pages: practicalmagicia00harr.pdf, 32
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practicalmagicia00harr.pdf | 32 | 22 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. tors, and to mislead their imagination, so that they shall fancy that they see him DO things which he only APPEARS to do, and shall blindly fail to observe actions and movements carried out before their very eyes. And here let me say, that I have, by long experience, come to the conviction, that the simpler and more common the objects are on which, and with which. a trick is performed, and the less anything beyond dexterity of hand is openly used, the greater will be the astonishment and the amusement of the spectators. There are, it is true, some very striking and complicated illu- sions which it is impossible to present without resorting to art- istic contrivances of mechanical or scientific arrangement. On these illusions, as being beyond the power of a young amateur, I need not dwell. Nor need the preceding remarks be consid- ered as any disparagement of the combinations and extrinsic aid which are indispensable for developing such startling illusions. The scope of my present remarks is simply to this effect, that to depend mainly upon the co-operation of a confederate, or upon mechanical contrivances, for what can be far better carried out by mere sleight-of-hand, will not pass for a satisfactory ex- hibition of conjuring now-a-days; and the amateur will find that, as he advances in skill and dexterity, he will swim more freely the less ho trusts to such unsubstantial bladders to uphold him. Having thus discussed my two topics I shall now add explana- tions of a few more tricks, which the learner may practise with the hope of making progress in the art of conjuring. The only way to make such progress and gain high attainments in the art, is to practise diligently over and over again the passes I havo described in my former paper, and to learn to do a few tricks neatly, and without hesitation or stumbling. I subjoin, there- fore, some simple but effective tricks, in which they will do well to perfect themselves. |