even admitting, for the sake of argument, that these witnesses are
all honest and credible men, yet what would be easier than for Smith to
deceive them? Could he not easily procure plates and inscribe thereon a
set of characters, no matter what, and exhibit them to the intended
witnesses as genuine? What would be easier than thus to impose on their
credulity and weakness? And if it were necessary to give them the
appearances of antiquity, a chemical process could effect the matter.
But we do not admit that these witnesses were honest; for six of them,
after having made the attestation to the world that they had seen the
plates, left the Church, thus contradicting that to which they had
certified. And one of these witnesses, Martin Harris, who is frequently
mentioned In the Book of Covenants--who was a high-priest of the
Church--who was one of the most infatuated of Smith's followers--who
even gave his property in order to procure the publication of the Book
of Mormon, afterwards seceded from the Church. Smith, in speaking of him
in connection with others, said that they were so far beneath contempt,
that a notice of them would be too great a sacrifice for a gentleman
to make.

Some of the Mormons have said that a copy of the plates was presented to
Professor Anthon, a gentleman standing in the first rank as a classical
scholar, and that he attested to the faithfulness of the translation of
the Book of Mormon. Now, let us read what the professor himself has to
say on this matter. In a letter recently published he expresses
himself thus:--

"Many years ago, the precise date I do not now recollect, a
plain-looking countryman called upon me, with a letter from Dr. Samuel
L. Mitchell, requesting me to examine and give my opinion upon a certain
paper, marked with various characters, which the doctor confessed he
could not decipher, and which the bearer of the note was very anxious to
have explained. A very brief examination of the paper convinced me that
it was not only a mere hoax, but a very clumsy one. The characters were
arranged in columns, like the Chinese mode of writing, and presented the
most singular medley I ever beheld. Greek, Hebrew, and all sorts of
letters, more or less distorted, either through unskilfulness or from
actual design, were intermingled with sundry delineations of half-moons,
stars, and other natural objects, and the whole ended in a rude
representation of the Mexican zodiac. The conclusion was i