From "Mormonism Unvailed" (1834)
http://archive.org/stream/mormonismunvaile00howe#page/269/mode/1upIt is asserted in the Mormon Bible, that the engravings
upon the plates, were in the " Reformed Egyptian." In
conformity to this, the Mormonite preachers, and others of
the sect, have frequently declared that the engravings upon
the plates were, by some of our learned men, who had a
specimen shown them, pronounced to be "reformed Egyp-
tian hieroglyplics," or " ancient short hand Egyptian." —
Among others, Professor Anthon, of New York, was fre-
quently mentioned as giving such an opinion. This act of
deception and falsehood is only one among hundreds of
others, equally gross, which are resorted to by those im-
posters, to gain proselytes. It being calculated to have con-
siderable weight, when fully believed, we took the liberty
to inform Mr. Anthon of the vile use that was made of his
name, in this country; and to request of him a statement of
the facts respecting it. The following is his reply:
New York, Feb. 17, 1834.
Dear Sir — I received this morning your favor of the 9th
instant, and lose no time in making a reply. The whole
story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscrip-
tion to be " reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics" is perfectly false. Some years ago, a plain, and apparently simple-
hearted farmer, called upon me with a note from Dr. Mitch-
ell of our city, now deceased, requesting me to decypher, if
possible, a paper, which the farmer would hand me, and
which Dr. M. confessed he had been unable to understand.
Upon examining the paper in question, I soon came to the
conclusion that it was all a trick, perhaps a hoax. When
I asked the person, who brought it, how he obtained the wri-
ting, he gave me, as far as I can now recollect, the follow-
ing account: A "gold book," consisting of a number of
plates of gold, fastened together in the shape of a book by
wires of the same metal, had been dug up in the northern
part of the state of New York, and along with the book an
enormous pair of "gold spectacles"! These spectacles
were so large, that, if a person attempted to look through
them, his two eyes would have to be turned towards one of
the glasses merely, the spectacles in question being alto-
gether too large for the breadth of the human face. Who-
ever examined the plates through the spectacles, was ena-
bled not only to read them, but fully to understand their
meaning. All this knowledge, however, was confined at
that time to a young man, who had the trunk containing the
book and spectacles in his sole possession. This young
man was placed behind a curtain, in the garret of a farm
house, and, being thus concealed from view, put on the
spectacles occasionally, or rather, looked through one of
the glasses, decyphercd the characters in the book, and,
having committed some of them to paper, handed copies
from behind the curtain, to those who stood on the outside.
Not a word, however, was said about the plates having been
decyphered "by the gift of God." Every thing, in this
way, was effected by the large pair of spectacles. The
farmer added, that he had been requested to contribute a
sum of money towards the publication of the "golden book,"
the contents of which would, as he had been assured, pro-
duce an entire change in the world and save it from ruin.
So urgent had been these solicitations, that he intended sel-
ling his farm and handing over the amount received to those
who wished to publish the plates. As a last precautionarv
step, however, he had resolved to come to New York, and
obtain the opinion of the learned about the meaning of the
paper which he brought with him, and which had been given
him as a part of the contents of the book, although no trans-
lation had been furnished at the time by the young man
with the spectacles. On hearing this odd story, I changed
my opinion about the paper, and, instead of viewing it any
longer as a hoax upon the learned, I began to regard it as
part of a scheme to cheat the farmer of his money, and I
communicated my suspicions to him, warning him to beware
of rogues. He requested an opinion from me in writing,
which of course I declined giving, and he then took his
leave carrying the paper with him. This paper was in
fact a singular scrawl. It consisted of all kinds of crook-
ed characters disposed in colums, 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 in perpendicular col-
mns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a
circle divided into various compartments, decked with va-
rious strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican
Calendar given by Humboldt, 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 Mormonite excitement began, and well remember
that the paper contained any thing else but "Egyptian Hi-
eroglyphics." Some time after, the same farmer paid me
a second visit. He brought with him the golden book in
print, and ofTered it to me for sale. I declined purchasing.
He then asked permission to leave the book with me for ex-
amination. I declined receiving it, although his manner
was strangely urgent. I adverted once more to the roguery
which had been in my opinion practised upon him, and ask-
ed him what had become of the gold plates. He informed
me that they were in a trunk with the large pair of specta-
cles. I advised him to go to a magistrate and have the trunk
examined. He said the "curse of God" would come upon
him should he do this. On my pressing him, however, to
pursue the course which I had recommended, he told me
that he would open the trunk, if I would take the "curse of
God" upon myself. I replied that I would do so with the
greatest willingness, and would incur every risk of that na-
ture, provided I could only extricate him from the grasp of
rogues. He then left me.
I have thus given you a full statement of all that I know
respecting the origin of Mormonism, and must beg you, as
a personal favor, to publish this letter immediately, should
you find my name mentioned again by these wretched fa-
natics. Yours respectfully, CHAS. ANTHON.