marg wrote:That may have been his defence in court but I seem to remember that out of court he admitted to someone that he had no seeric ability. I'm not at home, nor do I have the time currently to investigate.
I believe also there was a witness to Smith admitting to Emma's dad he had no special ability involving the supernatural.
According to Peter Ingersoll, Joseph admitted to Isaac Hale that "he could not see in a seer stone now, nor never could; and that his former pretensions in that respect, were all false. He then promised to give up his old habits of digging for money and looking into stones" (Vogel, ed., EMD 2:43).
Isaac's son, Alva, who was also present, remembered Joseph saying that "this 'peeping' was all damned nonsense. He (Smith) was deceived himself but did not intend to deceive others;--that he intended to quit the business, (of peeping) and labor for his livelihood" (EMD 4:291).
For his part, Isaac Hale recorded only that "Smith stated to me that he had given up what he called 'glass-looking' and that he expected to work hard for a living, and was willing to do so" (EMD 4:285-86).
Dan Vogel thinks that "Alva's memory may be more precise [than Ingersoll's] in that, in his account, Joseph doesn't confess to fraudulent behavior" (Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet, 92), and I am inclined to agree. Had Joseph actually admitted to intentionally deceiving people, surely Alva and Isaac would have remembered it. In fact, Alva Hale reports that Joseph told him on another occasion "that his (Smith's) gift in seeing with a stone and hat, was a gift from God."
It appears, then, that by 1827 Joseph had come to regard "peeping" for buried treasure as "nonsense" although he still believed that his seeric gift came from God. This is consistent with Joseph Smith Sr.'s testimony at his son's 1826 court hearing:
He delineated his [Joseph Smith, Jr.'s] characteristics in his youthful days--his vision of the luminous stone in the glass--his visit to Lake Erie in search of the stone--and his wonderful triumphs as a seer. He described very many instances of his finding hidden and stolen goods. He swore that both he and his son were mortified that this wonderful power which God had so miraculously given him should be used only in search of filthy lucre, or its equivalent in earthly treasures, and . . . he said his constant prayer to his Heavenly Father was to manifest His will concerning this marvelous power.
-- William D. Purple Reminiscence, 28 April 1877, in Vogel, ed., EMD 4:135.