The founder of Mormonism

Front matter

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A Psychological Study of Joseph Smith, Jr. by

Author's Preface

This study has been offered to the Philosophical Faculty of Yale University as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Materials 1 gathered at Salt Lake City in 1894 were utilized in 1898 for a Master of Arts thesis on the ' Metaphysics of Mormonism.' The sources employed in the present work, as given in the appended Bibliography, are, in the main, to be found in the Berrian collection of the New York Public Library.

Beside rare first editions and Church publications suppressed by the Utah Saints, use is here made of some hitherto unpublished manuscripts. For these I am indebted to various correspondents, and especially to Mr. William Evarts Benjamin of New York City. For suggestions and criticisms my thanks are also due to Prof. William H. Brewer, of the Sheffield Scientific School, and to Prof. Charles j. Bartlett of the Yale Medical School.

The aim of this work is to examine Joseph Smith's character and achievements from the stand-

X PREFACE

point of recent psychology. Sectarians and phrenologists, spiritualists and mesmerists have variously interpreted his more or less abnormal performances, — it nov^ remains for the psychologist to have a try at them.

New Haveuy Conn,, May, igo2.

Contents

CHAPTER I Ancestry and Dreams 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 Mu-aculous 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 xii CONTENTS

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

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. — Psycho-physical 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. — Cor-

CONTENTS xiii

relation of Ancestry and Progeny. — Seizures Infrequent and Cure Spontaneous. — After Effects on His Character. — His Mental Ability and Emotional Instability. — Interpretations of His Followers, 37

CHAPTER III The Book of Mormon : The Documents

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 Prmted 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 'j']

xiv CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV The Book of Mormon : The Sources

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 Pri-est'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 - - - - iQ5

Chapter V

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

CONTENTS XV

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 w^ith 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 139

Chapter VI

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. — xvi CONTENTS

Methods of Concealment. — The Ecstatic Condition. — ^Joseph Applies to Others the Principles of Suggestion. — Persecuted and Made Notorious. — His Acts as a Revelator - - - - -175

Chapter VII

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 Testimofiy 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. — Swedcnborgianism. — Mesmerism. — Animal Magnetism. — Spiritualism. — Primitive Beliefs of the Minor

CONTENTS xvii

Sects. — Mormon Metaphysics. — Smith a Crass Materialist. — His Crude Explanations. — His Tests for Evil Spirits. — His Editorial on * Try the Spirits' - 209

Chapter VIII

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 - - - - 245 xviii CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX Joseph the Faith Healer 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 Remedies. — ^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 - 283

CHAPTER X Final Activities Last Proofs of Smith's Restlessness and Instability. — Communism in Goods and in Wives. — ^Joseph the

CONTENTS xix

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. — ^Josepli the Soldier. — Mormondom a Military Church. — ^Joseph the Agitator. — His Strange Mastery of His Followers. — How He Gained the Ascendency. — 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? ------- 305

APPENDICES

I. Contents OF THE Book OF Mormon - - 331

II. Epilepsy and the Visions - - - - 3^3

III. The Spaulding-Rigdon Theory of the Book

OF Mormon ----- 367

IV. Polygamy and Hypnotism - - . - 397 V, Bibliography ..--..- 427

Chapter I Ancestry And Dreams Chapter I

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/ 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,' 5, 856: — * 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 ene??iies : — 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.'

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 ^ 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

« * 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.'

him as sensuaP 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, ene-

^ '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, i^ ^^^ Overland Monthly ^ December, 1890.

mies and followers alike.* Of all these pen portraits, the latest is probably the most impartial. As the church historian gives it only in part/ it is need-

< 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.'

6 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 text-book, 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, wlio 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 ful 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 asking 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 weakness 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.'

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, SmitWs Journal and his History,^ 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 Smithy extracts from which were made by himself, so as to form a consecutive narrative, under title of History of Joseph Smithy 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 i2mo 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, afte;rwards 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 commencing to perform. It thus became 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 i, 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 lo THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM

Evidences'^ and Lucy Smith's Biographical Sketches^ the latter being a sort of homeopathic antidote to her son's unctuous autobiography/ 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. 1 86. * 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 TTie History of Joseph Smithy 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 ii

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 18 10, 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, on 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). , . .* 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,^

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 ap-