Such aids to our senses do not depend so much upon the nature of the material, as upon the degree to which it is brought into sympathy with the force to be recognized.
[Sidenote: With proper aids man's senses may discover the whole of nature.]
Now, though our senses are imperfect, and recognize only a small part of the phenomena of nature, yet it is very probable that, with such helps as have been described, nothing in nature need remain forever unknown. The means by which the forces of nature, that cannot be sensed directly, are brought to man's recognition may well be named, collectively, man's sixth sense.
The progress of science depends upon the discovery of aids to man's senses; a new and vast field is invariably opened whenever a new aid is discovered.
[Sidenote: Joseph Smith recognized the existence of media which render the unknown, known.]
In the works of Joseph Smith, which teach that there is no real line of demarkation between the natural and spiritual worlds, it would be not surprising to find recognized the scientific principle, above discussed, that by the use of proper instruments, the world outside of the five senses, may be brought within man's consciousness.
According to the story of Joseph Smith, he was first visited by an angel, September 21, 1823, when the Prophet was less than eighteen years of age. Among other things, the angel told the boy that "there was a book deposited, written on gold plates," giving an account of the former inhabitants of the American continent; "also, that there were two stones in silver bows--and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim--deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted 'Seers' in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book."[A] This reference to the Urim and Thummim, and their purpose, makes it clear that the Prophet, at the beginning of his career, recognized (whether consciously or unconsciously we know not), the existence of means or media by which things unknown, such as a strange language, may be converted into forms that can reach the understanding.
[Footnote A: History of the Church, vol. 1, p. 12.]