Amazing Book of Mormon

NOTES ON THE BOOK OF MORMON

BY J. M. SJODAHL

IMPROVEMENT ERA 1927

THE PLATES—THE CHARACTERS

On September 22, 1827, the original plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated were delivered to the Prophet Joseph Smith by the angel Moroni, the resurrected messenger from God, who had charge of that marvelous literary work.

The Plates. Those plates had the appearance of gold, and are, therefore, generally called "the golden plates." They were about eight inches in length and seven in width. Fastened together with three rings, they formed a volume about four inches thick. Each plate was somewhat thinner than "common tin."

Number and Weight of the Plates. Some critics of the Book of Mormon have asserted that the dimensions of the plates and the thickness of the volume, as given, do not allow for a sufficient number of plates to contain the entire text of the book; and that a sufficient number of such gold plates of the dimensions and thickness given would be too heavy for any man to handle.

The Rev. M. T. Lamb, for instance, in his The Golden Bible, comes to the conclusion that the plates the Prophet Joseph had could, on the most liberal estimate possible, contain only from one-third to one-eighth of the text printed in the English version.

He accepts the statement that the volume was 7x8 inches and four inches thick. Then he allows fifty plates to an inch, making two hundred plates in all. But, he says, the Prophet did not translate more than one-third of that number, the rest being sealed. That is, he translated only 66 or 67 of the 200 plates. But the text in the American edition covers 563 pages, and at least an equal number of pages would have been required for the Hebrew or Egyptian text. Consequently, he says, it is impossible that the Book of Mormon could have been translated from the plates Joseph had, and he infers that the Prophet did not have any plates at all.

Others have asserted that if the Prophet had a volume, such as that claimed to have been in his possession, it would have weighed about five hundred pounds, or more, and, consequently, been too unwieldy to carry and handle, as represented. The inference again is, of course, that the prophet did not have any plates.

1. What are the facts, as far as known, concerning the size and number of the plates?

David Whitmer, in an interview in the Kansas City Journal, said of the plates shortly before his death:

"They appeared to be of gold, about six by nine inches in size, about as thick as parchment, a great many in number, and bound together like the leaves of a book by massive rings passing through the edges." fn

Martin Harris, according to Myth of the Manuscript Found, fn estimated the plates at eight by seven inches, and the thickness of the volume at four inches, each plate being as thick as thick tin.

Orson Pratt did not see the plates himself, but his intimacy with the Prophet and the other eye witnesses lends great weight to his testimony regarding any question of fact on which he speaks. He tells us that the plates were eight by seven inches, and that the entire volume was about six inches in thickness, while each plate was about as thick as common tin.

Such are the statements that have come down to us regarding the dimensions of the plates. The variations are really slight, and easily accounted for. No measurements were taken at the time the plates were seen. The measurements given are but estimates made many years afterwards, in answer to questions pressed upon them in the course of what amounted almost to cross examination. The witnesses give, therefore, their individual estimates and nothing more. And the essential agreement and the slight variations both are strong presumptive evidence of the truth of the testimony, the variations confirming the statements by proving absence of collusion.

The question now is, Could one-third of a volume fn of metal leaves 8x7x4 inches (Martin Harris), or 8x7x6 inches (Orson Pratt), contain a sufficient number of plates, each as thick as parchment or tin, to yield the necessary space for the entire text of the Book of Mormon, in the original language in which it was engraved?

The illustration which appeared in the April, 1923, number of the Improvement Era, pages 542 and 543, is a complete answer to that question.

It is a facsimile of a sheet of paper, 8x7 inches, upon which a Hebrew translation of fourteen pages of the American text of the Book of Mormon have been written in the modern square, Hebrew letters in common use. The translation was made by Mr. Henry Miller, a Hebrew by birth, thoroughly versed in the language of his fathers, and a member of the Church. On this sheet he has demonstrated that the entire text of the Book of Mormon, as the American readers have it, could have been written in Hebrew on 40 and a fraction pages—21 plates in all, 8x7 inches.

The accompanying illustration is equally striking. It is a reproduction of a translation of seven pages of the American text of the Book of Mormon, also by Brother Miller, but written in the Phonician or old Israelitic characters, which were in use at the time of Lehi. It proves that even if written in these larger characters, the entire book required only 80 and a fraction pages—41 plates in all.

True, we are not in possession of all that the Prophet translated from the record, since the first 116 pages of written manuscript were lost, through the carelessness of Martin Harris, but even if we allow four plates for those pages—an exceedingly liberal allowance—45 plates could have contained the entire Book of Mormon.

Not Incredible. This is easily explained. The Hebrews of old did not write any vowels, but only the consonants, and they did not leave much blank space between letters and lines, as we do. Nor did they need as many small words as we do to complete a sentence. Frequently their auxiliary words were a single letter attached to the main word, either as a prefix or a suffix. And they used many abbreviations. All this meant a great saving of space. fn If the entire volume was four inches thick, one-third, or even one-fourth—fifty plates—would furnish ample space for the entire text engraved in large, legible characters. fn

2. What are the facts as to the weight of such a volume?

Thirty-five twenty-dollar gold pieces would about cover a surface 8x7 inches. To make a column four inches high, forty-eight such pieces would be needed. Consequently, 35 times 48 twenty-dollar gold pieces, or 1,680 in all, would make up the dimensions of the entire volume, 8x7x4 inches. But a twenty-dollar gold piece weighs, as I am informed, 21 pennyweights. That would make a total of 123 pounds avoirdupois, if my figures are correct.

But from this total liberal deductions must be made. The plates were not fine gold. The plates of Nephi were made of "ore," and Moroni also mentions "ore" as the material of which his plates were made (I Nephi 19:1; Morm. 8:5.). The ore—possibly a copper alloy—must have had considerably less weight than the 23-karat gold of which gold coins are made. Then, again, we cannot suppose that the plates fitted so closely together as gold coins stacked in columns. There must have been some space between each pair, especially if, as is possible, they were hammered fn and not cast. Further-more, an allowance must be made for the metal cut away by the engraver from both sides of each plate. Everything considered, the volume must have weighed considerably less than a hundred pounds, even on the supposition that the dimensions given are accurate and not mere approximations.

But since it has been shown that the entire text could have been engraved on 45 plates, let us suppose that it was not quite four inches in thickness, and that it contained, including the 2/3 sealed part, 135, instead of 200 plates; then the weight would be a fraction over 83 pounds, and with the deductions required not over 50 pounds. The Prophet Joseph could easily have handled a volume of that weight.

But is it absolutely certain that he had charge of the entire volume? The three witnesses were shown the volume, not by Joseph Smith but by an angel from heaven, and they so testify. The eight witnesses, to whom the Prophet Joseph showed the record, testify thus: "As many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings theron." A natural inference from this would be that the Prophet did not show them the sealed part. Orson Pratt says:

"You recollect that when the Book of Mormon was translated from the plates, about two-thirds were sealed up, and Joseph was commanded not to break the seal; that part of the record was hid up." fn

If this means that the sealed part was hidden somewhere while the translation of the other part was in progress, and if Orson Pratt was correctly informed on that point, then the Prophet Joseph had charge only of the unsealed part, which he translated and which he showed the eight witnesses. There can, then, be no question whatever of the enormous weight of the plates. The record which Joseph had in his possession was not heavier than he, who was unusually strong, physically as well as mentally, could lift and handle as required. fn

Similar Objections to the Bible. At one time similar objections were urged against the Old Testament description of the furniture in the Tabernacle. Moses tells us that Bezaleel made an ark, or box, of wood, in which the Law was deposited. It was overlaid, we read, with pure gold "within and without." The cover of this box was a lid of pure gold (Ex. 25:17; 37:6), 2 cubits long and 1 cubits wide. That is, it was an immense gold plate, 4 feet 3 inches by 2 feet 7 inches, or about 11 square feet. On this lid two cherubs were placed, one at each end. These figures were hammered of pure gold. Their wings overshadowed the lid and must, consequently, have been of considerable size. The box, we are told, was carried by priests before the camp of Israel during the wanderings in the wilderness. Some critics used to say that this was impossible. The box, the solid gold lid, the gold statues, the stone tables, all formed a burden too heavy to handle without machinery. But that kind of criticism is obsolete, whether applied to the Bible or the Book of Mormon.

Metal Plates not Unknown Anciently. Greeks and Romans anciently used ivory tablets, and, more frequently, wooden tablets, beech or fir. These were sometimes coated over with wax, and the record was made with a sharp instrument called stylus. Two or more such tablets might be joined together by means of wire rings, as were the Book of Mormon plates. Parchment made of skins of animals was a favorite material for important records, and vellum, or calf skin, was common in early days. Papyrus was in common use, especially among the Romans, until toward the end of the 9th century, paper made from the cotton plant was substituted. But engraving on metal plates was also known anciently. In Ex. 39:39 we read that the High Priest wore a gold plate on his crown, on which certain words were engraved, and Jeremiah has this notable expression: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their hearts." (Jer. 17:1.) That proves beyond a question that the Israelites in the days of Jeremiah were acquainted with the art of making records by means of engraving on tablets of some hard substance, since otherwise the words, "table of their hearts," would have been unintelligible. In this connection it can be mentioned that the newspapers on Feb. 21, 1927, reported that copper plates had been found in Georgia, near the Etowah mound, by Dr. Warren K. Moorehead, of Andover, Mass.

Partly Sealed. As noted in a previous paragraph, part of the volume was sealed and inaccessible to the translator. Orson Pratt fn says two-thirds. That part, we are told, contained an account of those great things which were shown to the brother of Jared (Ether 3:25-38), and also the revelations given to John, the beloved, on Patmos. fn The promise is given that "When the people of the Lord are prepared and found worthy, the sealed portion will be unfolded unto them."

Footnotes

2. Answer to Bernard DeVoto's Article on Utah, published in the March number of the American Mercury Magazine, 1926. This article contains some facts that all Utah people should know, or of which, not knowing, they should be informed.—Ed

3. This is quoted from The Prophet of Palmyra, and may or may not be authentic.

4. An excellent little book by George Reynolds.

5. Two-thirds being sealed.

6. The subdivision of the Hebrew text of the Bible was not begun before the thirteenth century of our era. The Masoretic punctuation, including most of the vowels now in use to aid the student in pronouncing the words, was not introduced till some time between the 6th and the 9th centuries. The separation of the text into words is not found in the oldest manuscripts. The square letters of the consonants were not employed before the 3rd century of our era.

7. The first edition of the Book of Mormon has 590 pages, 12:mo. The first European edition, Liverpool, 1841, reprinted from the second American edition, has 634 pages. The third American edition printed in Nauvoo, 1840, has 571 pages; the second European edition, Liverpool, 1849, has 563 pages. The American edition of 1912 has 522 pages.

8. Comp. Ex. 39:3: "And they did beat the gold into thin plates."

9. Jour. of Dis., vol. 3, p. 347.

10. History of the Prophet Joseph, by Lucy Smith, pp.85 and 105. The incident told must have been related by the Prophet himself.

11. Jour. of Dis., vol. 3, p.347.

12. Letter by Oliver Cowdery to Messenger and Advocate, Feb., 1835; Millennial Star, vol. 1, p.44.

NOTES ON THE BOOK OF MORMON

BY J. M. SJODAHL

IMPROVEMENT ERA 1927

II.

Cumorah. The plates had been deposited in a pit excavated for that purpose on the west side of the hill Cumorah. A stone slab, the upper surface of which was perfectly smooth, formed the floor of the pit. Around this stone four other slabs had been set on edge in some kind of cement. Another flat stone formed the lid. The tablets rested on stones or pillars of cement. With the plates had been deposited also a sacred instrument known as the Urim and Thummim, two transparent stones set in silver bows and fastened to a breastplate.

Indians buried treasures. It appears that it was not uncommon among Indians anciently to bury valuables in pits somewhat similar to this. All over the Pacific slope of the province of Chiriqui, Panama, there are ancient cemeteries in which objects of stone, clay and metal are found. The graves are either oval or quadrangular in form, ranging from a few feet to eighteen feet in depth. The flat stones which cover the cyst are often ten or fifteen feet below the surface, and are in some cases very heavy, weighing three hundred pounds or more. One may judge the value of the deposits in these pits in Central America from the statement that from one cemetery alone, covering an area of twelve acres, objects worth $50,000 were collected by the discoverers. Many of these objects were made of gold more or less alloyed with copper. fn

Orson Pratt on Cumorah. "The hill Cumorah is situated in Western New York, between the villages of Palmyra and Canandaigua, about four miles from the former. It is celebrated as the ancient depository of the sacred gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. Cumorah was the name by which the hill was designated in the days of the Prophet Moroni, who deposited the plates about 420 years after the birth of Christ. The Prophet Mormon, the father of Moroni, had been entrusted with all the sacred records of his forefathers, engraved on metallic plates. New plates were made by Mormon on which he wrote, from the more ancient books, an abridged history of the nation, incorporating therewith many revelations, prophecies, the gospel, etc. These new plates were given to Moroni, to finish the history, and all the ancient plates Mormon deposited in Cumorah, about 384 years after Christ. When Moroni, about 36 years after, made the deposit of the book entrusted to him, he was, without doubt, inspired to select a department of the hill separate from the great, sacred depository of the numerous volumes hid up by his father. The particular place in the hill, where Moroni secreted the book was revealed by the angel to the Prophet Joseph Smith, to whom the volume was delivered in September, 1827. But the grand depository of all the numerous records of the ancient nations of the western continent was located in another department of the hill, and its contents under the charge of holy angels, until the day should come for them to be transferred to the sacred temple of Zion.

"The hill Cumorah, with the surrounding vicinity, is distinguished as the great battle field on which two powerful nations were concentrated with all their forces, men, women, and children, and fought till hundreds of thousands on both sides were hewn down and left to moulder upon the ground. Both armies were Israelites; both had become awfully corrupt, having apostatized from God. The Nephites, as a nation, became extinct; the Lamanites alone were left. This happened, according to their faithful records, near the close of the Christian era. The American Indians are the remnants of the once powerful nation of Lamanites.

"The hill Cumorah is remarkable also as being the hill on which and around which a still more ancient nation perished, called Jaredites. This unparalleled destruction is recorded in the Book of Ether, and happened about six centuries before Christ. The Jaredites colonized America from the Tower of Babel. After about sixteen centuries, during which they became exceedingly numerous, through their terrible wars they destroyed themselves. The hill Cumorah, by them, was called Ramah. Millions fought against millions, until the hill Ramah and the land round was soaked with blood, and their carcasses were left in countless numbers to moulder back to Mother Earth."—Millennial Star, vol. 28, p. 417.

The Breastplate. Oliver Cowdery has conveyed the idea that the breastplate was a warrior's shield, fn but the Prophet Joseph tells us that the Urim and Thummim was fastened to it, and was part of it; it could, therefore, hardly have been a portion of a soldier's military equipment.

A detailed description of the breastplate of the High Priest of the Hebrew congregation is found in Ex. 28:15-30. It was a bag, or pocket, made of fine linen and ornamented with embroidery in gold, blue, purple, and scarlet. It was set with twelve precious stones, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel, and was worn on the breast, fastened to the ephod with gold chains. In this pocket the High Priest carried the Urim and Thummim, when that sacred instrument was not in use.

Urim and Thummim. From the Old Testament we can not gather detailed information concerning this instrument. The words are supposed to mean "lights and perfections." Aaron carried it whenever he appeard before the Lord in behalf of the people. (Ex. 28:30; Levi 8:8.) From the blessing Moses pronounced upon Levi (Deut. 33:9-11), it is evident that it was part of the equipment of one whose special office it was to teach the people "the judgments" and "the law." In the days of Saul, the Urim and Thummim was still in existence, Samuel had, evidently, received revelations from the Lord by means of it, but after the death of that prophet, the Lord refused to answer the questions of the king. (Sam. 28:3-6.) Among the captives who returned from Babylon with Ezra there were several hundred who had lost their genealogical records and were unable to prove their claim to a standing among the people. They were permitted to dwell with the rest but not to enjoy the privileges of the priesthood, "till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim," who, we may suppose, could declare the will of the Lord concerning them. (Ezra 2:59-63; Neh. 7:65.) From which it appears that the instrument at this time was lost, but that the prophets of the Lord expected that it would be restored, sometime.

In the Book of Mormon the Urim and Thummim is called the "interpreters." The Lord gave the two stones to the brother of Jared and commanded him to seal them up with his writings. (Ether 3:21-28.) Mosiah had such an instrument. (Omni 20; Mosiah 8:13, 19.) He handed it to Alma (Mos. 28:20), and Alma to Helaman. (Alma 37:20-25.) Finally, Moroni sealed it up with his writings. (Ether 4:5.) From Doc. and Cov. 17:1, we learn that the Urim and Thummim which came into the possession of the Prophet Joseph was the very instrument which God had given to the Brother of Jared upon the mount.

Footnotes

1. See facing p. 469 Mesa, Canon and Pueblo for photograph of the name of R. H. Kern, artist, on the rock in company with doughty old Lujan. Consult Whitney's History of Utah for a recital of the Gunnison Massacre, (vol. I, page 521, etc.) and you will find that Artist R. H. Kern died, with the little band which was massacred, only six miles west of Deseret. See also Young's The Founding of Utah, page 267, for mention of Captain J. H. Simpson.

2. This practical speech was given at a special meeting in the Bishops Building. Salt Lake City, on the early morning of April 3, 1927. The hall was filled with enthusiastic leaders of the Y. M. M. I. A., from all parts of the Church.

3. Dr. Wm. H. Holmes, Ancient Inhabitants of Chiriqui, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1887, pp. 6 and 7.

4. History of the Church, vol. 1, p. 12.

NOTES ON THE BOOK OF MORMON

BY J. M. SJODAHL

IMPROVEMENT ERA 1927

III.

The Characters. The letters on the plates, commonly called "characters," were a modified, or re-formed Egyptian alphabet. This must be inferred from the Book of Mormon itself. Nephi's statement (1 Nephi 1:2): "I make a 'record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians," when read in the light of the explanatory note of Mormon: "And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech" (Mormon 9:32)—can only mean that the authors of the book used the hebrew language, which, however, gradually had changed as all languages do, and that they wrote it in some form of Egyptian characters. fn

Facsimiles. During the time of December, 1827, and the following February the Prophet Joseph, then living on his farm near Harmony, Penn., copied a number of the characters, and translated a few of them, by means of the interpreters. When Martin Harris arrived in Harmony, in February, 1828, the Prophet gave him two specimens. Martin Harris, evidently anxious to know the truth for himself, proceeded to New York and submitted them to the inspection of Professor Charles Anthon, of the Columbia College, and also to Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, two eminent scholars. That the interview was perfectly satisfactory to Martin Harris, notwithstanding the account later published by Prof. Anthon, is proved by the fact that Harris joined the Church, after having assisted the Prophet to the utmost of his ability in the publication of his translation of the work.

Two Prints Extant. In the Church Historian's office, Salt Lake City, there is a photographic reproduction of a print, which purports to be a facsimile of one of the specimens which Martin Harris took to New York. fn The characters are arranged in three horizontal lines. The document is known to have been in the possession of the Patriarch Hyrum Smith. Unfortunately, it contains an historical error in the statement that Martin Harris interviewed Prof. Anthon in 1827, whereas the date given in the Pearl of Great Price is February, 1828.

Another facsimile, containing a greater number of characters, is reproduced in. Elder B. H. Roberts' History of the Church, published in the Americana.

Prof. Anthon, a few years after the interview with Martin Harris, repudiated the true story told by this gentleman, but in such a way as to throw doubt either upon the reliability of his memory or his veracity. The repudiation came in a letter to Mr. E. D. Howe, of Paynesville, Ohio, dated New York, Feb. 17, 1834, and it was intended for an anti-Mormon publication. In this letter he is alleged to have said of the paper brought to him by Martin Harris:

"This paper, in question, was in part a singular scroll. It consisted of all kinds of crooked 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 in a rude delineation of a circle, divided into various compartments, decked with various, strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican calendar, given by Humbolt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived. I am thus particular as to the contents of the paper, inasmuch as I have frequently conversed with my friends on the subject since the Mormon excitement began, and well remember that the paper contained anything else but 'Egyptian hieroglyphics.' " (Mormonism, by N. W. Green, Hartford, 1870, page 426.)

We owe Prof. Anthon a debt of gratitude for this minute description of the "scroll" he refers to. It proves, in the first place, that Martin Harris, in fact, had an interview with him; so there can be no doubt as to that. But it proves, in the second place, that the paper which the professor repudiates could not possibly have been the one submitted by the "plain farmer." Read the description again. Prof. Anthon says the "singular scroll" had characters copied from Hebrew, Greek, Roman, etc., alphabets, by someone who had the book containing such alphabets before him. That lets the young boy, Joseph Smith, and his associates at that time out of the case; for neither of them had, at that time, any such literature before them. He says the characters were arranged in "perpendicular columns." That is evidently not the case in the published facsimiles. Finally, he says the whole ended in a rude delineation of Humbolt's reproduction of the Mexican calendar. That proves positively that the paper Prof. Anthon is talking about is not the one Martin Harris exhibited. For neither Joseph nor any of his friends at that time was a student of Humbolt, and there is no picture, crude or otherwise, of the Mexican (Aztec) calendar stone on the facsimiles of Book of Mormon characters, now extant in print, and they were, unquestionably, the kind of, if not the very identical, characters which Martin Harris had in his possession.

Is it possible that someone had perpetrated a hoax on the professor, and, under an assumed name, submitted a paper such as that described in the Howe letter, just to accommodate Mr. Howe? Or was Prof. Anthon's memory so treacherous that it made him give a totally

fictitious description of the paper Martin Harris presented? The latter of these alternatives is the more probable; the first is not altogether impossible?

Dr. Plongeon versus Prof. Anthon. Dr. Augustus le Plongeon did not treat the characters with the contempt Prof. Anthon seems to have felt. In a letter to Elder D. M. McAllister, Salt Lake City, dated 18 Sidney Place, Brooklyn, June 20, 1892, Dr. Augustus le Plongeon writes, in part:

"I have carefully examined the characters on the plates from which the Mormon book was translated.

"Although several resemble some on the old monuments and in the Maya codices, still the characters of the writings are in no way similar to that of the Mayainscriptions, or those on the tablets of Palenque. It seems to me they bear more similitude to the Old Phonician. Still I am free to say that the following are found in the Maya writings:

"$$$ (Egyptian and Maya), the land,' the country; $$$ (h) Ah, 'the male,' or 'the powerful; 'D or $$$, symbol of Maya Tem, altar, or Egyptian T. $$$ This is the most significant. It is found in the Maya books, $$$, where it has themeaning of 'The lands of the West; 'that is, North and South America, and the lost Land of Mu (Atlantis), indicatedby the dot in the midst of the Ocean, contained within the shores of the Western continent from New Foundland and Cape St. Roque in Brazil."

In a note, Dr. Plongeon adds that a certain compound sign would in Maya glyphs mean Ah-tem, "he of the altar, either God, or th priest."

There is no reason to believe that Prof. Anthon knew a great deal about the Egyptian language or the literature of ancient America; but whatever may be said of Dr. Plongeon, he certainly must be recognized as a Maya scholar, and as such his criticism of the characters has considerable weight.

Egyptian Characters. A few words about the Egyptian characters may aid us in obtaining a better understanding of the relation of the Book of Mormon to the Egyptian.

The oldest Egyptian writings are pictures called hieroglyphs. Some tell us they were in use as far back as four thousand years before our era. In this writing a circle would represent the sun; a crescent, the moon; an oval, an egg; the picture of a man and a woman, mankind, and so on.

Those glyphs were also used symbolically. The circle representing senting the sun, could also stand for a "day," and the crescent, representing the moon, could stand for a "month." The picture of a pen and an ink-stand could mean "to write." The picture of a bee might mean "royalty," that of a vulture "mother," and that of a species of serpent, "God."

Most of the glyphs were used also as letters, representing elementary sounds. An eagle stood for "a," a human foot and leg for "b," etc. But the Egyptians were not satisfied with only one sign for each sound. They used a great many. Altogether they had in the neighborhood of a thousand hieroglyphs. They sometimes wrote in vertical columns, but more often in horizontal lines, either from left to right or from right to left. The figures were facing the side from which the lines were to be read.

The Hieratic Alphabet. A thousand signs were, of course, too much for practical purposes. Consequently, a smaller number, gradually, became more popular, as it were, than the rest, and were used to denote vowel and consonant sounds. Their forms, little by little, assumed simpler characteristics. The picture of the eagle, for instance, became only a line bent so as merely to suggest the outline of the bird. The same happened to other pictures. After a while forty-five such simplified characters had been adopted, and they have become known as the hieratic alphabet. This system of writing is also very old. It is known to present-day scholars chiefly from a manuscript in the National Library, Paris, called Papyrus Prisse, supposed to be one of the oldest books in existence. It was found in a tomb of Thebes, Egypt.

Demotic Signs. The Egyptians also had a third system of writing, generally called the demotic. This has been traced as far back as 900 B.C., and must have been known in Egypt and neighboring countries at the time of the emigration of Lehi from Jerusalem. It was really reformed hieratic Egyptian, simplified for social and business purposes. Gradually it became popular, and it was necessary to write royal decrees, intended for the people, in demotic characters in addition to the hieratic or hieroglyphic, which was understood only by scholars. The famous Rosetta stone has an inscription in hieroglyphs, demotic and Greek letters. fn

Phoenician Characters. Another modified or reformed Egyptian originated in all probability in Phoenicia. Phoenicians, with their practical business sense, feeling the need of fewer and simpler letters than those used in Egypt, picked out twenty-one of the hieratic characters, re-modeled and re-named them. In this way, according to the French Egyptologist, Emmanuel de Rouge, originated the oldest Semitic alphabet. It has been called the Phoenician or Old Israelitic alphabet. As a matter of fact, it was Egyptian, reformed in Phoenicia and adapted to the needs of Semitic speech.

Aramean. In course of time the Old Israelitic was superseded by the Aramean characters, possibly through the influence of Ezra, as Jewish tradition avers. The square Hebrew letters now in use are the offspring of the Aramean, and they are, consequently, in fact, reformed Egyptian.

In Egypt, too, the reformed script known as the demotic, or encorian, superseded the hieratic to such an extent that, at the time of Herodotus, about 450 B. C., only the hieroglyphic and the demotic characters were known outside a small circle of scholars. fn It is evident, therefore, that the writers of the Book of Mormon did in America what scholars in Egypt and Asia had done before them: They modified the Egyptian hieratic characters, or the Old Israelitic, which were themselves reformed Egyptian, to suit their purposes. It was the most natural thing for them to do.

Footnotes

1. Says Lieutenant-Col. P. St. George Cooke, in charge of the Battalion, vice Col. J. Allen, deceased.

"History may be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry. Half of it has been through a wilderness where nothing but savages and wild beasts are found, or deserts where, for the want of water, there is no living creature. There, with almost hopeless labor, we have dug deep wells, which the future traveler will enjoy. Without a guide who had traversed them, we have ventured into trackless table lands, where water was not found for several marches. With crowbar and pick and ax in hand, we have worked our way over mountains which seemed to defy aught save the wild goat, and hewed a passage through a chasm of living rock more narrow than our wagons."—The Conquest of New Mexico and California, by P. St George Cooke.

2. Pronounced man-ya-na—tomorrow.

3. "This little colony brought with them from Jerusalem their ancient Scriptures engraved in Egyptian characters, on brass plates"—Orson Pratt, Mill. Star, vol. 38, p.692. They were, consequently, familiar with some form of Egyptian letters.

4. Essentials of Church History, by Joseph Fielding Smith; p.63.

5. The Rosetta stone was found in 1779, but not until more than twenty years afterwards did Champollion begin to solve its riddles. Akerblad in 1802, and Young in 1818 announced the results they had obtained. Egyptology was in its very infancy when Martin Harris, in 1828, visited Professor Anthon in New York.

6. E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Egypt, vol. 6, p. 198. Scribner's Bible Dictionary, under "Alphabet."

7. Outlines of Science—The Romance of Chemistry, by Arthur Thompson, vol 3, p.718.

8. Science and Religion, by J. Arthur Thompson, M. A., L. L. D., Charles Scribners, 1925.

9. Four-minute address given to the students assembled at Brigham Young University.