The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-09-27 00:00:00

A NEW SPIRITUALISTIC LECTURER.

On Sunday night (says the Daily Arms), St. George's
Hall was thronged to its extreme capacity with an
audience who came together to hear an addrass, or
lecture, or oration, or sermon—for it poressed some of
the characteristica of each by Mra. Cora L. V.
Tappan, of New York. In • paper distributed before
the oration, Mrs. Tappan is described as being "under
spirit influence," and the testimony of R. D. Owen Is
adduced that "a more enlightened, • more judicious, and
a more eloquent exponent of the principle which in
modern phrase in termed spiritualism " does not exist than
this lady. Mn. Tappan whose maiden name was Cora
Sooit, la a clolicnta Indy, poi* in moon end in him he

I, extremely fair, and her ffidr, if not "thick," is full I
"with many a curl' A bit of blue ribbon was its
only adornment. She was dressed in black, with •
white border round the neck, boat, and wrists. Her
appesrance is prepossessing; her voice is sweet, and
it might be said, weak, if it were not that it is so
modulated and attuned as to be capable of filling large
e anew in which a louder voice wonld fail to be heard.
Her style is excellent—clear, precise, deliberate, and
meditative. She uses but little action, and what she
does use is confined principally to the motion of the
wrists and fingers.
On Sunday night she spoke for nearly an hour and a
half, and was listened to with breathless attention. The
only indication of applause was towards the end
other oration, when her voice for a moment failed,
and the only indication of dissent which we heard was
at • point of her discourse where, having referred to
the disc wery of a sixth sense about four years ago
by members of the French Academy, called the' sense
of Intuition," and the probability of a seventh sense
still remaining to be discovered, a gentleman near us
esid, in an undertone, "nonsense." There was no non.
sense, however, in Mrs. Tappan's mode of dealing with
the question, and the use of the word "judicious" by
Mr. Owen in recommending her to the British public
could not be more happily applied. As to the
substance of the oration, we can only say here
that it was an able and thoughtful pleading
for mind as against matter, and for immortality as
against annihilation. She said that the Scientists,
with their gross mechanism of experiment and ana-
lysis, were unable to deal with the difficulty; en-
treated them to give up the idea that only material
atoms and molecules were in existence, and to apply
their intelligence to the discovery of the solvent that
would explain the union of mind and matter.
She quoted the names of Von Reichenthal,
Faraday, Kant, Mesmer, Gall and Spnrzheim, R.
Hare, W. Howitt, Robert Owen, Robert Dale Owen,
and Judge Edmonds. She admitted that there was no
supernatural; but insisted that there existed a supra-
mundane, and that there was lie more unreason in
believing in • supra-mundane posteffice and tele-
graphic system than in a mundane one. Her peroration
was very eloquent, and prophesied the union of all
dissident sects and relijons under the new principle,
and the triumph of spirit over death. Mrs. Tappan,
after a brief pause and singing a hymn from the
"Spiritual Lyre," gave a recitation in poetry, and
&dished by invoking the blessing of God on the as-
sembly.
It was resolved that steps aboull be taken to Rive
her a further opportunity of developing the principle
of spiritualism. The audience seemed highly pleased
with the discourse.