60 BOOK OF A HUNDRED BEARS 



He alleged that he was directed to the finding 

 by the angel Moroni, who was the son of 

 the prophet Mormon, the last leader of the 

 Nephites, with whose history the Book of Mormon 

 is principally concerned. 



The book contained records of the wanderings 

 of the Jeredites and Nephites for a period of 

 several thousand years, added to from time to 

 time. It was written in characters pronounced 

 by, at least, one scholar of repute, to be Hebrew of 

 an archaic type. At different times the plates 

 were exhibited to eight different witnesses, all men 

 of probity and good reputation, who, later, attested 

 that they had seen and handled the plates. About 

 this book there long raged a great controversy. 

 It was alleged that it was a plagiarism from a 

 romafice written by an itinerant minister, one 

 Spaulding. It is now conceded that there was no 

 foundation for this story, and the origin of the 

 Book, to all but Mormons, remains a mystery. Cer- 

 tainly Joseph Smith, an unlearned man, could 

 hardly have written it. Disregarding the contro- 

 versy as to its origin, the Book forms an interesting 

 contribution to religious literature. 



