hands of Harris to take to New York city for the purpose of subjecting them to scientific scrutiny. It is probable that he was induced to take this step on account of a desire to that effect expressed by Harris, from whom he had already proposed to borrow funds for the publication of the volume when completed. Be this as it may, the circumstance was afterwards adduced as the fulfilment of a prophecy of Isaiah.[1] The account which Harris himself gives of his visit to New York is as follows. He called, he says, upon Professor Anthon, a celebrated linguist, who, after examining the transcript of the characters, stated that they were Egyptian, and were correctly translated. The untranslated copy from the plates was said by the Professor to be Egyptian, Chaldee, Assyrian, and Arabic, and that the characters of those languages were truly rendered. He gave Harris a certificate to this effect, assuring all who might be interested in the matter, that the characters were genuine and the translation correct; but on hearing that young Smith claimed to have received the plates through the ministration of an angel, he took back the certificate and tore it in pieces, as he regarded the whole affair as an attempt to cheat Harris of the money which he proposed to raise from the mortgage of his farm, for the publication of the book.
Twelve years subsequently, Professor Anthon published a very different account of this interview. He represented the characters as a singular medley of "Greek, Hebrew, and all sorts of letters, more or less distorted either through unskilfulness or design, and intermingled with sundry delineations of half-moons, stars, and other natural objects, the whole ending in a rude representation of the Mexican zodiac." The more the man of literature denounced the affair as a mere hoax, the more the Mormon writers saw the actual fulfilment of the prophecy and believed that the Book of Mormon, the Professor, Martin Harris, and all this controversy, were the subjects of Hebrew inspiration.
Notwithstanding the temporary financial aid which was rendered to Joseph by Martin, and the fulfilment of prophecy in the person of that worthy, human weakness was destined to interfere and the' purposes of the heavens to be somewhat
