The hill from whence those plates were taken is fully described in another chapter.
I will vouch for the correctness of the characters, as I have compared them with the original copy, which is still in existence, intact, just as it was when Martin Harris, as a messenger, took it with the translation Joseph Smith had made, to Professor Anthon of New York. The copy here presented was traced from the original copy, and this engraving, made by Mr. John Held, of Salt Lake City, is an exact reproduction of it.
In the year 1871 I was favored with the privilege of bringing Martin Harris from Kirtland, Ohio, to Utah. While on our journey, I had many opportunities of conversing with him upon this subject, as well as upon many other incidents which occurred at the early period of the translation. Soon after presenting the seven lines of characters to Professor Anthon, be (Martin Harris) aided the young Prophet by acting as scribe during a portion of the translation. The learned Professor Anthon, after having the lines of characters presented to him, examined them carefully, and gave a certificate stating that they were Egyptian characters and had been correctly translated. Mr. Harris, with the certificate, started to leave, but when he had advanced as far as the door, the Professor called to him, asking where he obtained those plates. Harris replied:
“In a hill near Palmyra, New York.”
“Then bring the book to me and I will translate the plates for you.”
“I can not do so,” said Martin, “for a part of them is sealed.”
“Then,” replied Mr. Anthon, “I cannot read a sealed book,” upon which he recalled the certificate and tore it up.
Martin Harris said to me, “At that time I was not aware that the Prophet Isaiah, in the twenty-ninth chapter of his writings, had predicted that those exact words would be uttered and the prophecy thus fulfilled by Prof. Anthon. For the better information of the reader we will refer to the book of Isaiah, beginning at the 11th and 12th verses, which reads as follows:
“And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he said, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book [not the words or seven lines of characters] is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
It is well known that Joseph Smith was not learned, and claimed to be only a farmer’s boy without the opportunities for a scholastic education; for he had, as Peter the fisherman, to work for his living.