Chapter XI.
- Credibility of testimony
- Money-digging in New York
- Chase's peep-stone
- Smith's mode of translating
- Page's stone
- Smith's plates
- Wiley's plates
- Cupidity of Smith's family
- Smith's object
- W. Harris's inducement
- O. Cowdery's inducement
- Origin of name
- Origin of matter
- Spalding's relations testify
- Smith's means of obtaining MS. of Spalding
- Incidents of Book of Mormon
- Religious decisions
- Religious style
- Grammatical construction
- The Bible.
The Book of Mormon is not what it pretends to be, a revelation from God; then, what is it? What is its real origin? Is Smith the author, or had he assistance? If he had accomplices, who were they, and what were the inducements held out to them? What was their object? Were they victims. to his deceit or accessories to his fraud? These become not. only interesting but important questions. To these questions a reply is attempted in this chapter.
It is very difficult to detect, in ordinary cases, evidences of fraud. Unless by the exposure by an accomplice, it is necessary to make a minute investigation of the circumstances of the case, remembering the third law of evidence, "Things must agree with collateral facts."
The apologists for the Book of Mormon boldly demand "What object could Joseph Smith and these witnesses have had if the transaction be a fraud?" There are three motives
