Mormonism, indeed, is not altogether a new faith, nor a fresh inspiration in the world. The facts disclose that its genius has come down to the children, through generations, in the very blood which the invisibles inspired in old England, in the seventeenth century, and which wrought such wonders of God among the nations then. That blood has been speaking in our day with prophet tongue; those wonderful works, wrought in the name of the Lord of Hosts, by the saints of the commonwealth, to establish faith in Israel's God and reverence for His name above all earthly powers, are, in their consummation in America, wrought by these latter-day saints in the same august name and for the same purpose. He shall be honored among the nations; His will done among men; His name praised to the ends of the earth! Such was the affirmation of the saints of the commonwealth of England two hundred and thirty years ago; such the affirmation of the saints raised up to establish the "Kingdom of God" in the nineteenth century. Understand this fully, and the major theme of Mormonism is comprehended. It will have a matchless exemplification in the story of the lives of these single-hearted, simple-minded, but grand women, opening to the reader's view the methods of that ancient genius, even to the establishing of the patriarchal institution and covenant of polygamy. That America should bring forth a peculiar people, like the Mormons, is as natural as that a mother should bear children in the semblance of the father who begat them. Monstrous, indeed, would it be if, as offspring of the patriarchs and mothers of this nation, America brought forth naught but godless politicians. CHAPTER II. THE MOTHER OF THE PROPHET--THE GIFTS OF INSPIRATION AND WORKING OF MIRACLES INHERENT IN HER FAMILY--FRAGMENTS OF HER NARRATIVE. First among the chosen women of the latter-day dispensation comes the mother of the Prophet, to open this divine drama. It is one of our most beautiful and suggestive proverbs that "great men have great mothers." This cannot but be peculiarly true of a great prophet whose soul is conceptive of a new dispensation. Prophecy is of the woman. She endows her offspring with that heaven-born gift. The father of Joseph was a grand patriarchal type. He was the Abraham of the Church, holding the office of presiding patriarch. To this day he is remembered and spoken of by the early disciples with the profoundest veneration and filial love, and his patriarchal blessings, given to them, are preserved and valued as much as are the patriarchal blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob valued by their own race.