The Marvels of Liahona—"Compass."
This divine instrument, found by Lehi at his tent door, while still in the wilderness of Arabia, and which he describes as a "round ball of curious workmanship" of fine brass, within which were two spindles, of which Nephi says: "and one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness, and * * * I, Nephi, beheld the pointers which were in the ball; that they did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them."[[75]]
This curious instrument in an incidental way is called a "compass" in several passages.[[76]] Whereupon, our opponents seek to bring the Book of Mormon in conflict with supposed historical facts by insisting that the Book of Mormon speaks of the people being in possession of "a mariner's compass, long before the invention of such an instrument!"[[77]]
The director of the Nephites makes no pretentions to being a "Mariner's compass" of man's invention, and surely the description given above, supplemented as it is by a fuller description in the Book of Alma, where it is called "Liahona," must dispel all thought of this instrument being considered as an ordinary compass, such as is invented by men for navigating purposes; and which, as everybody knows, has but this one quality, namely, its needle constantly points northward because of the magnetic pole force, and mariners knowing one direction may ascertain others. The silliness of argument, which even supposedly grave and reverend historians and essayists descend to on such a point, is illustrated by an alleged incident with which Linn stoops to render his pages luminous, by pretending to quote the manner in which "Mormons in Utah" are supposed to explain the alleged anachronism of the "compass." He says:
The ease with which such an error could be explained is shown in an anecdote of a Utah Mormon, who, when told that the compass was not known in Bible times, responded by quoting Acts xxvii: 13, where Paul says: "And from thence we fetched a compass!"
That is, to quote the passage in full—"From thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium."
This is merely the repetition of an old, silly story told against the Mormons long before they arrived in Utah, and was invented by the Rev. Henry Caswell, author of "The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century," published in 1843. It is of that order of stuff as the tales about the Prophet Joseph attempting to walk on the water, and his pretending to raise the simulated dead.
The antiquity of the compass really, of course, is of no importance in this discussion, since it is not claimed that "Liahona" is a compass, but an entirely different instrument, "and the Lord prepared it;" still, in passing, it may be well to point out that those who have attempted to make capital out of this supposed anachronism have not stated the whole truth concerning the compass.
"The directive power of the magnet," says a respectable authority "seems to have been unknown in Europe till late in the 12th century. It appears, however, on very good authority, that it was known in China, and throughout the east generally, at a very remote period. The Chinese annals indeed assign its discovery to the year 2634 B. C., when, they say, an instrument for indicating the sun was constructed by the emperor Hou-angti. At first, they would appear to have used it exclusively for guidance in traveling by land."[[78]]