was ever more marked by the grimaces of fanaticism, or travestied by the vagaries of enthusiasts. With this principle in view, it may not be risking much to say, that no age since that of the Apostles, could have given birth to such an imposture, marked by so much of missionary zeal, as the age which is most remarkable for the propagation of the Christian faith over the earth. Mormonism, in its propagandism, is truly an exponent of this age of Christian missions.
2. A second feature of the Mormon scheme, reflecting in a measure the age which gives it birth, is, the refined communism lurking under its social structure, and the effort to build up its power by means of emigration. When the ambition of Mohammed enlarged from that of a reformer to the founder of an empire, he resorted to the only policy which, in those times, could avail him. The sword alone could open the path to glory and to power; and in all the empires of those rude and warlike ages, every stone was cemented with human blood. Mohammed, in becoming a military chieftain, simply yielded to the spirit of his countrymen; and Joseph Smith, equally unconscious of the controlling influence of public sentiment, unwittingly becomes the exponent of his age. Colonization takes now the place of conquest. The spirit of adventure, which once clad the knight errant in his steel armor, now pushes the emigrant forth to drive his plough through the broad acres of waste territory which every where on this continent invite his entrance. The tide of emigration continually pouring from the older settlements, soon peoples the wilderness, which begins to blossom under the husbandman. Thus, State after State is added to the Confederation, with a rapidity which attests the truth that empires are now built of colonies; the plough and the loom having supplanted the sword and the battle-axe. It has been already stated that the first developement of the Mormon scheme contemplated the founding of a colony, embracing all the converts to the new faith. Joseph Smith did not, it is true, cast his eye beyond the borders of civilization; which is shown from the tenacity with which the sect clung to their early settlements in Missouri and Illinois. But in every location, the same social organization is preserved; and perhaps a more skilful and re-
