[13]. Doc. and Cov. sec. 17.
[14]. Doc. and Cov. 5:24-26.
[15]. Hist. Illinois, (Ford) pp. 257-8.
[16]. The Mormon Prophet, by Lily Dougall, preface, p. 7.
[17]. History of the Church, vol. I, pp. 54, 55.
[18]. "The Founder of Mormonism. A Psychological Study of Joseph Smith, Jr., by I. Woodbridge Riley, one time instructor in English, New York University," (Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1902). It cannot be denied that Mr. Riley's book is an ingenious work, and bears evidence of wide erudition, and an intimate knowledge of the subject. Mr. Riley's treatise, a book of 426 pages, was offered to the Philosophical Faculty of Yale University as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. His materials were also used in 1898 for a "Master of Art" thesis on the "Metaphysics of Mormonism." The book has an introductory, preface, by Professor George Trumbull Ladd, of Yale University, commending the work by laudatory praise of it. The author himself explains that his aim is "to examine Joseph Smith's character and achievements from the standpoint of recent psychology." He makes a careful pathological study of the ancestors of the Prophet, and reaches the conclusion that Joseph Smith's "abnormal experiences" (meaning his visions, revelations and visitations of angels) are the result of epilepsy. This is his working hypothesis in accounting for Joseph Smith, supplemented by what he considers is the Prophet's unconscious liability to self-hypnosis, and his hypnotic power over others sufficient to make them partakers in his own vivid hallucinations. The hypothesis is an adroitly conceived one, and worked out on lines of sophistry that by many will be mistaken for sound reasoning. The whole theory is overthrown, however, by the work the Prophet achieved, the institution he founded, the Church, the religion he established, the philosophy he planted; all of which to madness would be impossible; besides, as remarked by M. Renan, "Hitherto it has never been given to aberration of mind to produce a serious effect upon the progress of humanity." Life of Jesus, p. 105.
An extended review of Mr. Riley's book will be found in the author's work, Defense of the Faith and the Saints, pp. 39-61.
[19]. The Founder of Mormonism, by I. Woodbridge Riley, pp. 226, 227, 228.
[20]. Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism, by Pomeroy Tucker, p. 75.
[21]. Mormonism Portrayed, by Rev. William Harris, pp. 410.