followers. Decidedly the most bold feature of Mormonism, and one which shows how strongly the originators must have relied upon popular credulity, is the pretense of possessing the miraculous signs following true discipleship, as described in the following passage from Mark:

"And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

The claims in favor of the marvelous skill possessed by the celebrated Doctor Caustic, of whom it was said,

"To raise a dead dog he was able,

Though laid in quarters on the table,
And lead him yelping round the town,
With two legs up and two legs down,"

do not exceed those of the Latter-day Saints in miraculous gifts.

The leaders have literally performed some of these prodigies, to the entire conviction of all true Saints. As may be readily supposed, the mass of Mormon miracles consist in healing diseases; and, in proof of these notable performances, they have a string of certificates as long as the tail of a kite-almost as long, indeed, as the vender of a quack medicine appends to his universal panacea. Every one is familiar with the powerful agency of the imagination in the curing or amelioration of disease, and hence it is less difficult to impose upon the credulity of the multitude by extraordinary

cures than almost any other form of legerdemain. I never heard, however, of any of these miracle-mongers who were willing to handle living rattlesnakes, or swallow doses of arsenic or strychnine to test their boasted powers. Indeed, so little confidence have they in the miraculous texture of their stomachs, that, in their penal statutes of 1852, they impose a heavy fine. on the druggist who shall "sell and deliver any arsenic, corrosive sublimate, prussic acid," &c., without the word poison written on it; nay, more, they have manifested an uncommon degree of apprehension on the subject by imposing, in section 107 of the same act, a severe punishment upon the physician who shall administer poison as a medicine without fully explaining the nature and effect to the patient, and obtaining his free consent if over age, or of his parent or guardian if a minor.

The fact that the amount of mortality in Utah has been next to that of Louisiana; that their cemetery is filled with graves, from the infant of a span long to the maturity of manhood; that all kinds of medical practice are in vogue among them, from Thomsonianism up, or down, through all the pathies, forms a standing contradiction to all their pretenses in this respect. Yet they are never in want of an argument sufficiently ingenious to impose upon those whose business it is to have faith. If the man dies, why then his time had come, and it was of no use to pour on the consecrated oil, or lay on the hands. So the world goes. Quackery is the most powerful lever yet, either in medicine or theology.

That they should have had great success in gaining

credit for these marvelous gifts can not appear strange to one who is aware of the great popular delusions prevalent in community. Who has not listened to stories of haunted dwellings of mysterious sights seen, and voices heard? Who has not heard of the juggling impositions of fortune-tellers, of witches and wizards, who, by means of cards, peep-stones, or something else, make thousands believe in their ability to unravel present perplexities and read future events-to discover secreted goods, and prognosticate happy matches and embryo fortunes? All these things, and more like them, are known to exist, and to command extensive belief; but no one can be fully sensible of the power and extent of this human element until he sees the subjects of them gathered together, and concentrated, as it were, in a burning focus by the aid of religious sanction in the Valley of Salt Lake.

The only other "sign" which they pretend to patronize to any considerable extent is the gift of tongues, and in this they exhibit all the adroitness which practice can give. Many readers will not fail to recollect the gibberish termed "hog-Latin," so common as an amusement with boys at school, some of whom are very expert in this exercise, and will roll off the unmeaning dialect with great ease and fluency. This juvenile sport has been carefully revised and greatly enlarged by the proselyting members of the Mormon community. No part of their jugglery is more transparent than this, and yet, strange to say, it has been one of their most efficient instruments of success. Hundreds will now gravely date their conversion from the period when they first heard the exercise of this marvel.

A very cursory examination of the pamphlets we have been considering will be found amply sufficient to satisfy any one of their scope and character. A train of reasoning similar to that which has been adopted— which is made up of inferences from mere assumptions, with ad captandum applications of Scripture— would sustain any other system just as well as the one in the support of which Mr. Pratt has so severely taxed his powers. In this style of reasoning, the author has proved himself a perfect knight-errant in polemic warfare, cutting to the right and left with reckless desperation. A bull in a china-shop could not produce a more terrible smash, or effect more inextricable confusion. In Tract No. 3, for instance, he has bastardized all Christendom for the last seventeen hundred years, by satisfactorily proving that, since the first century after Christ, there has been no one authorized to perform the marriage ceremony, or administer any of the ordinances of the Church. Curious enough that such a sentence should be pronounced by the jaded voluptuary who sports a harem by divine command!

The whole argument is addressed to the weakest points of the human mind-it is all outside. There is not the slightest attempt at internal evidence. There is no pretense of the development of a single new spiritual truth, or of any advance in the natural or metaphysical sciences-not even the display of a beautiful or sublime idea. The whole cui bono, or utility of such a scheme, is left untouched, and the world is called upon to embrace Mormonism because Smith pretends to have taken the Book of Mormon from the

ground; because he has found three witnesses; because Mr. Anthon could not translate the strange characters submitted to his inspection; because Smith has copied after ancient forms in his machinery of apostles, elders, &c.; because he and they pretend to the gift of prophecy; and because they also pretend to the performance of miracles, and have annexed the usual certificates!

CHAPTER XVII.

Efforts to make female Converts.-Mode of conducting public Worship.Sermon by Parley P. Pratt.-Schools.-Deseret News.Doctor Richards. - Deseret Almanac, by W. W. Phelps. — Language used in public Discourses.

THE design of the leading Mormons in gathering their followers into one place was, as will readily be seen, to isolate them from the rest of mankind, and thus the more easily to subject them to their government. Polygamy, though at first introduced for the sole reason that the prophet Smith was a licentious man, is now sought to be extended as a matter of policy, because it renders this isolation the more complete. The man in Utah who becomes a polygamist becomes a fixture, because he is then still more unfit for any other community. In reference to this policy, the Mormon missionaries make especial efforts to gain female converts, esteeming success in this work paramount even to the acquisition of wealthy disciples. When, however, they manage to obtain a lodgment in a family where girls and money both abound, they re