self the possessor of the souls, bodies, and fortunes of his ten thousand dupes,-of supreme ecclesiastical power, great political influence, and large wealth.

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The Book of Covenants had put an end to the authority of the Bible, and set up instead the revelations made through Smith. 66 Behold, I say unto you, that all old covenants have been done away in this thing, and this is a new and an everlasting covenant."(Book of Cov., p. 178.) And having thus set aside the gospel, it was the next design to set aside all law also, except what came from Smith. Verily I say unto you, that in time ye" (the Mormons) "shall have no king nor ruler. For I will be your king, and watch over you; and you shall be a free people, and ye shall have no laws but my laws, when I come."(Doc. and Cov., p. 119.) There are other passages looking to a complete temporal as well as spiritual dominion of the Mormon president. Thus we have shown the blossoming of this Mormon plant. The period of the church, after the migration to Illinois, was high summer: the fruit was coming fast to maturity, and the prophet himself, while doing a good business in the "Nauvoo House," and creating a great political influence, and holding the aspiring demagogues in his left hand, as he held his Mormons in his right, employed his more politic thoughts and serious moments in establishing a military power, of which himself was the head, as of all the other matters; and in promulgating new revelations for the increase of the priestly privilege, especially in the multiplication of wives; and in the aggrandizement of the church, by the building of the great temple.

Soon after the settlement at Nauvoo, Smith obtained from the State authorities the commission of Lieutenant-General of the Nauvoo Legion, and organized a military force of two or three thousand men, which he had put under a very good state of discipline, and was evidently preparing to fulfil that prophecy according to which he was to rule the earth. The command "to take in the name of the Lord," was obeyed here with more reserve and caution than in Missouri, it is true. The lesson given them in that State had taught them to be more private in this part of their religious duty. Still it was performed to such an extent as to be very onerous upon the stores and crops of the neighbouring Gentiles, and aroused a spirit of hostility among the dwellers round about the city. Some of those who were injured having become possessed of information tending to criminate Smith in the attempted assassination of Governor Boggs of Missouri, communicated it to the civil authorities of that State, and a requisition was made on those of Illinois to deliver him up as a fugitive from justice, to be tried for that offence. Smith

concealed himself, but being found by an excited mob who went to seek him, consisting of citizens of the county of Hancock, he, with his brother Hiram, was instantly killed. For a time after this event quiet prevailed, but the fire was only smothered, not quenched. After a year or two new troubles arose. There was a set battle between the Mormon forces and the militia of the State, and the former were driven out. Some went to the western border of Iowa, and formed a settlement on the Missouri River. A large body went to Salt Lake, in the valley between the Nevada and Rocky Mountains. Others soon after followed, and accessions from time to time have been made to them.

The United States government having constituted this district a territory, with a political organization, officers were appointed in accordance thereto. Most unfortunately, the President appointed Brigham Young, an English Mormon, but a few years resident in this country, and whose merits are chiefly an inheritance of the dignities and spiritual offices of Smith, whose mantle he wears, as the supreme executive of the territory. Several other of the most important offices were given to the Mormons. The policy of thus investing with the highest offices men who had been concerned in the worst crimes, cannot be questionable. Its result could not be good. Two of the judges and the secretary, not being of the Mormon Church, have been virtually displaced by Young and his confederates, and compelled to return. They report that Young assumed all the government, violently seized on the monies, declared that no law should be administered but through him, and that no authority should prevail in the territory but that of the church. This is only carrying out the command of the revelations given by Smith, and formerly attempted in Missouri and Illinois; and, being in accordance with the religious duty of the faithful, is no more than was to ave been expected.

They report also some instances of violent dealing, similar to that practised in Missouri, on those who were obnoxious to them; and a very faithful obedience to the revelation enjoining polygamy.

Perhaps a few readers have had the patience to read so long a story on so disagreeable a subject. But this discussion of the Mormon history ought not to terminate without allusion to a miracle, which is related by Mr Tucker, the same who gave the incident connected with the printing of the Book of Mormon. It is thus told in the volume published by Dr Bennett:

"Towards the close of a fine summer's day, a farmer, in one of the States, found a respectable-looking man at his gate, who requested

permission to pass the night under his roof. The hospitable farmer readily complied: the stranger was invited into the house, and a warm and substantial supper set before him.

"After he had eaten, the farmer, who appeared to be a jovial, warmhearted, humorous, and withal shrewd old man, passed several hours in pleasant conversation with his guest, who seemed to be very ill at ease, both in body and mind, yet, as if desirous of pleasing his entertainer, replied courteously and agreeably to whatever was said to him. Finally, he pleaded fatigue and illness as an excuse for retiring to rest, and was conducted by the farmer to an upper chamber, where he went to bed.

"About the middle of the night, the farmer and his family were awakened by the most dreadful groans, which they soon ascertained proceeded from the chamber of the traveller. On going to investigate the matter, they found that the stranger was dreadfully ill, suffering the most acute pains, and uttering the most doleful cries, apparently without any consciousness of what was passing around him. Every thing that kindness and experience could suggest was done to relieve the sick man; but all efforts were in vain, and, to the consternation of the farmer and his family, their guest expired in the course of a few hours.

"In the midst of their trouble and anxiety, at an early hour in the morning, two travellers came to the gate, and requested entertainment. The farmer told that he would willingly offer them hospitality, but that just now his household was in the greatest confusion on account of the death of a stranger, the particulars of which he proceeded to relate to them. They appeared to be much surprised and grieved at the poor man's calamity, and politely requested permission to see the corpse. This, of course, the farmer readily granted, and conducted them to the chamber in which lay the dead body. They looked at it for a few minutes in silence, and then the oldest of the pair gravely told the farmer that they were elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and were empowered by God to perform miracles, even to the extent of raising the dead, and that they felt quite assured they could bring to life the dead man before them.

"The farmer was, of course, considerably astonished by the quality and powers of the persons who addressed him, and rather incredulously asked if they were quite sure that they could perform all they professed to.

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"O, certainly! not a doubt of it. The Lord has commissioned us expressly to work miracles, in order to prove the truth of the prophet, Joseph Smith, and the inspiration of the books and doctrines revealed to him. Send for all your neighbours, that in the presence of a multitude we may bring the dead man to life, and that the Lord and his church may be glorified to all men!'

"The farmer, after a little consideration, agreed to let the miracleworkers proceed, and, as they desired, sent his children to his neighbours, who, attracted by the expectation of a miracle, flocked to the house in considerable numbers.

"The Mormon elders commenced their task by kneeling and praying before the body with uplifted hands and eyes, and with most

stentorian lungs. Before they had proceeded far with their prayer, a sudden idea struck the farmer, who quietly quitted the house for a few minutes, and then returned, and waited patiently by the bedside until their prayer was finished, and the elders ready to perform their miracle. Before they began, he respectfully said to them, that, with their permission, he wished to ask them a few questions upon the subject of their miracle. They replied that they had no objection. The farmer then asked, 'You are quite certain that you can bring this man to life again?' 'We are.' 'How do you know that you can?' We have just received a revelation from the Lord, informing us that we can.' Are you quite sure that the revelation was from the Lord? Yes; we cannot be mistaken about it.' 'Does your power to raise this man to life again depend upon the particular nature of his disease, or could you now bring any dead man to life?' 'It makes no difference to us, we could bring any corpse to life.' 'Well, if this man had been killed, and one of his arms cut off, could you bring him to life, and also restore to him his arm?' Certainly; there is no limit to the power given us by the Lord. It would make no difference, even if both his arms and his legs were cut off." "Could you restore him if his head had been cut off? 'Certainly we could.' Well,' said the farmer, with a quiet smile upon his features, I do not doubt the truth of what such holy men assert, but I am desirous that my neighbours here should be fully converted, by having the miracle performed in the completest manner possible, so by your leave, if it makes no difference whatever, I will proceed to cut off the head of this corpse.' Accordingly, he produced a huge and wellsharpened broad axe from beneath his coat, which he swung above his head, and was apparently about to bring it down upon the neck of the corpse, when, lo and behold! to the amazement of all present, the dead man started up in great agitation, and swore he would not have his head cut off for any consideration whatever.

"The company immediately seized the Mormons, and soon made them confess that the pretended dead man was also a Mormon elder, and that they had sent him to the farmer's house, with directions to die there at a particular hour, when they would drop in, as if by accident, and perform a miracle that would astonish every body. The farmer, after giving the impostors a severe chastisement, let them depart, to practise their imposition in some other quarter."

ART. V.-On the Study of Words. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, Professor of Divinity, King's College, London, &c. New York: Redfield, 1852.

THIS is an instructive work, by the learned and thoughtful, but withal somewhat mystically inclined, author of "Notes on the Parables," and "Notes on the Miracles of our Lord." It

consists of several lectures delivered before a body of young persons preparing to be teachers, and aims to show them the importance of a thorough study of words. To most persons words are dead things, the counters which circulate in a nation when men communicate their thoughts. If the thought in which they are arrayed quickens them for a while; if they are ever "words that burn," most men regard this vitality as only temporary, and borrowed from the living mind, and this heat as derived from the emotions of a soul. The word itself is cold out of that connection, and lies inactive until a thought passes through it, like the electrical spark through a conducting circuit. Not such, however, is the scholar's notion of words. To him they seem instinct with meaning and life, even when they stand alone. Each one of them has, in the first place, a parentage from which it springs, according to laws almost as settled as those of physical generation. They reflect, too, the image of their parent, and carry the marks of relationship upon their faces. Differ they may greatly in moral characteristics, in importance and frequency of use, from their venerated progenitors, but they can never escape from the resemblance in sound and sense which their birth has enstamped upon them. Sometimes they are settlers on a foreign soil, and trace back to an ancestry in some older land, perhaps to an ancestry now dead, at least to a dead language. But the philologist comes, and by a few strokes of his pen clears up the family genealogy, shows, perhaps, when they changed their domicile, and how by degrees they acquired the rights of citizens. Sometimes a single straggler or two comes from the antipodes, led away from his fireside in the course of trade, as a solitary merchant will settle at some trading post among the Indians. Perhaps they find it necessary to suit foreign ears by a considerable alteration of external appearance, so that a relative at home would scarcely recognise them in their transformation. But the master of languages is a spy upon them, from whom they can seldom escape. Those few who are sons of nobody, and whose parentage cannot be traced, are more badly off than their brethren in this-that philologists, instead of letting them alone, torment them with a thousand exploring questions, offer impertinent conjectures as to who their fathers were, and often give them an unpleasant prominence, by inventing for them a very improbable or absurd genealogy.

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Then again, to the philologist words are full of poetry. "A popular American author," says Mr Trench, "has somewhere characterised language as fossil poetry,'-evidently meaning, that just as in some fossil curious and beautiful shapes of vegetable or animal life, the graceful fern or the