Book of Mormon

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a book forming the authoritative scriptures of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Joseph Smith, an American, of Manchester, N. Y., professed to have heard in 1823 the Angel Moroni reveal to him in visions that the Bible of the Western Continent was buried in a box near his residence. This, according to his own account, he at length found-a volume six inches thick, with leaves of thin gold plate, eight inches long by seven broad, bound together with three gold rings; on which leaves was a mystic writing that he characterized as reformed Egyptian. With the book he professed to have found a pair of magic spectacles, by means of which he was able to read the contents which he dictated to an amanuensis. This book consists of an alleged history of America from 600 b. c., when Lehi and his family (descended from the dispersion after the building of the Babel tower) landed in Chile. Between the descendants of Nephi, Lehi's youngest son, and the offspring of his older brothers, who are the North American Indians, long conflicts were waged; the Nephites finally being almost annihilated. There remained a fragment, among whom were Mormon and his son, Moroni. They collected the records of their people, and buried them in the hill of Cumorah, on the Divine assurance that they would be found by the Lord's prophet. Besides this history, the book, book, as it finally was received, has various moral and religious teachings. The real history of it is as follows: Solomon Spalding, an eccentric preacher, wrote a historical romance in 1812, which a compositor, into whose hands it fell, sold to Smith. This was, for substance, the "Book of Mormon" which Smith issued, to which various additions have since been made.