it is expected to accomplish we may proceed to review the evidence in detail. SOLOMON SPAULDING AND HIS FIRST MANUSCRIPT. Solomon Spaulding was born in 1761 at Ashford, Conn., graduated from Dartmouth in 1785, graduated in theology in 1787, and became an obscure preacher. The fact that Spaulding had become an infidel, [5] that in rewriting the first outline of his story he adopted, as he said, "the old Scripture style" to make it seem more ancient, [6] and the further fact that he told at least four persons at different times that his story would some day be accepted as veritable history [7]--all of these, combined with the peculiar product, tend to show that one motive for the writing of this supposed novel may have been the author's desire to burlesque the Bible and furnish a practical demonstration of the gullibility of the masses. [Footnote 5: See Addendum to Spaulding Manuscript at Oberlin College and Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 288.] [Footnote 6: Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 288.] [Footnote 7: Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 283, 4, 6, 7.] While at Dartmouth College, Spaulding had as a classmate the subsequently famous imposter and criminal, Stephen Burroughs, [8] which fact furnishes interesting material for reflection as to how far the subsequent ill fame of Burroughs, coupled with personal acquaintance, may have operated in Spaulding as a fruitful suggestion inducing this labor as a means of securing fortune through fraud. If Spaulding did not see the possibility of a new and profitable religion in his "Manuscript Found," then he was more short-sighted than was a nephew of his named King. This nephew told one Hale, a schoolteacher, of his belief that he could start a new religion out of this novel and make money thereby, at the same time briefly outlining a plan very similar to the one long afterward adopted by Smith, Rigdon and Company. If we can place any confidence in the report of an interview between a Mormon "elder" and a nephew of Solomon Spaulding, then it would appear that in the opinion of the latter's brother Solomon Spaulding was not a man who would be, by conscientious scruples, deterred from practicing such a fraud, if believed profitable. [10] Be that as it may, Spaulding did hope by the sale of his literary production to make sufficient money to enable him to pay his debts. [11] [Footnote 8: "Memoirs of Stephen Burroughs," p. 26, ed. of 1811, shows Burroughs to have entered Dartmouth in 1781, which must have been Spaulding's date of entry, he having graduated in 1785.] [Footnote 9: "New Light on Mormonism," 261.] [Footnote 10: xxxv. _Saints' Herald_, 820.] [Footnote 11: Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 285.] In 1809 Solomon Spaulding and Henry Lake built and conducted a forge at Salem (now Conneaut), O., where, in 1812, the former made his second business failure. [12] [Footnote 12: "Prophet of Palmyra," 443; Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 279 and 282; "New Light on Mormonism," 13.]