemblance between Lucy Mack and her father: each heard voices, saw visions and believed in miraculous cures. And there is another element which was transmitted to the daughter. Solomon his his religious doubts, __________ 22 'Biographical Sketches,' pp, 56, 57. 24 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM but they are of a simple and personal kind; Lucy is afflicted with a more complex depression of spirits. 23 This melancholia, allied with a positive intolerance of the sects, was destined to exert an important influence on the young son's mind. In the case of the mother, at any rate, it led to a marked aloofness from denominationalism. A Methodist exhorter and a Presbyterian minister both attempted to gain her adherence, but she maintained her religious independence throughout. 'At length I considered it my duty to be baptized, and, finding a minister who was willing to baptize me, and leave me free in regard to joining any religious denomination, I stepped forward and yielded obedience to this ordinance; after which I continued to __________ 23 Again while at Tunbridge, Vt., she writes: 'The grief occasioned by the death of Lovina was preying upon my health... I was pensive and melanclioly, and often in my reflections I thought that life was not worth possessing. In the midst of this anxiety of mind, I determined to obtain that which I had heard spoken of so much from the pulpit -- a change of heart. To accomplish this, I spent much of my time in reading the Bible, and praying; but, notwithstanding my great anxiety to experience a change of heart, another matter would always interpose in all my meditations -- If I remain a member of no church, all religious people will say I am of the world; and if I join some one of the different denominations, all the rest will say I am in error. No church will admit that I am right, except the one with which I am associated. This makes them witnesses against each other; and how can I decide in such a case as this, seeing they are all unlike the Church of Christ as it existed in former days!' -- 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 27. ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 25 read the Bible as formerly, until my eldest son had attained his twenty-second year.' 24 The book now takes up the pedigree of Joseph, senior, whose ancestors originally came from England. His line is traced back through seven generations to first Samuel Smith, born 1666 in Essex County, Massachusetts. The education of the husband was not so defective as that of his wife, since at one time he eked out his living by teaching school. How much knowledge this Would imply is conjectural. The course of study in a Vermont district school at the beginning of the last century did not consist of much more than reading, writing and arithmetic. 25 At any rate with this equipment of the three R's, Joseph's father as Patriarch of the Mormon Church in the Middle West, was authorized to dispense written blessings to the Saints at a moderate tariff. If Joseph, senior, was, strictly, not illiterate, he still resembled his father-in-law in his restless habits. His occupations were varied, even for a Connecticut Yankee. He first owns a farm at Tunbridge, Vermont; he then moves to Royalton and then to Randolph and keeps a store. In the meanwhile he hunts for 'gensang' root for __________ 24 'Biographical Sketches,' pp. 48, 49. 25 Z. Thompson, 'History of Vermont,' p. 212. 'The founders of Vermont were able to read, write and compute, but few were versed in the rules of grammar.' 26 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM the China trade. He next rents a farm in Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, but soon moves to Lebanon, New Hampshire; after that he migrates to Norwich, where his crops fail; and finally, when the boy Joseph was eleven years old, he takes up a land claim at Palmyra, Seneca County, New York. About this time he is described, by an eyewitness, as of gaunt and haggard visage, with the rusty clothes of a vagabond. 26 During these years of wandering Joseph, senior, was visited with a panorama of visions. They started about the year 1811, and were completed only with the mystic number of seven. The first two must be examined later, for the vision of the Magic Box gives the clue for the young prophet's discovery of the Golden Plates, and the vision of the Fruit Tree is substantially reproduced in the Book of Mormon. Two things are noticeable in the whole series: first, that they arose in times of mental agitation, and, second, that the stuff the dreams were made of was largely derived from every-day waking experience. On the one hand the phantasms began, when the dreamer's mind 'was much excited upon the subject of religion.' 27 On the other __________ 26 Editorial in Norwich, N. Y. Union, April 28, 1877, by W. D. Purple, who took notes at the trial of Joseph Smith, senior, on a charge of vagrancy before Justice of Peace Albert Neeley. 27 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 56. ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 27 hand, the details are commonplace; the language is scriptural, but the color is local. For example, besides the vision of the Meeting House, there is that of the Magic Box, which is discovered in a wilderness of 'dead fallen timber'; and of the Fruit Tree which spread its branches 'like an umbrella, and 'bore a kind of fruit in shape much like a chestnut burr.' The third vision is that of the Twelve Images which bow in deference to the father of the coming prophet, like the sheaves of Joseph's brethren of old. Here the dreamer enters a flower garden with 'walks about three and one-half feet wide, which were set on both sides with marble stones.' 28 In the sixth vision there is more than a reproduction of the ordinary sights of a new New England village and more than a repetition of an Old Testament story. The conflict between the claims of Mercy and justice is an echo of the theology of the day, an effort of the sleeper's mind to harmonize a nightmare with a doctrine of Calvinism. This dream is worth quoting at length: -- I thought I was walking alone; I was much fatigued, nevertheless I continued travelling. It seemed to me that I was going to meeting, that it was the day of judgment, and that I was going to be judged. When I came in sight of the meeting house, I saw multitudes of people __________ 28 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 71. 28 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM coming from every direction, and pressing with great anxiety toward the door of this great building; but I thought I should get there in time, hence there was no need of being in a hurry. But, on arriving at the door, I found it shut; I knocked for admission, and was informed by the porter that I had come too late. I felt exceedingly troubled, and prayed earnestly for admittance. Presently I found that my flesh was perishing. I continued to pray, still my flesh withered upon my bones. I was almost in a state of total despair, when the porter asked me if I had done all that was necessary in order to receive admission. I replied, that I had done all that was in my power to do. "Then," observed the porter, "justice must be satisfied; after this, mercy hath her claims."' 29 Examining the next dream critically, it is clear that the higher mental activity of conception, not of mere reproduction, has a beginning but is not carried out. Evidently some involuntary muscular movement of the sleeper's body was made and the train of thought was interrupted. Says Joseph, senior: -- 'I dreamed that a man with a pedlar's budget on his back, came in, and thus addressed me: "Sir, will you trade with me to-day? I have now called upon you seven times, I have traded with you each time, and have always found you __________ 29 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 72. ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 29 strictly honest in all your dealings. Your measures are always heaped, and your weights overbalance; and I have now come to tell you that this is the last time I shall ever call on you, and that there is but one thing that you lack, in order to secure your salvation." As I earnestly desired to know what it was that I still lacked, I requested him to write the same upon paper. He said he would do so. I then sprang to get some paper, but, in my excitement, I awoke.' 30 This seventh and last vision was 'received' in 1819, but the family habit was not interrupted. In the following year Joseph, junior, began his operations, and in twenty-three years was vouchsafed those four hundred octavo pages of 'revelations,' found in the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. As has been suggested, the dreams of the elder Smith have evidently undergone a process of redaction; the smooth and unctuous style points to the corrective hand of Joseph. For all that, their general validity may be accepted; -- as they are recorded, so they happened. They could scarcely have been made out of whole cloth by the prophet in his later days of deception, for the Vision of the Fruit Tree was incorporated into the first edition of the Book of Mormon. To accuse Joseph of making __________ 30 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 74. 30 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM up this vision and that of the Magic Box at the age of twenty-five, is to make him a juvenile forger rather than an unwitting plagiarist. As the case stands, it is damaging enough to the Saints, instead of being 'a divinely inspired record written by the fore-fathers whom we call Indians,' 31 the Book of Mormon is disclosed as a home-made product of infant industry. Of the authenticity of the dreams, 32 whether in or out of the Record, there is abundant evidence, -- those commonplace and homely details which crop out from amid the flowery language. But as regards inward significance they reflect the ideas and opinions of the persons concerned. They first tell how the Smith tribe interpreted their thoughts of the night. 33 From the comparative ethnic point of view their theory was an intermediate one: 34 they did not, like primitive man, look on nocturnal experiences as of equal reality with those of the day; __________ 31 Charles Thompson, 'Evidences in proof of the Book of Mormon,' 1841, p. 192, Compare James E. Talmage, 'Divinity of the Book of Mormon,' Salt Lake City, 1901. 32 A negative proof of authenticity is found in Lucy's statement, p. 72, regarding her husband that 'He received two more visions, which would probably be somewhat interesting, but I cannot remember them distinctly enough to rehearse them in full.' 33 For the principles here applied consult James Sully, 'Illusions,' New York, 1897 ; and his article on Dream in the EncyclopediaBrittannica, 9th edition; also Carl Du Prel, 'Philosophy of Mysticism,' Volume 1, Chapter 2. 34 Compare Herbert Spencer, 'Principles of Sociology,' New York, 1892, Volume I, Chapter 10. ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 31 much less did they give them a material and physical explanation. Theirs was the mystic view: dreams are warnings from on high, visions are symbolic messages sent to guide the soul. Three stages in the conception of dreams are exemplified in the history of Joseph and his progenitors: first, personification, -- to Joseph the deity sends a messenger or angel of radiant form; second, communication, -- to Solomon Mack the divine message is heard by the dreamer, not by means of a material figure, but as an external voice; third, objectivation, -- to Lucy and her spouse a symbolic picture is unrolled, with or without interpretation. Inasmuch as the Smiths insisted on the supernaturalness of their dreams, it remains to give their natural conditions and causes. A difficulty arises at the start: if the physiolooical explanation is attempted, the data are either entirely lacking, or are wanting in exactness. Mother Smith's work is meant to be a faith-promoting handbook; and shed wells with delight on supernatural remedies and miraculous cures. When she does go in for morbid anatomy, the ailments and diseases are given obsolete and indeterminate names. 35 In one place, however, __________ 35 Lucy's own comforting dream fits in with her hectic fever, but the typhus which afflicted her offspring was probably typhoid. References to the epidemics of influenza, typhus, etc., in Vermont, during the first decade of the nineteenth century are of no avail, for Lucy herself generally neglects to give the date of the sicknesses which so 32 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM nervous depression is given as a precondition of a dream. Immediately before her vision of the Two Trees, Lucy states that she had attended a Methodist meetiiig, when she returned to the house, much depressed in spirit, which state of feeling continued until I retired to my bed.' 36 Turning to the psychic correlations, a tentative use may now be made of the two ordinary forms of dreams, namely: -- the illusion, or imitation of a sense perception, and the hallucination, or projection of a mental image outwardly. The latter is exemplified in Solomon Mack, when he saw a bright object at a small distance from his face. To him this seemed an extra-mental reality; to the physiologist the apparent patch of flame is due to changes of blood pressure on the eyeball. The brightness and apparent nearness of the light would appear to upold the theory that, if the nerve excitation arises in the organ of sight, the structure of the retina is reproduced perceptibly. 37 Although it is contended that the psychologist has nothing whatever to do with the physiology of the __________ often preceded the visions. Moreover the local historian talks like a horse doctor. Compare Z. Thompson, 'History of Vermont,' 1842, p. 221: '1800, Typhus prevalent. 1802-3, Canker rash or throat distemper. 1807, Influenza in Vermont and throughout the United States.' 36 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 54. 37 Du Prel, p. 203: Scherner's theory. ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 33 retina, 38 yet this experience of Mack's fulfils three out of the five general causes of hallucination given by the physiologist. There was no specific statement as to local diseases of the organ of sense, nor to drugs, but there was exhaustion of body and mind, a morbid emotional state of fear and outward calm and stillness. 39 As the old man's statement runs: -- being confined with rheumatism, he was not sleeping well, was in misery and distress soul and body, and, at the dead of night, when the house was still, the 'lights' came. 40 Returning to the illusion, or incitation of a sense-perception, the actions of the senses are variously illustrated in the dream series. The lower senses, as usual, here play little part. There is possibly a single case of an illusion of smell in the reference to delicate flowers; yet there are two instances of illusory taste, as when the dreamer starts to eat the __________ 38 E. W. Scripture, 'The New Psychology,' 1897, p. 384. 39 Sully, p. 115, quoting Griesinger. 40 The theory that disease brings much dreaming is not upheld in the history of Joseph's parents. Lucy's health was 'preyed upon by the death of her sister,' and she I suffered from a hectic fever, which threatened to prove fatal,' yet in these troublous times she had only one dream, while her sturdy vagabond of a husband had seven. Regarding the visions of Joseph, as will be seen, -- there were other and more specific causes of hyperideation. The only pertinent conclusion, from the story of his progenitors, is that Joseph inherited front his male progenitors, on both sides, the dreamy diathesis. See 'Biographical Sketches,' pp. 37, 46, 34 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM contents of the Magic Box, and when he scoops up 'by double handfuls' the white particles of the Fruit-Tree. The tactual element is also to be found, as when the dreamer is much fatigued in walking or seems to go lame. The auditory illusions are general, -- the guide, or attendant spirit, audibly commands. Finally the visual element is universal, all the dreams were counted visions. The exciting causes of these phantasms are more or less conjectural. 41 When the new settler had the nightmare of 'beasts, horned cattle and roaring animals bellowing most terrifically,' was the cause digestive discomfort, or did the sleeper dimly hear some commotion in the barnyard? Whether the stimulation came from without or within is a physiological question: there yet remain varieties of brain excitation, __________ 41 How the illusions of smell should arise, is here, as elsewhere, indeterminable. That of taste is explicable only by negation, -- fasting causes dreams, the hungry wanderer longs for rich feasts. Illusions of touch or pressure are attributable to the condition of the muscles, -- Joseph, senior, in his search for a home, had traveled from Vermont to the Genesee valley and had there cleared thirty acres of land. As to sight and touch, it is hard to determine whether the excitation was peripheral or central. It is here that the hard and fast distinction between illusion and hallucination is seen to be untenable ; for the latter like the former may arise inwardly. There appear to be dream-images due to direct central stimulition, -- the brain, in and of itself, producing 'stars,' 'lights,' 'waving hands' -- the last being exemplified in Lucy's dream of the tree with the golden zone and with branches dancing as lively as a sunbeam.' ANCESTRY AND DREAMS 35 which may be more pertinently expressed in terms of psychology. Direct excitations are presentative and are connected with the immediate present; indirect excitations are representative, and are connected through the law of association with the past, -- the brain merely reviving impressions previously received. The point of interest in all this is that the dreams of Joseph's progenitors hold the mirror up to nature, reflect their innermost notions, beliefs and modes of thought. Thus Solomon Mack connects those midnight flames with 'the horrible pit of sin in which he lay'; Lucy interprets 'the breath of heaven' which passed over the two trees as the 'pure and undefiled gospel'; and Joseph, the elder, attributed the 'withering of the flesh upon his bones' to the demands of Justice over Mercy. The dreams of Joseph's ancestors are, at the best, but a dim avenue into their brains. In his own case there is more profit in reversing the process, -- in studying the source of his phantasm, before the fantastic in his character. Without a knowledge of his environment, his visions are inexplicable.
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