Mormon Classics | Spalding Library | Cowdery's Bookshelf | Newspapers | History Vault
|
I. Woodbridge Riley (1869-1933) The Founder of Mormonism (NYC: Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1903) |
|
See also: Daryl Chase Thesis (1931) | Fawn M. Brodie book (1945)
|
[ 177 ] CHAPTER VI PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR THE name of author and proprietor of the Book of Mormon was inadvertently assumed and quickly discarded. The title of prophet, seer and revelator was a growth. 1 Joseph's first prophecy, at the age of eighteen, concerned Deacon Jessup and the widow's cow; 2 his last revelation, called the Appendix, concerned the second advent. 3 In their variety Smith's prophetic utterances comprised items on the Ancient of days, Boarding-houses, Celestial glory, the Day of vengeance, Emma Smith, Far West City, -- and so on through the alphabet. As head of the church, Smith once said, 'We never enquire at the hand of God for special revelation only in case of there being no previous revelation to suit the case. 4 The acceptance of these allocutions among his followers passes all understanding, __________ 1 'Book of Commandments,' Chapter xxii, April 6th, 1830. -- Thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle, an elder. 2 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 91 3 'Doctrine and Covenants,' § 133. 4 'Times and Seasons,' 5, 753. 178 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM unless their notions and crotchets are taken into account. Among them there was an underlying belief in the predictive and oracular. Thus Daniel Tyler said that his grandfather prophesied that his father would live to see the true church organized; and he himself joined the Latter-day Saints, because it was predicted that he should become a preacher of the gospel. 5 Wilford Woodruff revolts at the assertions of his Presbyterian friends that there are to be no more prophecies and revelations. In his perturbation he walks by the sea and receives 'the sign of the prophet Jonah: a large fish rises near the shore and looks at him with penetrating eye.' 6 He allies himself to Joseph the wonder-worker because of what old prophet Mason had predicted, years before, about the restoration of primitive gifts. Joseph succeeded in his vaticinations because the ground was prepared; his was a prophetic neighborhood. Jemima Wilkinson, the Sibyl of Crooked Lake, was not disturbed in her mouthings, since she advertised the region opened up by Phelps and Gorham. 7 The Shakers, in Wayne County, were uttering millennial warnings. 8 More rabid Millenarians infested the parts around Rochester, although __________ 5 'Leaves from my Journal,' pp. 1, 44. 6 'Scraps of Biography,' pp. 21, 22. 7 J. M. Parke, 'Rochester,' 1884. 8 'Millennial Church, or United Society of Believers,' Albany, 1823. PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 179 it was not until October 25th, 1844, that the followers of Miller took a red aurora for the final conflagration, and gathered in their ascension robes to meet the last day. 9 But the Mormon prophet did not make the mistake of selecting a date for the end of the world. 10 His eschatology possessed an air of practicality. His millennium was, on the whole, marked by such an indefinite immediateness that there was little to criticize. He gives this confidential statement: -- 'I was once praying very earnestly to know the time of the coming of the Son of Man, when I heard a voice repeat the following: -- Apostle Pratt, who derided the Millerites and their dates, asserted that ' Joseph Smith never was mistaken __________ 9 Parke, pp. 251-3. 10 William Miller, 'Evidence of the Second Coming of Christ about the year 1843.' Troy, 1836. 11 'Doctrine and Covenants,' sec. 130. 180 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM taken in his revelations. 12 Unfortunately ten years before this Smith had made his classic blunder in telling Bishop Whitney to go to New York, Albany and Boston, and 'warn the people of those cities that the hour of their judgment is nigh.' 13 But in general as a prophet of woe, Joseph's forebodings were well timed; he had learned when to get on the bear side of the millennial market. Thus, the persecutions of the Latter-day church and the general financial depression were coincident with this announcement: -- 'Hearken, O ye people of my church, the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days.__________ 12 'Times and Seasons,' 5, 655. Smith's followers, at this time, showed less sense than he; thus Martin Harris prophesied: -- 'Within four years from September, 1832, there will not be one wicked person left in the United States; that the righteous will be gathered to Zion (Missouri), and that there will be no President over these United States after that time. Second: I do hereby assert and declare that within four years from the date hereof, every sectarian and religious denomination in the United States shall be broken down, and every Christian shall be gathered unto the Mormonites, and the rest of the human race shall perish. If these things do not take place, I will hereby consent to have my hands separated from my body.' 13 'Doctrine and Covenants,' sec. 84. PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 181 the Book of my Commandments, which I have given them to publish unto you, O inhabitants of the earth: --__________ 14 'Book of Commandments,' Chapter I. For the orthodox view of these coincidences, compare 'Joseph the Seer,' p. 191: -- 'The persecutions of 1838, in Missouri, were clearly set forth in a 182 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM The voice of warning to all people was accompanied with promises of comfort to the Saints. In January, 1831, there came this message: 'Behold the enemy is combined, fear not for the kingdom is yours and I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even the land of promise; and that ye might escape the power of the enemy, I gave unto you the commandment, that ye should go to the Ohio.' 15 The spiritual timeliness of the early oracles is in marked contrast to the unedifying definiteness of the later covenants and commandments. One exception should be noted. A month before the founding of the Church 'a commandment, of God and not of man,' was given to Martin Harris. In this it was said: 'Thou shalt not covet thine own property, but impart it freely to the printing of the Book of Mormon. Pay the printer's debt. Misery thou shalt receive, if thou wilt slight these __________ prophecy given through Joseph Smith, at Kirtland, Ohio, July 23d, 1837, one year and more before the persecution occurred. See 'Doctrine and Covenants,' 105: 9. It reads: I Verily, verily, I say unto you, darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face. Behold, vengeance conietli speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth -- a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, of lamentation -- and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord. And upon my House (the church) shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord.' 15 'Book of Commandments,' Chapter 40. PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 183 counsels.' 16 As time went on the personal equation and the dollar mark became more conspicuous. On April 26th, 1832, a month after being tarred and feathered by a mob, Joseph received the message beginning, I the anger of God kindleth against the inhabitants of the earth.' On January igth, 1841, at Nauvoo, this advice reached the ears of the prophet: 'And now I say unto you, as pertaining to my boarding house which I have commanded you to build for the boarding of strangers, let it be built unto my name, and let my name be named upon it, and let my servant Joseph, and his house have place therein, from generation to generation.' 17 The Saints have attempted to relieve the bathos of Joseph's revelations, 18 by quoting the so-called __________ 16 'Book of Commandments,' Chapter 16. 17 'Doctrine and Covenants,' sec. 124. Compare the last revelation in the 'Book of Commandments,' Chapter 45: -- 'I willeth not that my servant Frederick should sell his farm, for I the Lord willeth to retain a strong hold in the land of Kirtland.' 18 Comare 'Joseph the Seer,' p. 185: -- 'There is an abundance of documentary evidence of the genuineness of the revelation showing that it was in existence -- in print -- as early as 1851, nine years before the rebellion. Mr. Beadle in his work against the Mormons states that he copied it out of The Seer, a work published by O. Pratt, in Washington, D. C., in 1853, seven years before the rebellion. And Mr. John Hyde who wrote a work against the Mormons entitled "Mormonism," which was issued by Fetridge & Co., of New Vork City, in 1857, cites this same revelation on p. 174, and he did it in order to prove that Joseph was a false prophet.' 184 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM 'Prophecy of the Rebellion.' 19 It is indeed a remarkable forecast," but its authenticity is dubious. The most specific revelation of this kind written by Joseph, occurred as early as March, 1831, but it is more pertinent to Armageddon than the Civil War: __________ 19 'Revelation and Prophecy on War,' given through 'Joseph the Seer,' December 25th, i832: -- Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls. The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place. For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations. And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war: And it came to pass also, that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves, and shall become exceedingly angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation; And thus, with the sword, and by bloodshed, the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquakes, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed, hath made a full end of all nations; That the cry of the Saints, and of the blood of the Saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies. Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.' PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 185 -- 'ye hear of wars in foreign lands, but behold I say unto you they are nigh even unto your doors, and not many years hence ye shall hear of wars in your own lands.' 20 To turn to Smith's doings as a seer: here was the first of his dabblings with the occult. How far the 'wonderful power' of 'Peep-stone Joe' was fictitious, how far due to unconscious self-suggestion it is hard to decide. The statements of his followers make his actions mystic; the statements of his family suggest the hypnotic; his own description of the Urim and Thummim as 'like unto __________ 20 'Book of Commandments,' Chapter 48, copied from art original copy in the Berrian collection. As regards the Prophecy of the Rebellion in both its enlarged and original form, the following dates should be noted. Smith was killed June 27, 1844. In the 'History of Joseph Smith,' in the 'Times and Seasons' of November 1, 1844, a reference to President Jackson's proclamation of 1832, against the South Carolina Nullifiers is inserted between Smith's revelations of December 6, 1832 and December 27, 1832. The alleged revelation of December 25th is significantly omitted. Again, this latter revelation does not occur in the first and only edition of the 'Book of Commandments,' (1833) nor even in the third edition of the 'Doctrine and Covenants' (1845). The same is true of the shorter revelation of April 2, 1843, as given in 'Doctrine and Covenants,' sec. 140, (later editions than 1845): -- 'I prophesy, in the name of the Lord God, that the commencement of the difficulties which will cause much bloodshed previous to the coming of the Son of Man will be in South Carolina. It may probably arise through the slave question. This a voice declared to me, while I was praying earnestly on the subject, December 52th [sic], 1832.' 186 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM crystal' at once suggests that he was an inadvertent crystal gazer. Although his psychoses may be put in terms of present day experiment, his own notions must be traced to his historic setting. His contemporaries were anachronisms belief in divination, -- both through 'second sight' and the 'shew stone' -- was brought over in the Mayflower along with other antique mental furniture. 21 Without harking back to old-world superstitions, 22 it is a fact that divining rods and seer stones were still used to find springs and locate hidden treasures in the rural districts of America. Especially did money diggers from Cape Cod to Lake Erie have their tales and fables. So Joseph's father was a firm believer in __________ 21 Edward Eggleston, 'The Transit of Civilization from England to America in the Seventeenth Century,' New York, 1901, Chapter 1. Mental Outfit of the Early Colonists. Also Joseph Jastrow, 'Fact and Fable in Psychology,' Boston, 1900, p. 224. 22 Albert Moll, 'Hypnotism,' New York, 1901, pp. 1, 2. 'The fact that particular Psychical states can be induced in human beings by certain physical processes has long been known among the Oriental peoples, and was utilized by them for religious purposes. Kiesewetter attributes the early soothsaying by means of precious stones to hypnosis, which was induced by steadily gazing at the stones. This is also true of divination by looking into vessels and crystals, as the Egyptians have long been in the habit of doing, and as has often been done in Europe: by Cagliostro, for example. These hypnotic phenomena are also found to have existed several thousand years ago among the Persian magi (Fischer), as well as up to the present day among Indian yogis and fakirs, who throw themselves into the hypnotic state by means of fixation of the gaze.' PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 187 witchcraft and other supernatural things, and Joseph himself refers to the divining rod as the rod of nature and informs his friend Cowdery 'behold there is no other power save God, that can cause this rod of nature to work in your hands, for it is the work of God.' 23 The very charges against the Smiths betrayed the credulity of the times. The 'seeing-stone' with which Joseph is alleged to have sought for the Susquehanna silver mine, had previously been used in attempts to trace a lost child. 24 As if it were a __________ 23 'Book of Commandments,' Chapter 7. 24 E. C. Blackman, 'History of Susquehanna County, Pa.,' 1873, p. 477: -- Mr. J. B. Buck narrates the following: -- 'Joe Smith was herelumbering soon after my marriage, which was in 1818, some years before he took to 'peeping," and before diggings were commenced under his direction. These were ideas he gained later. The stone which he afterwards used was then in the possession of Jack Belcher, of Gibson, who obtained it while at Salina, New York, engaged in drawing salt. Belcher bought it because it was said to be "a seeing stone." I have often seen it. It was a green stone, with brown, irregular spots on it. It was a little longer than a goose's egg, and about the same thickness. When he brought it home and covered it with a hat, Belcher's little boy was one of the first to look into the hat, and as he did so he said he saw a candle. The second time he looked in he exclaimed, "I've found my hatchet!" -- (it had been lost two years) -- and immediately ran for it to the spot shown him through the stone, and it was There. The boy was soon beset by neighbors far and near to reveal to them hidden things, and he succeeded marvelously. Even the wanderings of a lost child were traced by him -- the distracted parents coming to him three times for directions, and in each case finding signs that the child had been in the places he designated, but at 188 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM recrudescence of fetish worship, stones of strange shape or peculiar markings were highly prized, as well as those of a mysterious origin. An existing Mormon seer stone, from Missouri, is nothing but an Indian slate gorget. 25 Three generations ago there seems to have been only an inkling of the truth, that the 'influence' was to be attributed rather to the person seeing than to the object, to the seer rather than to the stone. Joseph's own neighbors were particularly in the dark; one Willard Chase sent sixty or seventy miles for a certain conjurer; Chase's sister found a green glass through which she could see very many wonderful things. 26 Whether this was the identical stone which Joseph used is conjectural and immaterial, 27 although there is new information on the point. 28 __________ last it was found starved to death. Joe Smith, conceiving the idea of making a fortune through a similar process of "seeing," bought the stone of Belcher and then began his operations in directing where hidden treasures could be found. His first diggings were near Captain Buck's sawmill, at Red Rock; but, because his followers broke the rule of silence, "the enchantment removed the deposits."' 25 Compare Figure 24, p. 650, 'Handbook of Reference,' United States National Museum, 1888. 26 'Biographical Sketches,' pp. 106, 109. 27 Martin Harris in an interview, in January, 1859, said that Joseph's stone was dug from the well of Mason Chase. Tiffany's Monthly, May, 1859. 28 'On the request of the court, he (Joseph, junior) exhibited the stone. It was about the size of a small hen's egg, in the shape of a PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 189 How early he stumbled on the discovery of his gift' is more important. 29 His father testified that, when a lad, 'Joseph heard of a neighboring girl, who could look into a glass and see anything however hidden from others. He looked into this glass which was placed in a hat to exclude the light. He was greatly surprised to see but one thing, which was a small stone, a great way off. It soon became luminous and dazzled his eyes, and after a short time it became as intense as the midday sun.... He often had an opportunity to look in the glass, and with the same result. The luminous stone alone attracted his attention.' 30 By 1825, Joseph's fame as a 'peeper' was widespread. Josiah Stoal came from Chenango County to get Joseph's 'assistance in digging for a silver mine, on account of having heard that he possessed __________ high instepped shoe. It was composed of layers of different colors passing diagonally through it.... Joseph Smith, senior, was present, and was sworn as a witness. He confirmed at great length all that his son had said in his examination.... He described very many instances of his finding hidden and stolen goods.' From W. D. Purple, manuscript editorial in Norwich, N. Y. Union, April 28, 1877. Purple took notes at the trial of Joseph Smith, senior, in February, 1826, at South Bainbridge, Pa., before Albert Neeley, J. P. 29 The story that Joseph's 'gift' was 'Scotch second sight' is well found but not true; his ancestry was English. 30 W. D. Purple. Compare also 'Book of Mormon,' p. 328. The stone called Gazelem 'a stone which shineth forth in darkness unto light.' 190 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM certain keys, by which he could discern things invisible to the natural eye.' 31 So far the youthful seer had been using a translucent quartz pebble such as was to be found in the glacial drift of western New York. In September, 1827, he procured his 'interpreters.' These he himself described as two transparent stones, 32 and his mother as three-cornered diamonds, which he kept constantly about his person. 33 If one may hazard a guess, these 'curious instruments, called by the ancients the Urim and Thummim,' 34 were probably a couple of prisms from an old-fashioned chandelier. Whatever the object, the purpose was the same, -- to produce a condition suitable for the 'seeing of visions.' What this condition really was, Joseph knew as little as the Specularii of old. But that many people hypnotize themselves, 35 without knowing it, is as true as that Monsieur Jourdain had been speaking prose all his life, without knowing it. Since the classic experiments of Braid, the Manchester surgeon, the means of producing hypnosis are too well known to need description: in a likely subject, steady gazing at anything from a teapot to the tip of the nose will induce the primary state of __________ 31 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 92. 32 'Times and Seasons,' 3, 707. 33 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 106. 34 'Joseph Smith the Seer,' p. 19. 35 Moll, p. 389. PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 191 reverie. Of the scientific procedure Joseph, of course, was absolutely ignorant, yet his method of 'glass-looking,' was, in fact, one of the easiest ways of producing slight hypnotization, namely that by sensorial excitement. He did not need strong or luminous rays, but only that slight and prolonged excitement, gained by fixing the eyes on an object, brilliant or otherwise, placed near the eyes. 36 Unlike some of his followers Joseph does not seem to have been especially liable to what they denominated the 'open vision.' 37 His was not the rarer type of person, who __________ 36 Alfred Binet and Charles Fere, 'Animal Magnetism,' New York, 1898, p. 93. 37, Times and Seasons,' 5, 661. Two instances of the 'open vision' with attendant hallucinations, somewhat similar to Joseph's visions of the plates are as follows: 'Faith Promoting Series,' number 12, p. 79. Amasa Potter, in Picton, Australia, in 1856, said, 'At meeting after speaking a few words I became dumb, -- when I thought I saw several lines of large letters printed on the walls of the house, and I commenced to read them and spoke about one hour. When the letters faded from my sight, I then stopped speaking. I could not tell all that I had said; but my companion told me it was an excellent discourse.'... Littlefield, in his 'Reminiscences,' p. 203, gives this account of an experience of July 13, 1848, on the ship 'Forest Monarch,' from New York, in a fierce Atlantic storm: 4 At 12 o'clock A. M.... I was clinging with both arms clasped tightly around a post.... While in this position a panorama of my life passed in review before me. Two or three words, as if shaped in letters of burnished gold or written by flames of fire, were presented. These words were so chosen as to be indicative of some unwise act or sinful deed. They would remain there, undiminished in brightness, until I had earnestly and humbly implored forgiveness.... 192 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM can call up the hallucinative image, spontaneously and while awake. His acts, as a seer, required time, preparation and some apparatus. An eyewitness thus describes his methods: 'At times when Brother Joseph would attempt to translate, he would look into the hat in which the stone was placed, he found he was spiritually blind and could not translate. He told us that his mind dwelt too much on earthly things, and various causes would make him incapable of proceeding with the translation. When in this condition he would go out and pray, and when he became sufficiently humble before God, he could then proceed with the translation. Now we see how very strict the Lord is; and how He requires the heart of man to be just right in His sight, before he can receive revelation from Him. 38 These fluctuations in the psychological moment -- really due to a restless temperament-were interpreted as due to the alternate granting and withdrawal of the 'gift.' 39 For this reason, there is little __________ When I had duly repented, that set of words would pass away and others take their place, until mental restitution was made as before. These manifestations continued to alternate for a time and then passed away.' 38 David Whitmer, 'Address,' p. 30. 39 Compare 'Book of Commandments,' p. 13. A Revelation, May, 1829, after the loss of the 116 pages of manuscript, you also lost your gift at the same time, nevertheless it has also been restored unto you again.' PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 193 doubt that Joseph, at least at the start, considered his 'transiations'to be inspired. For all that, his mystic writings may be resolved into their elements of Bible knowledge, petty information and every-day experience. It is curious and noteworthy to trace the workings of the seer's imagination in the lather of words given by his devotee: 'I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.' 40 That the Book of Mormon was an imaginative elaboration of presentative material, is corroborated by this account of its mystic genesis. Joseph's process of translating by means of his Urim and __________ 40 Whitmer, p. 12. 194 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM Thummim 41 may be compared with a recent experimental study of visions. 42 Although artificially produced they resolved themselves mainly into natural sources, namely, -- what had been previously seen, heard, read and thought, besides representations and revivals of the experience of the hypnotic personality of which the waking consciousness has never had knowledge. All this is applicable to Joseph's first act of 'translating.' To those who care to dig below the threshold of consciousness, the mystic after-image, the recrudescence of the subconscious may be an explanation of the alleged Greek and Hebrew letters in the transcription of the gold plates. One glance at a Bible in the original tongues may have been enough to stamp the visual image on the boy's impressionable mind. This objectification of images, which exist unconsciously in the memory, is a fact in dreams and a likely surmise as to the analogous phenomena of semi-hypnosis. Whatever the explanation, the fact is this, -- Joseph the seer was a good visualizer. 43 __________ 41 In 'Times and Seasons,' 3, 707, Smith gave this fabulous account: -- 'With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called "Urim and Thummim," which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God.' 42 Brain, 21, 528. 43 Joseph's case is curiously like that of a present day sceptic, PROPHET, SEER, AND REVELATOR 195 Smith's method was so far the commonplace method of the trance-medium. The act of fixing the eyes on one particular point, supplemented by a state of quietude through prayer, prepared the way for the influence of self-suggestion. His external acts are one thing, the subtle and self-deceiving nature of his hallucinations another. He knew no more about the subconscious self and the law of association of ideas, than he did of the fact that his 'Reformed Egyptian' resembled the irregular and spasmodic writings of hypnotic subjects. Now that the transcription of the gold plates is a veritable piece of automatic writing, is evident from a comparison __________ who was once an esoteric mystic. It was Alfred Le Baron who claimed he could see 'sentences in English characters among a number of ideographs on an Egyptian slab of stone.' 'Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,' 12, 287. -- This analogy may be taken for what it is worth. One can prove anything from these modern dabblings in the occult. In the same way, care should be taken in the application of the hypnotic principles of the hysterical school of Charcot. As has been said regarding the choice of hysterical patients, 'Take care, or you will find what you are looking for.' If emphasis is laid on the abnormal side of Joseph Smith's case, his states resemble the not uncommon condition found among hystero-epileptics. As the physiology of the subject is admittedly obscure, in this study, the more normal principles of the suggestion school of Nancy are chiefly utilized. Parsimony demands that the hypnotic aspects of the Mormons should be explained as mental, rather than physical reflexes. Yet, as for Smith himself, the subject is complex and demands compromise; on the one hand, his self-induced states of hypnosis were synchronous with his youthful ill health; on the other hand, his suggestive influence over others began soon after his early epileptic seizures ceased. 196 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM of the reproduction of the 'Caractors' with modern experimental scrawlings. An attempt of a patient, in a semi-hypnotic state, through planchette or a pencil held loosely in the hands, will show equally mysterious figures and back-handed signatures. 44 The relation of Joseph's crystal gazing to the composition of the Book of Mormon, brings more important information. It furnishes an explanation of certain peculiarities in the text. The style of the ancient prophet Mormon is the style of the modern spiritualist. The lack of punctuation may be laid to the fact of dictation, but the slips in grammar and the endless repetition of such phrases as 'came to pass,' resemble the painful errors and damnable iteration of messages from the unseen world." Furthermore, the length and complexity of the Book of Mormon is rendered additionally possible, if one cares to believe the assertion, that hypnotic suggestion arouses into activity the dormant psychic power, -- brings to the subject's fingers' ends all the knowledge that he has ever had, and, finally, inspires __________ 44 Moll, p. 267. 45 At a spiritualistic seance of a Boston medium, in igoo, I noticed a marked difference between the normal and trance states. The set speeches, evidently learned by heart, were johiisonian in their correctness, but the messages from the departed in their grammatical lapses and turns of expression betrayed the rustic origin of the seeress. PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 197 him with an overwhelming confidence in himself. 46 Was it hyperaethesia or hard work that evolved the Record of the Nephites? To those who neither hanker after theories of the subliminal self, 47 nor believe that the Book of Mormon required any quickening of the intellect, 48 the author's crystal gazing may yet have important relations to his writings. At the least, it was a moving cause of the acts of his disciples. Because of their magical guise, his associates believed that they were bound to take down their seer's every utterance; consequently, they gave him abundant help. Emma Smith confessed that she wrote at her husband's dictation day after day; 49 while Christian Whitmer and __________ 46 Compare R. O. Mason, 'Telepathy and the Subliminal Self,' New York, 1896, p. 78, 47 'Harvard Psychological Studies,' September, x896. Experimenters succeeded in reproducing in a walcing state of complete normality, the first three essential elements of the second personality, viz.: -- 1. General tendency to movement without conscious motor impulse; 2. Tendency of an idea in the mind to go over into a movement involuntarily and unconsciously; 3. Tendency of a sensory current to pass over into a motor reaction subconsciously; 4. Unconscious exercise of memory and invention. 48 Moll, p. 268. a The automatic hand writes without concentration of thought on the writer's part.' 49 Wyle, 'Mormon Portraits,' p. 203. Statement of Emma Hale Smith to her son. 'In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat with the stone in it.' 198 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM Oliver Cowdery were his scribes for seven solid months. 50 To Joseph's performances as a seer, the usual clairvoyant and telepathic embellishments were added. Martin Harris said that Joseph proposed to bind his 'directors' on his eyes and run a race with him in the woods. 51 David Whitmer avowed that this was the same stone used by the Jaredites at Babel. He relates that he could see nothing through it, but that Joseph, placing it to his eyes, could read signs one hundred and sixty miles distant, and tell exactly what was transpiring there. He then adds the statement: -- 'When I went to Harmony after him, he told me the name of every hotel at which I had stopped on the road, read the signs, and described various scenes without having ever received any information from me.' 52 The most marvelous occurrence is one that is said to have happened about June, 1829. Joseph's __________ 60 The actual writing of the 'Book of Mormon' appears to have taken about seven months. (December, 1827-February, 1828; April 12-June 14, 1828; April 7-June 11, 1829.) Taking the first edition as 588 printed pages, this gives an average of between two and three pages a day. 61 Tiffany's Monthly, May, 1959. Compare 'Joseph Smith the Seer,' p. 19. -- 'With the records was found a curious instrument, called by the ancients the Urim and Thummim. This was in use in ancient times by persons called seers. It was an instrument by the use of which they received revelation of things distant. or of things past or future.' 62 'Address,' p. 11. PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 199 mother recounts that, as he was translating by means of the Urim and Thummim, he received, 'instead of the words of the Book, a commandment to write a letter to a man by the name of David Whitmer, who lived in Waterloo, requesting him to come immediately with his team, and convey himself and Oliver to his own residence, as an evil-designing people were seeking to take away his (Joseph's) life, in order to prevent the work of God from going forth to the world. 53 Of these three occurrences comment is almost superfluous. The running blindfolded is not said to have taken place; if it had, it could be compared to the heightened sense-perception of the hypnotic subject, when he walks about a room with bandaged eyes, or in absolute darkness, without striking against anything. 54 Again Joseph's reading inn-signs, miles away, is no proof of the dubieties of supersensual thought transference. 55 As the added __________ 53 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 135. 54 Moll, p. 115. 55 On the semi-occult aspects of crystal gazing, compare Frank Podinore, 'Apparitions and Thought Transference,' London, 1900, p. 352. Other instances among the Mormons of 'premonitions,' veridical visions' and 'sympathetic clairvoyance,' are as follows: -- (1.) p. p. Pratt, , Autobiography,' p. 368,-- On June 27, 1844, Joseph and Hyrum were killed. I was constrained by the spirit a day or so before to start prematurely for home (Nauvoo) without knowing why or wherefore. As my brother William and I talked, a strange and solemn awe came over me, as if the powers of hell 200 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM details show, the itinerant seer had traveled the same road as his disciple, who took no account of Joseph's naturally retentive memory. Lastly the form of the letter to the Whitmers, and their fulfilling the writer's request implies a previous acquaintance __________ were let loose. I was so overwhelmed with sorrow I could hardly speak. This was June 27tb, in the afternoon, as near as I can judge at the hour Joseph died.'-- (2.) In the Nauvoo Neighbor, March, 1844, Benjamin Andrews reports a vision at the time the Latter-day Saints were driven from Jackson county, Missouri,-- 'I was at the capital of the United States. In the archives of state a man, one of the ancients of the nation, took two or three small boxes and said 'These were the archives of state, but they are turned to blood.' I saw the box turned to blood.'-- (3.) B. Brown, 'Testimonies,' p. 12. -- 'One Sunday morning, while opening the meeting with prayer, the gift of tongues came upon me but I quenched the Spirit. Immediately another broke out in tongues, of which the interpretation was, 'the Lord knew we were anxious to learn of the affairs of our brethren in Missouri, and that if we would humble ourselves, He would reveal unto us.' Missouri was some thousands of miles from Portland. In a fortnight a letter confirmed the message at or about the time of the massacre at Haun's Mill.'-- (4.) The same event in Indiana in 1838, was announced by a variety of the so-called 'simultaneous apparition.' Littlefield, p. 69, quotes the statement of John Hammer: -- 'We were standing there exactly at the time this bloody butchery was committed and of course were all looking eagerly in the direction of the mill. While in this attitude a crimson colored vapor, like a mist or thin cloud, ascended up from the precise place where we knew the mill to be located. This transparent pillar of blood remained.... far into the fatal night. At that hour we had not heard a word of what had taken place at the mill, but as quick as my mother and aunt saw this red, blood-like token, they commenced to wring their hands and moan, declaring they knew that their husbands had been murdered.' PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 201 with that family. In brief, Joseph's failures are in accord with the modern failures in mental telegraphy, through the medium of crystals. 56 The alleged long-distance messages were simply 'reproduced past experiences without recognition.' Other Mormons may furnish telepathic experiences, but they are more curious than convincing. Thus far Smith's occult performances meet with psychological negation; this is not the result in their ethical import, if the inference is allowable. It is somewhere in here that the dividing line must be drawn between self-deception and conscious duplicity. From the silence in his own writings, as to these three episodes, it is evident that the prophet and seer did not believe himself an entire success as clairvoyant and mind reader. And more than that as respects the translating of the plates, there is a suspicion that he early recognized that there was something the matter. To his progenitors anything preternatural was supernatural; to the prophet the supernatural was now merging into the merely abnormal, else he would neither have persevered in his methods of obfustication, nor have tried to monopolize __________ 56 'Society for Psychical Research,' 12, 259. Prof J. H. Hyslop in 'Some Experiments in Crystal Visions,' found 'nothing of an apparently telepathic nature or any other kind of supernormal psychological experience.' 202 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM the use of the seer-stone, 57 nor finally have given it up altogether. 58 The various changes in his methods are especially significant. As money digger, he was wont to hide his face in a hat; as translator, he sometimes kept behind a curtain, 59 dictating to his scribe on the other side; finally by May, 1831, he had a special 'translating room' of his own. 60 There was method in this concealment: it was to keep from the sight of his followers the fixed gaze and the blank expression of the auto-hypnotic. There is here implicated no such mystic paradox as that Joseph was conscious of his unconsciousness; __________ 57 'Book of Commandments,' Chapter 30: Take thy brother Hiram Page between him and thee alone, and tell him that those things which he hath written from that stone are not of me, and that satan deceiveth him: For behold these things have not been appointed unto him, Neither shall anything be appointed to any of this church.' Compare 'Times and Seasons,' 4, 117-119; also 'History of the Church,' p. 123. 58 Whitmer, p. 32: -- 'After the translation of the "Book of Mormon" was finished, early in the spring of 1830, before April 6th, Joseph gave the stone to Oliver Cowdery and told me as well as the rest that he was through with it, and he did not use the stone any more. He said he was through the work that God had given him the gift to perform, except to preach the gospel. He told us that we would all have to depend on the Holy Ghost hereafter to be guided into truth and obtain the will of the Lord. The revelations after this came through Joseph as "mouthpiece;" that is, he would enquire of the Lord, pray and ask concerning a matter, and speak out the revelation.' 59 Whitmer, p. 10. 60 'Times and Seasons,' 6, 784. PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 203 if, at the time, the trance-medium does not know what he has spoken, he yet knows that he has spoken. The light hypnosis is not characterized by entire loss of memory. That the prophet, as early as 1831, was cognizant of the abnormality of the ecstatic condition, is borne out by his disrelish for such excesses as those of the Kirtland convulsionists, their 'wallowing on the ground, their diabolical acts of enthusiasm.' Exactly when the personal discovery was made is a matter of opinion. It may have been with the failure, in October, I825, to find the fabulous silver mine of his father-in-law. It was in October, I825, he relates, that he I prevailed upon the old gentleman to cease digging after it.' 61 __________ 61 'Pearl of Great Price,' p. 100. Compare Blackman, 'History of Susquehanna County, Pa.,' p. 578. (I quote the following affidavit only because I am acquainted with this locality and have personal knowledge of the reliability of Charles Dimon. It should be noted that Hale's dates differ from Smith's.) 'Statement of Isaac Hale. Affirmed to and subscribed before Chas. Dimon, J. P., March 20, 1834. The good character of Isaac Hale was attested to the following day by judges Wm. Thomson and D. Dimock: -- 'I first became acquainted with Joseph Smith, junior, in November, I825. He was at that time in the employ of a set of men who were called Is money-diggers," and his occupation was that of seeing, or pretending to see, by means of a stone placed in his hat, and his hat closed over his face. In this way he pretended to discover minerals and hidden treasure. His appearance at this time was that of a careless young man, not very well educated, and very saucy and insolent to his father. Smith and his father, with several other money-diggers, boarded at my house while they were employed in digging for a mine that they supposed had been opened 204 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM Subjective 'glass looking' was found to be no royal road to objective fortune; but disillusionment of self was not the disillusionment of others. About four years after this, Joseph saw fit to acknowledge, in his own peculiar way, that the power of self-suggestion was not confined to himself. In April, 1829, a revelation came to Oliver Cowdery: 'behold thou hast a gift, if thou wilt inquire, thou shalt know mysteries which are great and marvelous.' 62 This'gift'of Oliver's was shortly afterwards explained as a 'key of knowledge concerning the engravings of old records.' These announcements of mutually shared 'gifts' or 'keys' form one of the dividing lines in Joseph's career. With the discovery that suggestion was a rule that worked both ways, he ceased to be a mere self-centred visionary, and became in truth a revelator to others. Once when his high priests wished to __________ and worked by the Spaniards many years since. Young Smith gave the money-diggers great encouragement at first, but when they had arrived in digging too near the place where be had stated an immense treasure would be found, he said the enchantment was so powerful that he could not see. They then became discouraged, and soon after dispersed. This took place about the 17th of November, 1825....' I told them, then, that I considered the whole of it a delusion, and advised them to abandon it. The manner in which he (Joseph) pretended to read and interpret was the same as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the book of plates was at the same time hid in the woods.' 62 'Book of Commandments,' Chapter 5. PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 205 behold 'concourses of angels,' as president of the church, Smith employed the conventional means of inducing the trance vision. There was insistence on faith, fasting and prayer, laying on of hands, fixity of thought, and rigidity of position. 63 The origin of Joseph's functions as a revelator is, like all origins, rudimentary and somewhat obscure. It was, however, natural that the first believers in his visualizing powers should be found among his kith and kin. What he imagined he saw, he got them to imagine they saw. As his mother says of him, during the evening conversations, when 'he Would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, -- I presume our family presented an aspect as singular as any that ever lived upon the face of the earth -- all seated in a circle, father, mother, sons, and daughters, and giving the most profound attention to a boy, eighteen years of age.' 64 But Joseph's success was not confined to a family of constitutional visionaries; his sphere of influence soon enlarged. Because he asserted he had seen a vision, he was persecuted ' by the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and was under the necessity of leaving Manchester and going to Pennsylvania.' 65 Opposition was what he needed; he __________ 63 Compare 'Times and Seasons,' 5, 738, the events of March 18, 1833. 64 'Biographical Sketches,' p. 84. 65 'Pearl of Great Price,' p. 102. 206 THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM was advertised by his enemies, until his fame as a beholder of visions was as wide as his early reputation as a 'discerner of invisible things.' 66 Thus the acts of the prophet and seer paved the way for the acts of the revelator. Of these latter acts the most conspicuous was that of the vision beheld by his scribes. It is embodied in this remarkable document accompanying all editions of the Book of Mormon: -- THE TESTIMONY OF THREE WITNESSES. Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, unto whom this work shall come, that we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, his brethren, and also of the people of Jared, which came from the tower of which hath been spoken ; and we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for His voice bath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety, that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen__________ 64 'Pearl of Great Price,' p. 102: -- 'The excitement, however, still continued, and rumor, with her thousand tongues, was all the time employed in circulating tales about my father's family, and about myself. If I were to relate a thousandth part of them, it would fill up volumes. The persecution, however, became so intolerable that I was under the necessity of leaving Manchester, and going with my wife to Susquehanna County, in the State of Pennsylvania.' PROPHET, SEER AND REVELATOR 207 the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shewn unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an Angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true; and it is marvelous in our eyes. Nevertheless, the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen. |