ot up.'

"The circumstance alluded to was as follows!--We had heard much said by
Martin Harris, the man who paid for the printing, and the only one in
the concern worth any property, about the wonderful wisdom of the
translators of the mysterious plates, and we resolved to test their
wisdom. Accordingly, after putting one sheet in type? we laid it aside,
and told Harris it was lost, and there would be a serious defection in
the book in consequence, unless another sheet, like the original, could
be produced. The announcement threw the old gentleman into great
excitement; but, after a few moments reflection, he said he would try
to obtain another. After two or three weeks, another sheet was produced,
but no more like the original than any other sheet of paper would have
been, written over by a common schoolboy, after having read, as they
had, the manuscript preceding and succeeding the lost sheet. As might be
expected, the disclosure of this trick greatly annoyed the authors, and
caused no little merriment among those who were acquainted with the
circumstance. As we were none of us _Christians_, and only laboured for
the 'gold that perisheth,' we did not care for the delusion, only so far
as to be careful to avoid it ourselves and enjoy the hoax. _Not one_ of
the hands in the office where the wonderful book was printed ever became
a convert to the system, although the writer of this was often assured
by Harris, that if he did not, he would be destroyed in 1832.

"T.N.S. TUCKER."

GROTON, MAY 23, 1842.

CHAPTER XLIII.

Let us now examine into the political views of the Mormons, and follow
Smith in his lofty and aspiring visions of sovereignty for the future.
He is a rogue and a swindler,--no one can doubt that; yet there is
something grand in his composition. Joe, the mean, miserable,
half-starved money-digger of western New York, was, as I have before
observed, cast in the mould of conquerors, and out of that same clay
which Nature had employed for the creation of a Mahomet.

His first struggle was successful; the greater portion of his followers
surrounded him in Kirkland, and acknowledged his power, as that of God's
right hand; while many individuals from among the better classes
repaired to him, attracted by the ascendancy of a bold genius, or by the
expectation of obtaining a share in his fame, power, and glory.

Kirkland, however, was an inland place; there, on every side, Smith had
to contend with op