Show jl 0 m 8 M 01 A STRAN Hl yew york sunday A ora sa in one of benana essays ha w rites an oriental boce said to me you europeans will never folly unde religions because ou hive bever cever beheld the birth of any As for us we daily fee bome fresh one rising ca and in attempting to explain how it la that tins fecundity caiata in asia the philosopher that the solution of the problem is ti be fouad in certain faculties which asia ia gittel aad in which we oure elvea are almost w holly wanting asia possesses faith an easily inflamed imagination a boundless hope audacious debei and in extreme cases when the holy cause ia driven to bay that imperturbable as which maintains an idea in spite of reality our races are infinitely more solid serious straightforward than those of asia bat for liese very reasons aliey draw bak horrified at appears to them an imposture they are not light enough to be so lifted ap they are deficient in that sort of double dealing which enables one to be at alie bame time fanatical and shrewd cunning and tremulous tred ulous impostor and dupe had II 11 kenan bethought him of the rise and development of nisin lie would certainly have hesitated to accord to asia a monopoly either of the manufacture of faiths or of alie peculiar qualities which are necessary to the evolution and maintenance of false religions alie american people have biad under the r eyes for half a century the growth of one of the strangest religions the has known they hae contributed to its establishment by supplying it with the most vital stimulus that cm be applied to any aud struggling church they have forgotten the teachings cj all history and have sought to extinguish it by persecution crits founder gave it a stability and seriousness it had not possessed iely alie intolerance droe it into the desert fanned its zeal to fanaticism and by forcing upon it that isolation which was its most pressing need secured for it the breathing time requisite tor consolidation soli dation and extension the philosophic lessons of this strange experiment have been for the most part lost to u however for tha reason that scarcely any competent observer has approached lie subject in an impartial and scientific frame of mind alie list of books and papers about mormonism Mormon iBm is well nigh endless mr bancroft appends to bis history of utah twenty eight pages of authorities consulted but these writings may b divided into two classes the one bitterly hostile to mormonism niem the other defending it with an equal extravagance mr II 11 II 11 bancroft is alie first american to treat the question with absolute equity and impartiality and aa no oilier writer has ever pretended to the possession of equal opportunities for the collection of data the present work is fully entitled to be considered theoary trustworthy history of the cormons mormons extant mr bancroft aas literally given both sides of the question he lias allowed the cormons mormons to state their case in own way and lie has put side by side aliis the rebutting evidence of thair alver saries of course lie lias not confined himself to this arrangement it is the duty of alie historian in sin li circumstances to weigh the evidence on both sides to apply proper tests to it to sift and compare and analyze it and finally to elucidate the contradictions by lucid and judicial baim mines up whereby alie reader may le enabled to determine the of alie balance of probability all this mr bancroft his done with care judgment and falness ful ness and the result is a weighty anil convincing book and one which must be accepted as alio principal princ authority on the whole there is ono point which might kiive been covered more fully with ahan tage though vo cannot say that it falls within alie scope of such a it would however have increased lie value of alie history biad mr bancroft devoted a preliminary cl capter to the intellectual and spiritual condit on of the communities muni ties which furnished not only the founder of mormonism but nearly all the earliest adherents of that sect for it is there among the primitive euial inhabitants of what was at the beginning of thia century almost alia selvage of american civilization that the studies must be prosecuted which are to make alie ris of thoroughly intelligible the period was one of transition the spirit of puritanism still per though hal grown out of the dominance of revolutionary ideas nationalism as yet was unknown in the outlying literal belief in the bible was the rule and the feature of the day waa a tendency to take issue with alie theory that the of miracles had passed a disposition to look for and cisily to accept supernatural advanced under the cover of divina the people among whom joseph appeared with his factory of the gulden book were utterly uncritical and in many respects peculiarly eus to anat such as he bield out to them they could seo improbable in the alleged revelation that a record of the former inhabitants of the continent should have been buried in duo time mysteriously revealed did not appear to them in anny way absurd if the majority of hia neighbors rejected the revelation of smith it was dimply because no prophet has honor in his on n country or among hisong people they knew him had knonk him all through hia life and as in all similar cases refused to believe in him cut beyond the narrow circle of hia iron his story soon found credit and one of its ready sir bancroft points out josuph droith did not seek to the bible on the contrary he accepted t from cover to cover what lie proposed was a new and supplementary revelation and cot shock or tevelt minds already prepared to repard either a continuance or a re vhal of lie whole supernatural phenomena of parly christianity as entirely in accord willi reason had never ceased for pe pc ncr was there any ground for concluding that they would cease there was i the tame reason and bead for them cow as eighteen cental aeb ago and the was literally and entirely true it seemed to them that compete religions loyalty required them to expect anji to receive with huro lilo and skeptical elint whatever tokens might be vouchsafed for the persistence of revelation thug a pennine and truly reverent sincerity and as they thought a complete consistence also underlay the first accessions to joseph smith how far we are justified sn treating smith himself as a conscious impostor is likely to remain a disputed question though sir bancroft haa gathered every scrap of information attainable concerning the genesis of the gulden hook the candid reader must reach the conclusion that the central facts are still obscure it does not even appear to be positively demones rated that the golden plates or anything resembling the description given of them e er had existence two facts however may be thought to have a possible bearing on the case in the first place joseph smith m said to have possessed the temperament of a mystic from early youth that fact indicates that hia waa A character specially L able to deceive itself dominated aa it was by the imagination agi nation and fed continually upon supernatural fancies in the feconda place it is recorded that a collection of brass or copper plates inscribed hieroglyphics was dug up by an antiquarian at no distant time from the alleged recovery of the goldan book it is therefore open to supposition that smith might really have chanted upon a find cr that having heard ot the real brazen leabes they to him the echeme which lie carried out As to the spalding dinc manuscript theory w e thick it w ill have to be abandoned certainly the evidence for it falls far abort of demonstration arc too many links mijung from the chain and borne of these are of vital importance it is indeed impossible to acquit smith of imposture sinca the characters which he submitted as copied from the alden boot belonged to no language ancient or modern and were almost certainly a confused assemblage of letters and parts of letters from federal alphabets taken as has been shrewdly suggested not improbably from the back of a dictionary i some of joseph smiths first supporters appear to have combined like the r leader a ertain real exaltation and faith cunning and deceit alie laity of the new church however were undoubtedly sincere and upright in their ea and the best proof of their integrity consists in tho fact eliat persecution which confronted them at the very outset only drew them closer together and gave more stability to their faith they were of course ignorant and inclined to fanaticism but in beitler neit ler of bliesa respects could they be said to have taken a new departure thouc who persecuted them assuredly not less ignorant and not lees fanatical they professed to be devoted to free dom yet they were prompt to persecute for opinions sake no weight can ba allowed to the early reports of the immorality practiced by the lat ter day sains precisely similar ie genda have sprung up concerning every religion which has at any time broken with the conventional creed the real offense offence of the new sect was that it was peculiar not eliat it was ethically bad polygamy had not then been thought of and though bome of the saints held their goods in common there ia no evidence that lives w ere not pure it is however quite evident eliat such a religion could not hae taken root at any later time it may be availed itself of the last remnants of popular superstition afler it had become established the time for missionary work in the united states biad passed forever and thenceforth the causo had to be recruited in europe and from among alio loist advanced when the exodus from nauvoo took place moreover full half of the population of that town failed to join the rendezvous in the salt lake valley and the presumption ia that the majority of thee abandoned the connection the history of mormonism up to the expulsion from nauvoo is one of alternating peace and persecution durin which alio cause rained steadily in despite or because ot the kilter hatred with which the cormons mormons came to bs regarded first at independence then at kirtland and later at nauvoo sir lUn croft dismisses the theory that their moral conduct offended their neighbors neigh bora la missouri and illinois as untenable for he is able to bliok that in fact they eio imre moral industrious thrifty and peaceable than those alio opposed them he canies conies to the conclusion that their was the cause of the prevalent enmity to them and doubtless their fanaticism fanatic irm which led them into boasting and predicting their own speedy triumph over the gentiles served to int laine public opinion still further then too they w ere assailed constantly by the most scandalous reports which attributed lo 10 them every crime in the calendar and which had as much foundation in fact as the later legend which accused them when at salt lake of odering human sacrifices in the endowment house lion ever he sentiment originated its consequences were la degier disgraceful to both the eollo and the of states under whose jurisdiction they mere and nothing in the history of derao cution exceeds in brutality ferocity inhumanity and lawlessness the deeds by they driven from their homes acaba acaia and again one turns in disgust from this melancholy chronicle of savage intolerance to plate the unconquerable faith and hope chich inspired tho victims to renew on the eve of batti calamity their long and patient et which bened them to such beata of creation and organization as woula have iloie honor lo 10 the highest civilization developing dov eloping under the most favorable conditions the of joseph smith at carthage wa so tar brorn being in injury to the cadose that it gave it freeh energy and vigor for it brought to the front by far the ablest man mormonism has produced that frigham young who led his people to utah and thera in thirty years established a belf community under the rnest adverse joseph emilli nas the ment and the visionary he bad BO administrative ability and atile tact or judgment he relied chiefly upon the assumption of supernatural powers and his government like that of mahomet was one f constant revelation each to the bioda of the hour his system might ba termed one of supernatural opportunism it rested upon no well defined purpose and wa therefore exposed to many dangers within as aall as without brigham young on the other hand was a thoroughly practical man and a boru administrator ho would have baade irs mark in politics finance or the conduct of great industrial du enterprises his bent was material matei ial not spiritual he never pro tended to ba a prophet but by bis masterful will his strong sagacity and his knowledge of men he ruled the church and achieved for his pie a large measure 0 comfort and ilia faculty ia manifest from the first daiy diy of hia elevation to the headship of the church in the discipline and the wise precaution which distinguished the mormon passage aar as the plains and which faed them BO much suffering and 1 9 of life in the arrangements for settlement when the salt lake valley was reached in the indian policy BO firmly maintained and with such goad results in the whole mies conary and immigration machinery through which a steady stream of the most docile disciples was poured year after year into utah alie remarkable capacities 0 the first president were plainly exhibited not lees was his judgment shown in the choice of immigrants the majority ot these were brought from scandinavia germany and england and from tha ne ediest and least advanced classes in all these countries the absolute submission to a theocracy which was demanded cf the mormon laity could only bs supplied by men and women who ia their native land had never known freedom to whom authority of some kind seemed as natural as breathing who inherited no tendencies toward insubordination and no ambition beyond the tion of their material wants the doctrine of marriages bi fully discussed by mr bancroft who makes it apparent eliat the hold that tenet obtained upon the mor mons is in the ultimate analysis to be ascribed to the same view concerning the persistence of libia laws and systems which prepared lie way for the acceptance of joseph smiths alleged revelations regarded from the point of view of policy the adoption of polygamy under whatever pretext was obviously an almost necessarily fatal blunder for it at orce justified the denunciation of their enemies and opened the door for state and federal intervention it put the cormons mormons beyond the pale of the law in fact and operated as a peremptory and unavoidable challenge to the dominant civilization to conclude that so dangerous embarrassing and illegal a system was adopted without other motives than the low ones commonly attributed is too unreasonable there roust have been a foundation of sincere belief in thi scriptural justification fi for the principle and the strongest evidence of this ia to be found in the steadfastness with which the utah cormons mormons have adli ered to the system in the face of pains and penalties lenal ties general disinclination to admit the sincerity of the cormons mormons has indeed had much to donith the failure of the long edriea of made by the federal government to bring them into complete subjection and accordance the laws fanaticism when met by severity only takes a sterner tone aad more inflexible attitude and chosa who court martyrdom are not to be subdued by applying that stimulus to zeal mr bancroft does not venture upon prophecy but hia admirably dispassionate and exhaustive presentation of the facts into strong beliet ilia errora chich have been committed in dailing with this remarkable people and may also af ford indications for the development of a broader and consequently mare policy it seeing even possible that it the course recommended by lincoln namely to let them alone had been consistently followed the evil which it is bought to |