Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1855-12-22

He Played upon = Harp Of q Thousand stringsH
Doctor RoBERr HAIRS, of Philadelphia, was,
and is Chemist Of great renown. Last even
ing, he appeared at the Broadway Tabernacle
in the character Of a Spiritualist. Three thou.
sand persons assembled 10 do him reverence,
to be amused by his stories. to be instructed in
the mysteries of the Spiritual faith TO give heed
to all he said, to see all he did, and to look mar
rowy into the machinery he has invented to
detect the spirits, and to keep "mediuns" with
i'll bounds. .5Iohi1af
i.5 THE LECTURERS Is INTRODUCES. u "a
-. The lecturer was introduced by Mr.. S. B.
Britain, whose remarks had reference chiefly
to the charge that spiritualsm finds believers
and advocates only among the uneducated-
This assertion be met by declaring that fear
alone restrained the influential and the learned
from declaring their adhesion to its doctrines.
The lecturer was represented as being one who
was constitutionally skeptical. but whose exper-
iments originally projected to confirm the anti
spiritual theory of Faraday, resulted in con-
verting DR.. Hare into firm believer. -..,
THE ADDRESS. l..
DR.. Hare, on presenting himself, was receive
ed with applause. He is an old gentleman,
apparently about IS, with white hair, massive
features. and rather stoutly built. His face
bears no very remote resemblance to the por-
traits one sees of General Scott; and the ex.
preston is at once benevolent and shrewd. He
began by sort of
The gentleman who presented me, he said,
has fairly said that have in my life probably
lectured to 10000 pupils; but l never before
had the honor to lecture to my fellow citizens
Of this City. assure you l feel very much
g-atified thus to meet my friends of New Y ork,
for have truly national feeling; take pride
in every city in my country, and in none more
than that which may compare with any that ev-
er existed applause. a-l.a 10 s'ae z
/ consider my city and this as one l con-
slider that the interests of New York and Phil
adelphia are as nearly associated as one of the
uptown Wards Of New York is with the COM
mercial part of it. We are another Ward Of
New York. (Applause.) And Of this great
State of New York how can any American
who has national feeling, not feel proud to
look at it, and to see that now it has more peo-
pie than the whole Union comprised at the
time when we gained our independence.
see New York like great eagle laying her
wings on the land and putting her beak into the
ocean, thus securing at once the wealth that
comes from agriculture and that which results
from commerce.
HE DESCRIBES HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARAC-
TERIsTICs. rt
1t was not untruly said of me that have al
ways been skeptc, so far as to require good
evidence before formed an opinion which was
at war with those previously entertained, or
with those laws of science which it was my du-
ty to investigate and extend. No man was
more incredulous than of anything like
ghost-story, of anything that had portion Of
romance i'll it. Sir Walter SCOTS work in
which occurs his character Of the Lady of Ave-
mel lost its interest for me by the introduction
of that kind of machinery. l was educated in
those prejudices which belong to the Nineteenth
Century, more than to any previous time, by
which anything in the way of witchcraft, con-
DURATION, spirits, ghosts, and everything of that
kind is disbelieved. This subject of spiritual
ism could not have presented itself to a mind
less prepared to be caught and carried away by
any impression OF supernatural kind.
He APPROACHES THE SUBJECT PROPER, BUT
. SOMEWHAT cIRCUIToUsLY.
But yet l saw that this planet, moving with
velocity fifty times greater than cannon ba il
and revolving about its centre and common
centre Of gravity with the moon. was kept in
perfect order, and carried with so nice a bal.
ance that we should not know that it moved bu,
Tor those Investigations astronomers have made
on other bodies. Were we not carried with
more equability than any man can carry a ba-
sin OF water across the room, we would be
drowned; the Pacific and Atlantic would over
flow the land. Such are the wonderful phe-
nomena we daily experience, and which in our
minds we may daily contemplate. How was
this to be accounted fors How was it possible
to account for the force by which this planet in
its uncomfortable velocity was kept in its eclip-
tics How account for the inclination Of its
orbit, and the great variety of seasons, and the
different animals and vegetables with which it
abounds, differing in their constitution accord.
ing to the climate thus produced2 was one
OF those who attributed this to the spiritual
power OF God. Itappeared to me that the ex-
lstence OF reason in this Universe is just as ey.
ident as the existence of the matter which il
controls. The reason is not the matter. nor the
matter the reason; and wherever or however
that governing reason exists, there is Cod
And thus believing in the spiritual power Of
God, l. of course. was prepared to believe that
he might endow beings with the spiritual DOW
er; | was led to suppose that there might be
other beings having spiritual power, but no ev.
idence had ever been brought to my mind that
there were such beings. Therefore, l did not
believe in their existence. And when the phe.
nomenon Of table-turning was made matter
Of conversation among those with whom | as.
ISOLATED, had no idea that spirits could be con.
cerned in it.. The subject of spirits was not
mentioned in the society which kept. View
ing it, then, merely as physical phenomenon,
l knew perfectly well that it requires weight to
move weight. according to the laws of motion.
Archimedes said: "Give me but whereon to
stand, and will move the world" But it was
necessary to have whereon to stand a point d
appui. place Of support was necessary. And
so in all my experience, whether as chemist
or rs q natural philosopher, ! found it was ne
cessary, in order that weight shall move, that
weight should react upon it and action and
reaction are equal and contrary. You never
can make electricity move single body; you
may make the particles react upon each other;
or, if you introduce those imponderabIe fluids,
as We call them, into the interior, You may have
an explosion. But still you never can get &C.
ton without reaction, according to the laws of
nature