Meantime, attention is called to the fact that there is nothing improbable in the statement of Joseph Smith; but on the contrary all the conditions obtaining in the neighborhood where he resided while bringing forth the work favor the probability of such a conspiracy as he charges: the unwarranted but repeated efforts made by his enemies to wrest the plates from his possession; the home of his parents repeatedly beset by mobs; the issue of warrants by justices of the peace for searching his wagon for the plates; and subsequently the actions of Mr. Grandin, his printer, who, after entering into contract to print the book was certainly in honor bound to render him all the assistance in his power in getting out the work in the best order possible, and protecting him in his copyrights--the actions, I say, of Mr. Grandin, in permitting Squire Cole [30] the use of his press on nights and Sundays in order to secretly publish his _Dogberry Papers_, in which was to appear a garbled edition of the Book of Mormon in weekly installments; the mass meetings held in Palmyra and vicinity in which resolutions were passed not to purchase the book should it ever issue from the press (which action caused Mr. Grandin to suspend the work of printing until the Prophet could be brought from Harmony, in Pennsylvania, to give renewed assurance of his ability to meet the price of printing); the confession of J. N. Tucker, one of the employees of Grandin's printing establishment, that after setting up a sheet in type, it was secreted and the story given out that it was lost, and that manuscript for another sheet would have to be produced, which when done is alleged to have been unlike the first [31]--these well-attested circumstances establish the fact of a wide-spread and bitter opposition to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon; and, failing in that, then a determination to prevent its acceptance as revelation from God. All these things make it very easy to believe that such a conspiracy as the Prophet describes existed against the work. Footnotes 1. See _Life of Jesus_, Renan. (E.T.) Introduction; also _New Witnesses_, vol. I, ch. 1. 2. Matt. 24:31. 3. Malachi 4:5, 6. 4. Revelation 14:6, 7. 5. Rev. 14:8, 9, 10. 6. Rev. 18:1-3. 7. Ephesians 1:9, 10. 8. New Witnesses, Vol. I., chs. xxviii, xxix, xxx. 9. The reader will find the data for the foregoing view concerning Urim and Thummim in the following passages: Exodus 28: 29, 30; Leviticus 8:8; Numbers 27:21; Deuteronomy 33:8; I Samuel 28:6; Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 7:65. He will also find an excellent article on the subject in Smith's _Dictionary of the Bible_, (Hackett edition), vol. IV, pp. 3,356-3,363; also in Kitto's _Encyclopaedia of Biblical Literature_, vol. II, pp. 900-903. 10. _Antiquities of the Jews_, bk. III, ch. 8. 11. Genesis 44:5-15. 12. Such is the Roman Catholic explanation of the matter; see note on passage, Gen. 44:5-15 in Douay Bible.