As Mormon abridged and edited the record, he often used the phrase, “and thus we see.” He could not restrain himself from letting the people know how all this happened; he already knew the end from the beginning. In Mormon’s own day, he said that the Nephites had become so wicked that he could do nothing but stand as an idle witness to their downfall. It must have been terribly heartbreaking for him to look back on these days and wish that his people could have been more like these stalwart people.
He wanted that so badly that he named his son Moroni. It isn’t known how many sons Mormon had, perhaps not many, as he was very young himself when he was given formidable duties. He named his son Moroni after this Chief Captain Moroni who also was in the field as a military leader at a very young age. With this in mind, we can see the Book of Mormon becoming Mormon’s book much more powerfully than before.