![\"Austen-Haus\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2023\/06\/1600px-Jane_Austens_House_Museum_Chawton-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>We were up early this morning for a brief visit to Winchester Cathedral, where Jane Austen is buried. \u00a0Then we drove to Chawton, where Jane lived her last eight years. \u00a0We walked over to Chawton House<\/a>, one of the estates that belonged to her brother \u2014 that\u2019s a slightly strange and complicated story, including his changing his surname from Austen<\/em> to Knight<\/em> \u2014 and saw there the graves of her mother and her sister, as well as a small but beautiful statue of Jane herself. \u00a0But we spent most of our time in Jane\u2019s own home<\/a>, which is often called Chawton Cottage. \u00a0It\u2019s where she wrote (or, at least, made the final revisions on) all six of her novels, as well as the unpublished fragment Sanditon<\/em>. \u00a0I had good conversations with two of the docents in the home, one of whom is actually a descendant of Jane\u2019s brother. \u00a0(He grew up in Chawton House.)<\/p>\n Then we headed to Hampton Court Palace<\/a>, where my wife and I spent the entirety of our time in and about Henry VIII\u2019s royal apartments, his great hall, and his chapel royal. \u00a0Henry VIII is obviously both a repulsive figure and a fascinating one. \u00a0I\u2019m much less interested in the baroque portions of the palace belonging to William III and in the still later portions pertaining to George II; we\u2019ve seen them on previous visits. \u00a0Incidentally, we saw Elder Lew Cramer and Senator Jeff Flake walking away from the palace as we were walking toward it. \u00a0They didn\u2019t see us \u2014 or, at least, they pretended not to see us. \u00a0(I\u2019m beginning to suspect that Senator Flake is stalking me. \u00a0I mean, really. \u00a0Istanbul? \u00a0Then London? \u00a0Then, the next day, at Hampton Court Palace? \u00a0And, many years ago, in Provo?)<\/p>\n Our tour ended this evening. \u00a0Most of our people are headed home tomorrow morning. \u00a0It\u2019s always a bit of a letdown when a trip like this concludes: We\u2019ve just made a number of new friends, and now they\u2019re gone. \u00a0But I was extremely pleased with Peter Fagg\u2019s guiding this time around; he seems to become better each time. \u00a0And our coach driver, Gary, was an unusually pleasant, jovial, friendly, and accommodating fellow. \u00a0Peter has begun to request him for his tours, and I can certainly see why.<\/p>\n I realize that I omitted something significant from yesterday\u2019s tour summary. \u00a0(I was tired and in a hurry. \u00a0It was late, and we needed to rise early.) \u00a0I failed to mention our early-morning visit to the Leighton House Museum<\/a>, the former London home of the Victorian painter Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton<\/a> (1830\u20131896), whose painting I quite like. \u00a0I had never previously heard of the Leighton House Museum; the visit was Kris Frederickson\u2019s idea. \u00a0I loved it. \u00a0It\u2019s a little gem of a place, and the \u201cArab Hall\u201d is exquisitely beautiful.<\/span><\/p>\n As a small constituent part of a long-term project that I\u2019m working on, I\u2019ll be extracting notes over the next several weeks or (more likely) months from\u00a0John W. Welch, ed.,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book, 1992)<\/strong><\/a>, and intermittently sharing them here. \u00a0They represent the state of the questions as of the early 1990s and, in many cases, they will need to be fleshed out with whatever developments may have occurred over the past thirty-three years. \u00a0(It\u2019s also possible that, in a few cases, subsequent developments will have negated them altogether.) \u00a0But that is a task for another time (or times). \u00a0These are notes \u2014 sometimes including bibliographical hints for future reading \u2014 that I\u2019m compiling for my own use, but I hope that some of you will find them of interest.<\/p>\n Tonight, I\u2019m drawing on \u201cColumbus: By Faith or Reason?\u201d by\u00a0Grant R. Hardy:<\/p>\n \u201cI looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, . . . and he went forth upon the many waters.\u201d \u00a0(1 Nephi 13:12)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This verse has long been understood by Latter-day Saints as referring to Columbus.\u00a0 And, assuming that identification to be accurate, the Book of Mormon seems to assert that, whatever else may have been involved, Columbus\u2019s primary <\/em>reasons for sailing were spiritual. <\/em><\/p>\n When I was growing up, though, Columbus appears to have been generally seen as led by science, reason, and restlessness, and, perhaps most importantly, by greed and a lust for conquest. \u00a0By the early 1990s, however,\u00a0 historian Pauline Watts had taken a new look at his motivations, arguing persuasively that Columbus was in fact deeply influenced by prophecy and revelation. [See especially Pauline Watts, \u201cProphecy and Discovery: On the Spiritual Origins of Christopher Columbus\u2019s \u2018Enterprise of the Indies,\u201d\u2019 American Historical Review <\/em>(February 1985): 73-102.]<\/p>\n At least some recent scholarship, it seems, has come to agree with the Book of Mormon\u2019s assessment of Columbus.<\/p>\n \u201cIn her article, Watts investigates the spiritual origins of Columbus\u2019s voyages. She discusses the inuences of scripture, theology, astrology, apocalypticism, and medieval prophecy. She particularly focuses on a book that Columbus himself was writing but never completed, called Book of Prophecies <\/em>(the fragments were first edited by Cesare De Lollis in 1894). In this book Columbus set forth views on himself as the fullfiller of biblical prophecies! Columbus saw himself as fullfilling the \u201cislands of the sea\u201d passages from Isaiah and another group of verses concerning the conversion of the heathen. Watts reports that Columbus was preoccupied with \u201cthe final conversion of all races on the eve of the end of the world,\u201d paying particular attention to John 10:16: \u201cAnd other sheep I have, which are not of this fold\u201d (see also 3 Nephi 16:3). He took his mission of spreading the gospel of Christ seriously. \u201cGod made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth. . . . He showed me the spot where to find it,\u201d Columbus wrote in 1500. \u00a0[Watts, \u201cProphecy and Discovery,\u201d 73]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Watts summarizes her argument by stating that \u201cin the final years of his life, . . . Columbus came increasingly to see himself as a divinely inspired fulfiller of prophecy, the one who inaugurated the age of the unum ovile et unus pastor\u201d <\/em>(\u201cone fold and one shepherd\u201d). \u00a0[Watts, \u201cProphecy and Discovery,\u201d 73.] \u00a0\u201cHe came to believe that he was predestined to fulfill a number of prophecies in preparation for the coming of the Anti-Christ and the end of the world\u201d (which also happens to be the context of Nephi\u2019s prophecies in 1 Nephi 13-14). \u00a0[Watts, \u201cProphecy and Discovery,\u201d 74]<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>\n
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