"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))
Joseph Smith - The Making of a Prophet (Dan Vogel, 2004)
Lots of detail about Smith’s early life in New York, treasure seeking, “finding” the plates, “translating” the plates, etc. Apparently treasure-seeking was not all that uncommon in early 19-century NE; when the treasure wasn’t found, it was blamed on spirits guarding it or other miscues that caused the treasure to slide away through the earth. Translation ended up being done through the seer stone (in a hat) so that it wasn’t necessary to keep the plates around the house (visitors threatened to burst in and confirm its existence, or not). No one saw the plates except with spiritual eyes. Many revelations and visits from angels and others. Book ends as they relocate to Ohio.
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