ubstantially a paraphrase of
a romance written by one Solomon Spalding; but the Mormons, or
rather the members of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints," deny this, and say that at least eleven persons saw the
original plates after transcription. They may have seen them; but
nobody else has, and Heaven only knows where they are now.

Did you ever, gentle reader, see the "Book of Mormon?" We have one
before us, purchased from a real live Salt Lake missionary; but it
is so dreadfully dry and intricate, and seems to be such a dodged-up
paraphrase of our own Scriptures, that we are afraid it will never
do us any good. It professes to be a "record of the people of Nephi,
and also of the Lumanites their brethren, and also of the people of
Jared, who came from the tower." The Mormons think it equal in
divine authority to, and a positive corollary of, the Old and New
Testaments. It consists of several books, and many chapters; the
books being those of Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom, Mosiah, Alma,
Helaman, Nephi, Mormon, Ether, and Moroni. The language is quaint
and simple in syllabic construction; but the book altogether is a
mass of dreamy, puzzling history--is either a sacred fiction
plagiarised, or a useless and senile jumble of Christian and Red
Indian tradition. Smith, the founder of Mormonism, had only a rough
time of it. His Church was first organised in 1830, in the State of
New York. Afterwards the Mormons went into Ohio, then established
themselves in Missouri, were next driven into Clay County,
subsequently look refuge in Illinois, and finally planted themselves
in the valley of the great Salt Lake, where they may now be found.
Smith came to grief in 1844, by a pistol shot, administered to him
in Illinois by a number of roughs; and Brigham Young, a man said to
be "very much married," and who will now be the father of perhaps
150 children, was appointed his successor. Mormonism is disliked by
the bulk of people mainly on account of its fondness for wives. The
generality of civilised folk think that one fairly matured creature,
with a ring on one of her left-hand fingers, is sufficient for a
single household--quite sufficient for all the fair purposes of
existence, "lecturing" included; but the Latter-day Saints, who were
originally monogamists, and whose "Book of Mormon" condemns
polygamy, believe in a plurality of housekeepers. They contend that
since the finding of the sacred record by Smith there has been a