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ORIGIN OF THE MORMON IMPOSTURE.

THE Rochester American publishes the following from a forthcoming work by Mr. Turner, entitled a History of Philip and Gorham's Purchase." Though not entirely new, it is succinct, and communicates some facts coming within the author's personal knowledge:

As we are now at the home of the Smith family -in sight of "Mormon Hill ”. -a brief pioneer history will be looked for, of the strange, and singularly successful religious sect-the Mormons; and brief it must be, merely starting it in its career, and leaving it to their especial historian to trace them to Kirtland, Nauvoo, Beaver Island, and Utah, or the Salt Lake.

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Joseph Smith, the father of the prophet Joseph Smith, jr., was from the Merrimack river, N. H. He first settled in or near Palmyra village, but as early as 1819 was the occupant of some new land Stafford street," in the town of Manchester, near the line of Palmyra.* "Mormon Hill" is near the plank road about half-way between the villages of Palmyra and Manchester. The elder Smith had been a Universalist, and subsequently a Methodist; was a good deal of a smatterer in scriptural knowledge, but the seed of revelation was sown on weak ground; he was a great babbler, credulous, not especially industrious, a money-digger, prone to the marvellous; and, withal, a little given to difficulties with neighbors, and petty lawsuits. Not a very propitious account of the father of a prophet-the founder of a state; but there was a "woman in the case.

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woods home; sometimes patronizing a village grocery too freely; sometimes finding an odd job to do about the store of Seymour Scovell; and once a week he would stroll into the office of the old Palmyra Register for his father's paper. How impious in us young "dare devils" to once in a while blacken the face of the then meddling, inquisitive lounger-but afterwards prophet-with the old-fashioned balls, when he used to put himself in the way of the working of the old-fashioned Ramage press! The editor of the Cultivator at Albany-esteemed as he may justly consider himself for his subsequent enterprise and usefulness

may think of it with contrition and repentance, that he once helped thus to disfigure the face of a prophet, and, remotely, the founder of a

state.

But Joseph had a little ambition, and some very laudable aspirations; the mother's intellect occasionally shone out in him feebly, especially when he used to help us to solve some portentous questions of moral or political ethics, in our juvenile debating club, which we moved down to the old red school-house on Durfee street, to get rid of the annoyance of critics that used to drop in upon us in the village; and, subsequently, after catching a spark of Methodism in the camp-meeting, away down in the woods, on the Vienna road, he was a very passable exhorter in evening meetings.

Legends of hidden treasure had long designated Mormon Hill as the repository. Old Joseph had dug there, and young Joseph had not only heard his father and mother relate the marvellous tales of buried wealth, but had accompanied his father in the midnight delvings, and incantations of the spirits that guarded it.

If a buried revelation was to be exhumed, how natural was it that the Smith family, with their credulity, and their assumed presentiment that a prophet was to come from their household, should be connected with it; and that Mormon Hill was the place where it would be found!

Mrs. Smith was a woman of strong, uncultivated intellect; artful and cunning; imbued with an ill-regulated religious enthusiasm. The incipient hints, the first givings out that a prophet was to spring from her humble household, came from her; and when matters were maturing for denouement, she gave out that such and such ones always fixing upon those who had both money and credulity were to be instruments in some great It is believed by those who were best acquainted work of new revelation. The old man was rather with the Smith family, ar most conversant with her faithful co-worker, or executive exponent. all the Gold Bible movements, that there is no founTheir son, Alvah, was originally intended or desig dation for the statement that their original manunated, by fireside consultations and solemn and script was written by a Mr. Spaulding, of Ohio. mysterious out-door hints, as the forthcoming A supplement to the Gold Bible, "The Book of prophet. The mother and the father said he was Commandments," in all probability was written by the chosen one; but Alvah, however spiritual he Rigdon, and he may have been aided by Spauldmay have been, had a carnal appetite; ate too ing's manuscript; but the book itself is without many green turnips, sickened and died. Thus the doubt a production of the Smith family, aided by world lost a prophet, and Mormonism a leader; Oliver Cowdery, who was school teacher on Staf the designs, impiously and wickedly attributed to ford street, an intimate of the Smith family, and Providence, were defeated; and all in consequence identified with the whole matter. The production, of a surfeit of raw turnips. Who will talk of the as all will conclude who have read it, or ever. cackling geese of Rome, or any other small and innocent causes of mighty events after this? The mantle of the prophet which Mrs. and Mr. Joseph Smith and one Oliver Cowdery had wove themselves-every thread of it-fell upon their next eldest son, Joseph Smith, jr.

And a most unpromising recipient of such a trust was this same Joseph Smith, jr., afterwards "Jo Smith." He was lounging, idle, (not to say vicious,) and possessed of less than ordinary intellect. The author's own recollections of him are distinct. He used to come into the village of Palmyra, with little jags of wood, from his back

*Here the author remembers to have first seen the family, in the winter of 19, and '20, in a rude log house, with but a small spot of underbrush around it.

given it a cursory review, is not that of an educated man or woman. The bungling attempt to counterfeit the style of the Scriptures; the intermixture of modern phraseology; the ignorance of chronology and geography; its utter crudeness and baldness, as a whole, stamp its character, and clearly exhibit its vulgar origin. It is a strange medley of scripture, romance, and bad composition.

The primitive design of Mrs. Smith, her husband, Jo and Cowdery, was money-making; blended with which perhaps was a desire for notoriety,

*To soften the use of such an expression, the reader should be reminded that apprentices in printing offices have since the days of Faust and Gottenburgh, been thus called, and sometimes it was not inappropriate.

to be obtained by a cheat and fraud. The idea of being the founders of a new sect was an afterthought, in which they were aided by others.

The projectors of the humbug being destitute of means for carrying out their plans, a victim was selected to obviate that difficulty. Martin Harris was a farmer of Palmyra, the owner of a good farm, and an honest, worthy citizen; but especially given to religious enthusiasm, new creeds, the more extravagant the better; a monomaniac, in fact. Joseph Smith, upon whom the mantle of prophecy had fallen after the sad fate of Alvah, began to make demonstrations. He informed Harris of the great discovery, and that it had been revealed to him that he (Harris) was a chosen instrument to aid in the great work of surprising the world with a new revelation. They had hit upon the right man. He mortgaged his fine farm to pay for printing the book, assumed a grave, mysterious, and unearthly deportment, and made here and there among his acquaintances solemn annunciations of the great event that was transpiring. His version of the discovery, as communicated to him by the prophet Joseph himself, is well remembered by several respectable citizens of Palmyra, to whom he made early disclosures. It was in substance as follows:

The prophet Joseph was directed by an angel where to find, by excavation, at the place afterwards called Mormon Hill, the gold plates; and was compelled by the angel, much against his will, to be the interpreter of the sacred record they contained, and publish it to the world. That the plates contained a record of the ancient inhabitants of this country, "engraved by Mormon the son of Nephi." That on the top of the box containing the plates, "a pair of large spectacles were found, the stones or glass set in which were opaque to all but the prophet; that "these belonged to Mormon, the engraver of the plates, and without them the plates could not be read." Harris assumed that himself and Cowdery were the chosen amanuenses, and that the prophet Joseph, curtained from the world and them, with his spectacles read from the gold plates what they committed to paper.

Harris exhibited to an informant of the author the manuscript title-page. On it was drawn, rudely and bunglingly, concentric circles, between, above, and below, which were characters with little resemblance to letters, apparently a miserable imitation of hieroglyphics, the writer may somewhere have seen. To guard against profane curiosity, the prophet has given out that no one but himself, not even his chosen coöperators, must be permitted to see them, on pain of instant death. Harris had never seen the plates, but the glowing account of their massive richness excited other than spiritual hopes, and he, upon one occasion, got a village silversmith to help him estimate their value, taking as a basis the prophet's account of their dimensions. It was a blending of the spiritual and utilitarian that threw a shadow of doubt upon Martin's sincerity. This, and some anticipations he indulged in as to the profits that would arise from the sale of the Gold Bible, made it then, as it is now, a mooted question whether he was altogether a dupe.

The wife of Harris was a rank infidel and heretic, touching the whole thing, and decidedly opposed to her husband's participation in it. With sacrilegious hands she seized over a hundred of the manuscript pages of the new revelation, and burned or secreted them. It was agreed by Smith

and family, Cowdery and Harris, not to transcribe these again, but to let so much of the new revelation drop out, as the "evil spirit would get up a story that the second translation did not agree with the first." A very ingenious method, surely, of guarding against the possibility that Mrs. Harris had preserved the manuscript with which they might be confronted, should they attempt an imita tion of their own miserable patchwork.

The prophet did not get his lesson well upon the start, or the household of the impostors were in fault. After he had told his story, in his absence, the rest of the family made a new version of it to one of their neighbors. They showed him such a pebble as may any day be picked up on the shore of Lake Ontario-the common hornblende-carefully wrapped in cotton and kept in a mysterious box. They said it was by looking at this stone, in a hat, the light excluded, that Joseph discovered the plates. This, it will be observed, differs materially from Joseph's story of the angel. It was the same stone the Smith's had used in moneydigging, and in some pretended discoveries of stolen property.

Long before the Gold Bible demonstration, the Smith family had, with some sinister object in view, whispered another fraud in the ears of the credulous. They pretended that, in digging for money at Mormon Hill, they came across a chest, three by two feet in size, covered with a dark-colored stone. In the centre of the stone was a white spot about the size of a sixpence. Enlarging, the spot increased to the size of a twenty-four pound shot, and then exploded with a terrible noise. The chest vanished and all was utter darkness.

It may be safely presumed that in no other instance have prophets and the chosen and designated of angels, been quite as calculating and worldly as were those of Stafford street, Mormon Hill, and Palmyra. The only business contract-veritable instrument in writing-that was ever executed by spiritual agents, has been preserved, and should be among the archives of the new State of Utah. It is signed by the prophet Joseph himself, and witnessed by Oliver Cowdery, and secures to Martin Harris one half of the proceeds of the sale of the Gold Bible until he was fully reimbursed in the sum of $2,500, the cost of printing.

The after-thought which has been alluded tothe enlarging of original intentions-was at the suggestion of S. Rigdon, of Ohio, who made his appearance and blended himself with the poorly devised scheme of imposture, about the time the book was issued from the press. He unworthily bore the title of a Baptist elder, but had by some previous freak, if the author is rightly informed, forfeited his standing with that respectable religious denomination. Designing, ambitious and dishonest, under the semblance of sanctity and assumed spirituality, he was just the man for the use of the Smith household and their half-dupe and half-designing abettors; and they were just the fit instruments to be desired. He became at once the Hamlet, or more appropriately perhaps, the Mawworm of the play.

Under the auspices of Rigdon, a new sect, the Mormons, was projected. Prophecies fell thick and fast from the lips of Joseph; old Mrs. Smith assumed all the airs of a mother of a prophet; that particular family of Smiths were singled out and became exalted above all their legion of namesakes. The bald, clumsy cheat found here and there an enthusiast, a monomaniac or a knave, in

and around its primitive locality, to help it upon its start; and soon, like another scheme of imposture, (that had a little of dignity and plausibility in it,) it had its Hegira, or flight, to Kirtland, then to Nauvoo; then to a short resting-place in Missouri-and then on and over the Rocky mountains to Utah or the Salt Lake. Banks, printing-offices, temples, cities, and finally a state, have arisen under its auspices. Converts have multiplied to tens of thousands. In several of the countries of Europe there are preachers and organized sects of Mormons; believers in the divine mission of Joseph Smith & Co.

Belgium, Prussia, Germany, Russia, Austria and the North-New York, for the vast continent of North America. It would certainly not be impossible to try the experiment with a chance of success at any one or more of these ports for a year or two. Dover and Calais offer the best field for a trial-and they are the scenes of an abuse which needs instant correction. From London to Paris the postage is 10d. :-that is, from London to Dover 1d.; From Calais to Paris, 24d.; from Dover to Calais, about twenty miles, by water, 64d.!-— There is neither reason nor good policy in this extravagant charge. From Jersey to Shetland, And here the subject must be dismissed. If it 1,000 miles, the rate is 1d.-from Semlin to Aixhas been treated lightly-with a seeming levity-la-Chapelle, 3d.-from the Rio Grande to the St. it is because it will admit of no other treatment. Lawrence, 14d.-from Trieste to Lubec, 3d. From There is no dignity about the whole thing; noth- Dover to Ostend, three times the distance between ing to entitle it to mild treatment. It deserves Dover and Calais, the ocean rate is 3d. From none of the charity extended to ordinary religious Liverpool to New York, 3,000 miles, the rate is fanaticism, for knavery and fraud have been with it 84d. In order to produce the same amount of revincipiently and progressively. It has not the poor enue as at present under a uniform penny system, merit of ingenuity. Its success is a slur upon the the number of letters carried to and from Ostend age. Fanaticism promoted it at first; then ill-ad- would need to be tripled-and our experience at vised persecution; then the designs of demagogues home would lead us to suppose that this increase who wished to command the suffrage of its follow- would soon take place. The French rate is altoers; until finally an American Congress has abetted gether unreasonable, and ought to be reduced. A the fraud and imposition by its acts, and we are to penny rate would certainly yield as large a revenue have a state of our proud Union—in this boasted era from Calais as from Ostend—and both routes would of light and knowledge-the very name of which no doubt pay at a penny. With regard to Ameriwill sanction and dignify the fraud and falsehood of ca, the case is different:-the immense distance Mormon Hill, the gold plates and the spurious and the ten or twelve days' sea-voyage are elerevelation. This much, at least, might have been ments which must add more or less to the expense. omitted out of decent respect to the moral and But there is very good reason to believe that with religious sense of the people of the old states. less jobbery in making our mail contracts, the large sums now paid to the Cunard line might be mateCompared with the charge for goods and passengers, the letter rate is at present enormously high. A man weighing 200 lbs.-not will take up at least ten times as much room as to speak of his trunks, boxes, and portmanteaus,

or admit that his calculations are free from error

rially reduced. From the Athenæum, 28th June. WOULD an ocean penny postage pay? That is a question to be solved. The inland system has been BO well established by ten years of trial as very naturally to suggest the extension of a similar system to the ocean. If it can be demonstrated to a bag of letters of equal weight. He will consume be possible, no one doubts that it will be desirable no small quantity of ducks, fowls, bread, wine, to make this extension. But is it possible for beer, and vegetables-he will expect to be served Great Britain to constitute herself post-carrier to with attention night and day—he will claim a right all the world without incurring an absolute loss to quarrel with the officers and abuse the captainin the service? Mr. Elihu Burritt replies in the he will perhaps smoke and swear, and otherwise affirmative without hesitation. We cannot say worry the passengers in the cabin-yet he will that we share his enthusiasm to the full extent, while a harmless bag of letters of equal weight, have to pay for all these luxuries only some 301.; and exaggeration. But the object to be gained content with a dark corner and with being left is of such importance to the rapid develop- alone, is mulcted for its simple transport from ment of commerce, to the increase of friendly Broadway to St. George's Pier, more than 2301. feeling between nation and nation, and to the We speak now of the actual and the possible. If vivification of every other good and peaceful ele- two hundred-weight of whims and wants, flesh and ment in the world, that it should command the phantasies, besides luggage, can be taken from best and earliest attention of those who have to Liverpool to New York for 307. by the mail-packlegislate on the affairs of empires. It is well known ets, surely, a bale of letters, like a bale of cotton, to politicians, that the carrying of letters by the may be carried for a third of the money. present mails, at high prices, involves a consider- are right in this supposition, 6,400 letters might be able yearly outlay, for which there is no direct sent over the Atlantic for 107.-or considerably We recommend this return in money-though, at the same time, there less than a halfpenny each. is no doubt that we gain influence by it, serve the mode of illustrating their theory with regard to interests of our trade, and obtain early and accurate America to the ocean postage reformers. information. Our insular position compels us to maintain a mail squadron; and we already carry nearly all the letters which pass and re-pass beIn the latter part of the month of February, many tween this country and the continents of Europe and America. The machinery is therefore all years since, a schooner from the state of Maine, which had been to New York with a cargo and was now on created, and an experiment might be tried with lit- her return home, anchored under Sandy Point. The tle or no risk. There are three grand points at wind increasing from the north-west to a gale, she which we deliver and receive our foreign corre-parted her cables; sail was got upon her as soon as posspondence-Calais, for France, Switzerland, Italy, sible, but not having in much ballast, she did not fetch Greece, Egypt, Turkey, and the East-Ostend, for in to the westward of Great Point Light, on the north

SELF-DEVOTION.

If we

ern part of Nantucket, and had therefore to go outside or to the eastward of the island. With a comparatively light vessel, and with no cables or anchors, and with a prospect of a snow-storm before him, the captain of the schooner did not think it prudent or proper to be thus forced to go to sea with the wind blowing almost a hurricane.

He made up his mind, therefore, at once, to run his vessel on to Nantucket, which, with the wind at northwest, would make an entire lea, and enable him to land without much danger. All this was effected; the vessel was beached, and the crew, consisting of the captain, a mate, and two young men, one about the age of nineteen, and the other about seventeen, both sons of the captain, were landed in safety, except perhaps the incidental exposure and fatigue, about five of the clock in the afternoon. The place of their landing was about three miles from Great Point Light, to which they proposed to proceed, it being, as they supposed, the nearest place where they could find rest and shelter for the night.

The mate took up his line of march first, the captain and his two sons having remained to secure some few things about the boat, and then to follow immediately after him. The whole distance to be travelled was over a sandy beach, against a furious north-wester blowing directly in their faces, and hurling the sand and gravel, with occasional flights of snow, making it very difficult to keep even a foothold against the combined elements.

doubled his exertions to save him; on he struggled, and between the flashes of the storm the light could be seen in the distance; but fortitude, energy and perseverance, were of no avail; a single moan told him he was childless.

The old man arrived at the light, and found that preparations had been made to come out in search of him; tears he had not many to shed. Such people have but few to their call; those few, however, make a furrow which never leaves the face but with the close of their earthly existence.—Boston Journal.

Washington, July 6th, 1851.

Mr. Gerard Hallock, Editor of the Jour. of Com.. SIR-With a view to carry into effect your humane purposes in regard to the wife of Zachariah, a slave in Augusta County, Va., I shall to-morrow draw on you for $140, in favor of Messrs. Chubb, Schenk & Co., of this city. They will furnish me with a draft on a bank in Virginia, which I shall endorse in favor of Col. Samuel Harnsberger, who will take pleasure in seeing your wishes carried into effect. Col. H. is a gentleman of high character, and in all respects worthy of entire confidence.

I rejoice to see the philanthropy of northern gentlemen taking the direction yours has done. I firmly believe that colonization is the only efficient agency by which slavery can be removed from the south. It presents a ground on which men of the north and the south can unite in a system of practical benevoThe mate succeeded, after much difficulty, in reach-lence worth a thousand displays of theatrical sensiing the keeper of the lights' hospitable mansion in safety. A far different fate was to be the lot of some of his companions.

The captain was a man who was inured from his boyhood to hardship and toil; his was the will and the power which the elements could not conquer. Taking the lead of his sons, for the purpose of breaking off as much as possible the force of the wind, he kept them immediately behind him, and thus their journey commenced. One-half the distance, perhaps, was overcome, after incredible anxiety and perseverance on the part of their father, when the younger son begged his father and brother to go on and leave him, as his strength had so entirely failed that he could walk no longer.

bility made at the expense of other people's property,
and of the solemn guarantees of the constitution.
Whenever southern men find that their brethren of the
north are in earnest, and that they are willing to give
some substantial evidences of their sincerity, they will
be prompt to cooperate with them. At this moment
there are thousands of persons in Virginia who would
relinquish their slaves if they believed their condition
would be bettered by freedom. But they cannot tol-
erate the idea that strangers should come into their
household and dictate to them the line of conduct
which they shall pursue in regard to their domestic
affairs. No one is willing even to be humane on com-
pulsion.

THE ONE GRAY HAIR.
BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.
THE wisest of the wise
Listen to pretty lies,

No persuasion could revive his exhausted powers, and it became necessary to act as the exigency of the case required. The father, taking off his own outside coat, that his limbs might be more free to act, wrapped it around the less hardy frame of his son, and, taking him in his arms, the toilsome journey was again resumed. For half a mile did the father's power of endurance bear up against the violence of the storm Some in his youth, and more when he grew old.

with his additional burden; but his cup was not yet full; the other son now showed the symptoms that his exhausted nature was about to give way, and, a few minutes after, he sank to the ground apparently unable to rise.

And love to hear them told;
Doubt not that Solomon
Listened to many a one-

I never sat among

The choir of Wisdom's song,

But pretty lies loved I

As much as any king,

When youth is on the wing,

Laying down the one he had borne so long, the father took up the elder, and, carrying him some dis- And (must it then be told?) when youth had quite

tance, he left him and then returned, and took the younger and brought him to the same point; and thus the old man struggled, alternately carrying one and then returning and bringing the other to the same place; whispering hope into their ears, which, alas! were fast becoming insensible to their parent's love. It

gone by.

Alas! and I have not
The pleasant hour forgot,
When one pert lady said-
"Oh, Lander! I am quite
Bewildered with affright;

was a sight it would seem some pitying angel might I see (sit quiet now!) a white hair on your head!"

have relieved.

The younger son was growing very weak and insensible, and when the father laid him down for the last time he saw that the elements had done their work, and that the poor boy was at rest.

Another, more benign,
Drew out that hair of mine,

And in her own dark hair
pretended she had found
That one, and twirled it round.-

Going back and taking the elder in his arms, he re- Fair as she was, she never was so fair.

The LIVING AGE is published every Saturday, by E. LITTELL & Co., at the corner of Tremont and Bromfield Streets, Boston. Price 12 cents a number, or six dollars a year in advance. Remittances for any period will be thankfully received and promptly attended to.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 381.-6 SEPTEMBER, 1851.

From the Quarterly Review.

1. The History of the Reformation in Scotland by John Knox. Edited by DAVID LAING. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh, printed for the Wodrow Society, 1848.

2. Origines Parochiales Scotia ; the Antiquities, Ecclesiastical and Territorial, of the Parishes of Scotland. Edited by Cosмo INNES, Esq. Printed for the Bannatyne Club. Vol. I., 4to. Edinburgh, 1851. 3. Inquiry into the Law and Practice in Scottish Peerages; with an Exposition of our Genuine Original Consistorial Law. By JOHN RIDDELL, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1842. THE Wodrow Society, now deceased, deserved well of Scotland by its editions of Knox and Calderwood. Calderwood might be said to be a new work; but a correct and critical edition of Knox's History was scarcely less a desideratum. The first-printed at London by Vautrollier in 1586-7—was so full of blunders that its suppression by Whitgift is scarcely to be regretted so much as that a few copies got into circulation.* The next, (London, 1644,) though superintended by David Buchanan, a Scotchman, and an industrious scholar, is still worse; for it abounds in wanton alterations and even additions. As Vautrollier's had offended Elizabeth's High-Church Archbishop, Buchanan's excited the jealousy of the Puritans. It was their tampering with it that moved the indignation of Milton :

If the work of any deceased author, though never so famous in his lifetime and even to this day, come to their hands for license to be printed or reprinted;

if there be found in his book one sentence of a ventur

ous edge, uttered in the height of zealand who knows whether it may not be the dictate of a divine spirit? -yet not suiting with every low decrepit humor of their own;-though it were Knox himself, the reformer of a kingdom, that spake it-they will not pardon him their dash. The sense of that great man shall to all posterity be lost, for the fearfulness or the presumptuous rashness of a perfunctory licenser.-Areopagitica.

66

Such a manipulator as David Buchanan was, however, more dangerous even than a perfunctory licenser." A new edition was therefore wanted, not only to furnish accurate readings, and the apparatus of illustration which modern luxury and indolence require, but to restore omissions, cut out interpolations, and place the whole on a firm footing of authority. Mr. Laing has spared no pains upon his task. The first four books may now be perused as John Knox wrote them between the years 1559 and 1566; and the fifth is reduced to its proper grade of authority as a posthumous concoction out of his materials. The reader is saved all the trouble of referring to contemporary docu

Some of Vautrollier's readings are amusing. For "William Guthrie," he has within gathered," (p. 233.) One of the Lollards of Kyle, "Adam Reid of Barskimming," he transmutes into "Adam reade of blaspheming." The conspirators of St. Andrews threw the keys into the "fowsie," i. e., fossé, the castle ditch. Vautrollier substitutes the foule sea,

&c. &c.

CCCLXXXI.

LIVING AGE. VOL. XXX. 28

ments by plentiful notes, which he will not criticize severely for occasional over-minuteness. Much as Mr. Laing has done, however, he is entitled to still more credit for what he has refrained from doing. With sufficient zeal for his subject, with all its learning, and with an author provocative of opposition in every line, he has not turned aside to meet the hostile multitude, nor disfigured his margins with controversy.

Mr. Laing assures us that Knox was "of all persons the best qualified to undertake the History of the Reformation in Scotland, not only from his access to the various sources of information, and his singular power and skill in narrating events and delineating characters, but also from the circumstance that he himself had no unimportant share in most of the transactions of those times." (p. xxv.) But in this no doubt sincere opinion we cannot quite concur. Access to information on one side of affairs Knox undoubtedly had, and he was no mean master of narrative; but in all the highest qualifications of a historian he was utterly wanting. His was not the calm philosophic nature to balance counsels, to admit faults in his own party or merits in the other. The vehemence of his abuse, his hearty calling of names, destroys all trust in his fairness. It was not even an object with him to assume the virtue. Again, he did not know, or he despised, the tricks of composition. His book is inconsecutive, almost fragmentary-altogether without method. He says himself that he was regardless of times and seasons-meaning that he was not studious to state events in their right order; but he was also very indifferent as to the correctness of his quotations, and this even in the case of documents which he professed to give in full. Such ascertained licenses must greatly lessen the reader's general confidence:-we are haunted by suspicion even amidst his often highly animated sketches of men and of transactions. It is not as a history, in short, that the book is valuable. It is as the outpouring of the mind of one who was a chief mover and main actor in the greatest of the revolutions that a nation can undergo. It is not every great man that is born to act his history and to write it. The very qualities that fitted Knox for his mission disqualified him for setting forth to posterity the events he directed.

We cannot wonder at the ferocity of Roman Catholics against him; he earned it well at their hands; but we have always thought the vulgar censure of his violence by Protestants, ignorant and unjust. We lament as much as most the destruction of venerable churches, and the total annihilation of that goodly fabric of a hierarchy, to our mind the most legitimate as well as the most seemly dress that our common Christianity can wear; but we cannot place these mischiefs in comparison with the benefit which the Great Change conferred on Scotland; and if the circumstances of the country make it probable that the only alternative was a total demolition or entire restoration, down go the pride of St. Andrews and the beauty of Melrose-let not only prior and abbot but even dean and bishop perish-rather than society stand there as it stood before the Reformation.

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