A Psychological Notion.--Still another scholar, a student of psychology and an applicant for a doctor's degree at Yale University, presented, in a thesis forming the basis for the degree, the theory that Joseph Smith was an epileptic, and that this accounted for his mental attitude and marvelous assertions. That is to say, the Seer did not actually behold the wonderful manifestations described by him, but only imagined that he beheld them. A distinct departure, this, from the charge of conscious duplicity, usually flung at the founder of "Mormonism." He was sincere, then, however much mistaken, and was not guilty of intent to defraud. So far, so good. But in the mind of the author of this remarkable hypothesis, the magnificent organization of the "Mormon" Church, conceded by intelligent observers of all creeds and parties to be one of the most perfect systems of government in existence, to say nothing of its sublime doctrines, replete with poetry and philosophy, couched in logical and majestic phrasing--all this sprang from the diseased brain of a fourteen-year-old boy who had fallen in an epileptic fit! Self-evident absurdities need no argument. They have only to be stated, and they confute themselves. [1] Learning's Lack of Knowledge.--And these are some of the views that learned men take of "Mormonism." With all their learning, they are not able to come to a knowledge of the Truth. They do not begin to dream of the greatness of God's work, the grandeur of Christ's cause. They comprehend but in part its real aims and attitude. Even the most conservative assume that Joseph Smith stumbled upon something of which he did not know the true value, and that it was sheer luck which gave to this religion its vantage ground, its recognized strength of position. Never was there a grosser error. There are concepts as much higher than these, as the heavens are higher than the earth. The "Mormons" are not the "ignoramuses," when it comes to a consideration of the Gospel's mighty themes. Spiritual Illumination.--Yet it is not because of native "smartness"--not because the followers of Joseph Smith are brainier than other people, that they have a greater knowledge of God and are capable of loftier ideals in religion. It is because they have received, through the gift of the Holy Ghost, a perceptive power, a spiritual illumination, which the world, with all its learning, does not possess, and without which no man can comprehend Divinity or divine purposes. It cannot be had from books or schools. Colleges and universities cannot impart it. It comes only in one way--God's way, not man's. The Latter-day Saints possess it because they have bowed to the will of Heaven and rendered obedience to its laws, thus making themselves worthy of the inestimable boon. All men may have it upon precisely the same conditions.