MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 167 



in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being 

 handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech. And if 

 our plates had been sufficiently large, we should have written in Hebrew ; but 

 the Hebrew hath been altered by us also ; and if we could have written in 

 Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record. But the 

 Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other 

 people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the inter- 

 pretation thereof. And these things are written, that we may rid our garments 

 of the blood of our brethren, who have dwindled in unbelief. And behold, 

 these things which we have desired concerning our brethren, yea, even their 

 restoration to the knowledge of Christ, is according to the prayers of all the 

 saints who have dwelt in the land. And may the Lord Jesus Christ grant that 

 their prayers may be answered according to their faith; and may God the 

 Father remember the covenant which he hath made with the house of Israel ; 

 and may he bless them forever, through faith on the name of Jesus Christ! 

 Amen." 



The record in question professes to contain a history of the Ameri- 

 can Continent from the date" of its first colonization by Jared and bis 

 brother at the time of the dispersion from Babel down to the year 

 a. d. 420, when Moroni, the last of the Nephite prophets, buried his 

 plates in the hill of Cumorah. This account of prehistoric America is 

 but a tedious composition, full of battles and slaughter, full of proper 

 names, of reiterations, and of unnecessary phrases. We are told how 

 the Jaredites, emigrants from the valley of Nimrod, who " did carry 

 with them Deseret, which by interpretation is a honey-bee," attained 

 to great civilization and prosperity in North America, and were ut- 

 terly destroyed by internecine warfare about the year 600 b. c. They 

 were succeeded by a " remnant of the house of Joseph," brought from 

 Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah to inherit the land. These appear 

 to have crossed the Pacific Ocean, landing on the west coast of South 

 America, whence they eventually overspread that continent. They 

 separated before long into two distinct nations, known as Nephites 

 and Lamanites, the former migrating from the persecutions of the lat- 

 ter, and sailing "forth into the west sea by the narrow neck which 

 led into the land northward." Through the personal ministry of 

 Jesus Christ, who visited them shortly after his ascension, the Ne- 

 phites were converted from the Mosaic to the Christian faith, which 

 was in time accepted by the Lamanites also ; and for two hundred 

 years they prospered and multiplied, and there was no contention in 

 the land, all things being common among them. This golden age was 

 succeeded by a period of apostasy ; " and from that time forth they 

 did have their goods and their substance no more common among 

 them, and they began to be divided into classes, and they began to 

 build up churches unto themselves, to get gain, and began to deny 

 the true church of Christ." A terrible war broke out between the 

 Nephites, now settled in North America (known as the land Desola- 

 tion), and the Lamanites, who invaded them from the land Bountiful, 



