phi arrogates to himself a great preference with the Lord, over the patriarch Noah.
Lehi, and all his host, after the ship is completed by our hero, go on board, and immediately embark for the promised land. But the wicked dispositions of Laman and Lemuel would not allow the crew to remain in peace. A mutiny takes place on ship board, and our hero and admiral was taken, and bound so tight that he could not move. But the Lord is represented as being on Nephi's side, and a remedy was at hand at once. The famous brass ball-compass ceased to traverse! "and they knew not whither to steer the ship, insomuch, that there arose a great storm, yea, a great and terrible tempest." We will leave the reader to draw the inference, whether the terrible storm arose from the abuse of Nephi, or, because the compass would not traverse! p. 48.
If the bare statement of a succession of miracles, such as have been recorded thus far in the Book of Mormon, unaccompanied by any testimony, or carrying with it any plausible probability of truth, entitles the work to the credit of Divine authenticity, we have already failed in our attempt to prove it a fiction. But we apprehend our readers will not receive the ridiculous story of Nephi, although it be clothed in the mantle of sanctity, without first instituting a critical enquiry, and comparing the probabilities with the sacred truths of Holy Writ.
We might have mentioned, that Lehi had two sons born in the wilderness, after he departed from Jerusalem. The eldest was called Jacob, and the other Joseph; these two sons are somewhat important personages in the como-tragedy hereafter.
To return to our crew. Finding the compass would not traverse, they get frightened, and set Nephi at liberty; the magnet again operates—the seas become calm—and every
