WORK OF TRANSLATION. 49

of some of the characters to New York city, where he submits them to the examination of Professor Anthon and Dr Mitchell, who pronounce them to be Egyptian, Syriac, Chaldaic, and Arabic.^^ Then

did so,' says Smith. 'He bound himself as I required of him, took the writings, aud went his way. Notwithstanding ... he did show them to others, and by stratagem they got them away from him. ' Smith, in l^mes and Sea- sons, iii. 785-G.

^^ In a letter to E. D. Howe, printed in his book, and in the introduction to the New York edition of the Book of Mormon, Prof. Anthon, among other Btatements, denies that he ever gave a certificate. The letter reads as follows:

' New York, February 17, 18.34.

• Dear Sir: I received your letter of the 9th, and lose no time in making

a reply. The whole story about my pronouncing the Mormon inscription to be reformed Egyptian hierogylphics is perfectly false. Some years ago, a plain, apparently simple-hearted farmer called on me with a note from Dr Mitchell, of our city, now dead, requesting me to decipher, if possible, the paper which the farmer would hand me. Upon examining the paper in ques- tion, I soon came to the conclusion that it was all a trick — perhaps a hoax. When I asked the person who brought it how he obtained the writing, he gave me the following account: A gold book consisting of a number of plates, fast- ened together by wires of the same material, had been dug up in the northern part of the state of New York, and along with it an enormous pair of specta- cles. These spectacles were so large that if any person attempted to look through them, his two eyes would look through one glass only, the spectacles in question being altogether too large for the human face. " Whoever," he said, " examined the plates through the glasses was enabled not only to read them, but fully to understand their meaning." All this knowledge, however, was confined to a young man, who had the trunk containing the book and specta- cles in his sole possession. This young man was placed behind a curtain in a garret in a farm-house, and being thus concealed from view, he put on the spectacles occasionally, or rather looked through one of the glasses, deciphered the characters in the book, and having committed some of them to paper, handed copies from behind the curtain to those who stood outside. Not a word was said about their being deciphered by the gift of God. Everything in this way was eflFected by the large pair of spectacled. The farmer added that he had been requested to contribute a sum of money toward the publica- tion of the golden book, the contents of which would, as he was told, produce an entire change in the world, and save it from ruin. So urgent had been these solicitations, that he intended selling his farm and giving the amount to those who wished to publish the plates. As a last precautionary step, he had resolved to come to New York, and obtain the opinion of the learned about the meaning of the paper which he brought with him, and which had been given him as part of the contents of the book, although no translation had at that time been made by the young man with spectacles. On hearing this odd story, I changed my opinion about the paper, and instead of viewing it any longer as a hoax, I began to regard it as part of a scheme to cheat the farmer of his money, and I communicated my suspicions to him, warning him to be- ware of rogues. He requested an opinion from me in writing, which, of course, I declined to give, and he then took his leave, taking his paper with him. This paper in question was, in fact, a singular scroll. It consisted of all kinds of singular characters disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets, Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes; Roman letters inverted or placed sideways were arranged and placed in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended iu a rude delineation of a circle,. divided into ■ Hist. Uxah. i