Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/107

The Book of Mormon 519 common interest, and here and there community of property and even person was a mooted topic. In the Book of Mormon we shall look in vain for more than is already found, at least in spirit, in the Scriptures. Its teachings are in general in surprisingly close accord with the outstanding teachings of the Bible. The doctrines both of pre-existence and of perfection are reiterated, if not emphasized. Contin- uity beyond the grave of relationships begun here is preached. No suggestion is made of polytheism, and polygamy is expressly forbidden. Stress is laid on the second coming of the Lord, which the Millerites, in their white robes by thousands, gathered one day on the banks of the Schuylkill to witness only to be disappointed and chagrined. "No idea was so absurd," as Schotiler, the historian, writing of the time has said, "or so visionary that one might not hope to found a school or sect upon it in this new American society, if only he seemed to be in earnest." To understand today the Book of Mormon one must take into account the environment in which it came to light, the type of men responsible for its origin and for the organization created in its name, and the accretions, interpretations, and history soon to follow its publication. Joseph Smith, sprung of parents reported to be specially responsive to local conditions, said in 1838 that on the night of September 21, 1823, at his home in Manchester, near Canan- daigua. New York, the angel Moroni three times appeared to him with a revelation of "Golden Plates" buried on Cumorah Hill, and that on September 22, 1827, in accordance with in- structions, he dug up the same, and found them covered with small, mystic characters "of the Reformed Egyptian style" — as Professor Talmage hints. It was a time when people were still talking of the Rosetta Stone, when travel- ling showmen were exhibiting mummies, and when the Egyptian style was aflEecting the public taste, even in some housebuilding. With the aid of a pair of crystal spectacles, his "Urim and Thummim," which Smith said he found, and with the co-oper- ation of certain kindred spirits, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer by name, whose services were the more valuable because Smith seemed expert neither in reading nor