| 196 all those who have been afflicted with it, understand, and those who are its victims fancy themselves the most free. Oh! Sir, that is the most awful of all calamities, and ought to be evaded like hell itself; for the man who is labering [laboring] under its influence has not got as much rationality as Balaam's charger. An ancient poet endeavors to explain it, and says,
"All men are mad, in spite of all finesse,
Madness differs but in more or less."
Indeed, Sir, I think there is no way of shaking off the complaint but by being buried, for the whole frame is affected. That it is a species of lunacy, none can doubt, for I would ask if any man of a sane mind could make use of the following, and fancy he is addressing Deity. Oh Lord save the Mormons, save the Mormons, shake the Mormons; awaken the Mormons! Oh Lord, draw up the flood-gates of hell and let the Mormons see their future habitations! Oh Lord, let the Mormons be cut off, and never come into thy kingdom;' and so on, too absurd to mention. He first begins by asking the Lord to save us, and then to cut us off.: I suppose they never expect their prayers to be answered, but, however if the Lord had gone and raised the flood-gates, at his request, I did not know where to find the flood-gates, so I should have been as much in the dark as ever. The Rev. Mr. Martindale afterwards sent me a polite request, to spend an hour with him, and told the messenger that he would make me ashamed of myself. I complied and paid his revenence [reverence] a visit. I saw that he had the above named malady, to more than an ordinary degree, and he was fully equipped for the fight; and his friends ready to take me out when he had made me so ashamed that I could not go myself. He had got Elder Pratt's "Voice of Warning," and the "Book of Mormon," respecting which he had wrote down eleven questions and had a table full of books with the leaves ready doubled down, and all was in good order. The first question brought on the tapis was-"Do you believe the Voice of Warning to be inspiration?" To which I replied that I was of opinion that it contained as much truth as most books of its size. He then wished to know positively, if we believed that the angel spoken of by John, had come in these modern times to reveal the gospel? I answered in the affirmative, at which he pitied me very much, and really thought I had been better informed. I told him that I was altogether unlettered, and admitted his superior talent, he coming from Oxford college, or some other emporium of learning. I told him that none of my brethren were very much skilled in literary lore, and therefore would thank him to enlighten me on this subject, to which he agreed, provided I would acknowledge before that august assembly, that I knew no better; which I frankly did. He then gravely opened a large family Bible, and there read to me, that this event took place a long time before the creation, for which I thanked him, though I told him, that I could not exactly see how it could be, for John lived after the creation, and he said that he was shown things that must shortly come to pass. This, his reverence said was figuratively. I then told him I had but one difficulty more, and then we could proceed to the next question, which was, that God made the heavens and the earth, and all things in them, in six days; how did the angel fly (before he was created) through the midst of heaven, (when there was no heaven) crying to the inhabitants of the earth, (when there was no earth) that the hour of God's ;judgement [judgment] had come, when man was not yet made? Mr Martindale then acknowledged that none could understand the passage, and observed that I was calculated to deceive the very elect. He then remarked, he did not wish to have much to say to me, and therefore would only ask me one more question, which was, if the Book o f Mormon was the stick of Joseph ? After I had given him my opinion on the subject; I then asked him to enlighten me, which he did, by telling me that the stick of Joseph was a nation or tribe. Here again we got into difficulty, for I could not see how the prophet could write on a nation. He then brought a charge against me of annointing [anointing] the sick with oil; this he said was Popery. That was the first time I had ever heard James charged with Popery. We soon got into close quarters, and he wished to tell me what he thought of me, and did so, by saying that he really believed that I was one of the false prophets that Paul said should come in the last days. I then asked leave to express my opinion of his reverence, and on obtaining permission, I told him that I believed him to be one of those hireling teachers that Paul said there should be heaps of, to lead the people from the truth to fables, and he had succeeded in a great measure. He seemed a good deal surprised at this, and told me his religion was Luther's; this I believed, and left him, after telling him that mine was Christ's.
Almost endless are the instances that might be adduced to prove that a great portion of the world of mankind is tinctured with lunacy, but I have no doubt but you know all about it, and have no need that I should tell you. I will therefore come to the subject I first intended, as a number of people desired to hear from me respecting Nauvoo, and I have not as yet fulfilled my promise to them. It is now three
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