they ever did write in the Egyptian language." President James B. Angell, University of Michigan, said: "There is no evidence that the Hebrews kept their records upon plates or tablets of brass. There is no evidence whatever to show that the Pentateuch was ever written on such plates of brass." (Copied from "Doctrines and Dogmas of Mormonism.") The men who furnished the above answers represent the scholarship of the world. Their testimony establishes certain facts, namely,
- The Hebrews never kept their records on tablets of brass.
- No Hebrew records were ever kept on tablets of brass, nor any other substance, in the Egyptian language.
- The Pentateuch was never written in the Egyptian language before 300 A. D.
The Book of Mormon opens with the statement that the language in which it was written was the Egyptian; and that such was the language of Lehi. Who was Lehi? A Hebrew, bred, born and reared in Jerusalem. The language of any man is his native tongue. Lehi, being a Jew, born and reared in Jerusalem, his language was the native tongue of the Jewish nation. We are, hence, to understand that the native tongue of the Hebrew nation was the Egyptian?! There is evidenced at the very threshold of Mormonism, either an ignorance inexcusable, or a design to deceive that is damnable.
Our second and third questions are: "Did the original inhabitants of Central America keep their records on metal plate?" and "Did they have a written language?" These questions we answer together. We are able to show the characters used in the writings of the inhabitants of Central America 1500 to 2000 years ago. They have been preserved in marble and stone, and will stand till the end of time, an irrefutable testimony to the falsity of the Book of Mormon. In the ruins of the ancient cities of Copan and Palenque, of Central America, we are told, "are found in abundance the strange hieroglyphics, the written language of the people who
