This doctrine of God was taught by Joseph Smith early in his career. Can ignorance or disease produce such a logical climax of a scientific system of belief? Such a conclusion would be absurd. CONCLUSION. Chapter XVIII. JOSEPH SMITH'S EDUCATION. [Sidenote: Joseph Smith's early educational opportunities were very limited.] Joseph Smith had few educational advantages during his life. His scientific teachings do not rest upon information gained in schools or from books. His parents fully appreciated the value of an education, but the pioneer lives which they led, and their numerous financial misfortunes, made it impossible for them to realize their desires for the education of their children. The Prophet's mother writes that when Joseph was about six years old, Hyrum, the elder brother, was sent to an academy at Hanover, New Hampshire, and the smaller children to a common school.[A] It is probable that throughout the wanderings of the family, the children were given such meager schooling as was possible. Joseph was a "remarkably quiet, well-disposed child," and his life up to the age of fourteen was marked only by those trivial circumstances which are common to childhood.[B] [Footnote A: History of the Prophet by his Mother, Improvement Era, Vol. 5, p. 166.] [Footnote B: Ibid., p. 247.] A few months after his fourteenth birthday, the future prophet beheld his first vision. In his autobiography he mentions that at the time "he was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor."[A] This would indicate that at this age he was spending little or no time in school. During the time that elapsed between his fourteenth and eighteenth years, there is nothing to show that the boy was receiving scholastic education. The Prophet says that he was left to all kinds of temptation, and mingled with all kinds of society.[B] Nothing is said about the acquirement of book learning. About the age of nineteen he writes, "As my father's worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day's work and otherwise, as we could get opportunity. In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal. During the time I was thus employed, I was put to board with a Mr. Isaac Hale--it was there I first saw my wife (his daughter), Emma Hale. On the 18th of January, 1827, [when the Prophet was a little more than twenty-one years old] we were married, while I was yet employed in the service of Mr. Stoal. Immediately after my marriage, I left Mr. Stoal's and went to my father's, and farmed with him that season."[C] From his eighteenth to his twenty-second year, then, there is evidence that he worked as an ordinary laborer, and attended no school. [Footnote A: History of the Church, vol. 1, p. 7.] [Footnote B: Ibid., p. 9.] [Footnote C: History of the Church, Vol. 1, pp. 16, 17.]