The Mormon Prophet

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The Mormon Prophet

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Title: The Mormon Prophet
Author: Lily Dougall
Release Date: December 11, 2005 [EBook #17279]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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The Mormon Prophet
BY
LILY DOUGALL
Author of The Mermaid, The Zeitgeist, The Madonna of a Day,
Beggars All, Etc.
TORONTO
THE W.J. GAGE COMPANY (LIMITED) 1899
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
_All rights reserved._

PREFACE.
In studying the rise of this curious sect I have discovered that certain
misconceptions concerning it are deeply rooted in the minds of many of
the more earnest of the well-wishers to society. Some otherwise
well-informed people hold Mormonism to be synonymous with
polygamy, believe that Brigham Young was its chief prophet, and are
convinced that the miseries of oppressed women and tyrannies
exercised over helpless subjects of both sexes are the only themes that
the religion of more than two hundred thousand people can afford.
When I have ventured in conversation to deny these somewhat fabulous
notions, it has been earnestly suggested to me that to write on so false a
religion in other than a polemic spirit would tend to the undermining of
civilised life.
In spite of these warnings, and although I know it to be a most
dangerous commodity, I have ventured to offer the simple truth, as far
as I have been able to discern it, consoling my advisers with the
assurance that its insidious influence will be unlikely to do harm,

because, however potent may be the direful latitude of other religious
novels, this particular book can only interest those wiser folk who are
best able to deal with it.
As, however, to many who have preconceived the case, this narrative
might, in the absence of explanation, seem purely fanciful, let me
briefly refer to the historical facts on which it is based. The Mormons
revere but one prophet. As to his identity there can be no mistake, since
many of the "revelations" were addressed to him by name--"To Joseph
Smith, Junior." He never saw Utah, and his public teachings were for
the most part unexceptionable. Taking necessary liberty with incidents,
I have endeavoured to present Smith's character as I found it in his own
writings, in the narratives of contemporary writers, and in the memories
of the older inhabitants of Kirtland.
In reviewing the evidence I am unable to believe that, had Smith's
doctrine been conscious invention, it would have lent sufficient power
to carry him through persecutions in which his life hung in the balance,
and his cause appeared to be lost, or that the class of earnest men who
constituted the rank and file of his early following would have been so
long deceived by a deliberate hypocrite. It appears to me more likely
that Smith was genuinely deluded by the automatic freaks of a vigorous
but undisciplined brain, and that, yielding to these, he became
confirmed in the hysterical temperament which always adds to delusion
self-deception, and to self-deception half-conscious fraud. In his day it
was necessary to reject a marvel or admit its spiritual significance;
granting an honest delusion as to his visions and his book, his only
choice lay between counting himself the sport of devils or the agent of
Heaven; an optimistic temperament cast the die.
In describing the persecutions of his early followers I have modified
rather than enlarged upon the facts. It would, indeed, be difficult to
exaggerate the sufferings of this unhappy and extraordinarily successful
sect.
A large division of the Mormons of to-day, who claim to be Smith's
orthodox following, and who have never settled in Utah, are strictly
monogamous. These have never owned Brigham Young as a leader,

never murdered their neighbours or defied the law in any way, and so
vigorous their growth still appears that they claim to have increased
their number by fifty thousand since the last census in 1890. Of all their
characteristics, the sincerity of their belief is the most striking. In Ohio,
when one of the preachers of these "Smithite" Mormons was
conducting me through the many-storied temple, still standing huge and
gray on Kirtland Bluff, he laid his hand on a pile