One figure states that in any given week in the 1830’s 400,000 people attended a Public Oratory. Mostly in The Puritan Diaspora Regians of New England and the Midwest. This was the forum of the Village Enlightenment in which Science and Alchemy were taught interchangably.

I believe that this was the crucible of American Modernity, which is a fundamentally Esoteric and Millenarian Modernity.

Investigation of this Public Sphere is only just beginning again after a half century of forgetfullness. Our friend Phineus Quimby the Mesmerist travelled the lecture circuit. Interestingly he was not allowed in Lyceums of Good Repute. This begs the question of what exactly a “Lyceum of Ill-Repute” Looked like.

The eloquence of Edward Everett: America’s greatest orator

 (2010) By Richard A. Katula