The privilege of this accommodation he pretends was granted to him by
the Lord, in a special revelation, on account of his services to the
Church. It is most extraordinary that the Americans, imbued with
democratic sentiments and with such an utter aversion to hereditary
privileges of any kind, could for a moment be blinded to the selfishness
of the prophet, who thus easily provided for himself and his posterity a
palace and a maintenance.
The Mormon temple is a splendid structure of stone, quarried within the
bounds of the city; its breadth is eighty feet, and its length one
hundred and forty, independent of an outer court of thirty feet, making
the length of the whole structure one hundred and seventy feet. In the
basement of the temple is the baptismal font, constructed in imitation
of the famous brazen sea of Solomon; it is supported by twelve oxen,
well modelled and overlaid with gold. Upon the sides of the font, in
panels, are represented various scriptural subjects, well painted. The
upper story of the temple will, when finished, be used as a lodge-room
for the Order Lodge and other secret societies. In the body of the
temple, where it is intended that the congregation shall assemble, are
two sets of pulpits, one for the priesthood, and the other for the
grandees of the church.
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