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Book, page 87 / 707 it to contain nothing of the kind, but being a manuscript upon an entirely different subject. This manuscript I left with E. D. Howe." With this presentation of the evidence showing the similarity between Spaulding's story and the Mormon Bible narrative, we may next examine the grounds for believing that Sidney Rigdon was connected with the production of the Bible. * A full account of this interview is given in her book, "New Light on Mormonism" (1885). ** There have been surmises that Hurlbut also found the "Manuscript Found" in the trunk and sold this to the Mormons. He sent a specific denial of this charge to Robert Patterson in 1879. CHAPTER VIII. SIDNEY RIGDON The man who had more to do with founding the Mormon church than Joseph Smith, Jr., even if we exclude any share in the production of the Mormon Bible, and yet who is unknown even by name to most persons to whom the names of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are familiar, was Sidney Rigdon. Elder John Hyde, Jr., was well within the truth when he wrote: "The compiling genius of Mormonism was Sidney Rigdon. Smith had boisterous impetuosity but no foresight. Polygamy was not the result of his policy but of his passions. Sidney gave point, direction, and apparent consistency to the Mormon system of theology. He invented its forms and the manner of its arguments.... Had it not been for the accession of these two men [Rigdon and Parley P. Pratt] Smith would have been lost, and his schemes frustrated and abandoned."* * "Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs" (1857). Hyde, an Englishman, joined the Mormons in that country when a lad and began to preach almost at once. He sailed for this country in 1853 and joined the brethren in Salt Lake City. Brigham Young's rule upset his faith, and he abandoned the belief in 1854. Even
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