Tag decay of all belief in Spiritualism, and occult influences generally, ought we think to prove of much practical benefit to conjurors. In the days when every inexplicable feat was naturally set down to magic, there was but little room left for admiration of the porsonal talent of the man who performed wonders, He was wonderfal, certainly, but only in so far as he was supposed to be in league with spirits, demons, familiars, and such-like agencies; a sufficient distinction of itself, no doubt, but ove which did not necessarily imply any special genius on the part of the so-called magician himself. It was a strange and lotable thing that a man should have intimate acquaintances in the spirit-world, and that his pi tom-friends should be so well disposed towards him as to work wonders on his behalf, Bat given the existence of such unseen assistants, the rear followed as a matter of course. With spirits flying to and fro over the wizard's head, it was only natural that objects should mysteriously change places, that instruments should perform untouched, that the thoughts of other people should be communicated to the brain of the performer, and that the performer him. self should assume strange disguises and be apparently able to accomplish otherwise impossible feats. At one time, every puzzle of this sort was explained by the convenient theory that the devil or one his angela was at the bottom of it, But the world has grown wiser now, and at the present-day we simply look upon conjuror as a remarkably clever and accomplished man, who has, by dint of indefatigable industry and practice, rendered himself capable of deceiving the sharpest scrutiny and proving to us that our senses are untrustworthy witnesses of facta. From the standpoint of sheer clevernoas, therefore—that is, of the natural or acquired power to do things which common men are utterly and hope. lessly unable to do—we claim for the conjuror a place in art second only to the painter, the sculptor, or the musician. Observe the qualification, however. We do not say that the pleasure afforded to the spectator by the performance of miracles, far more oxtraordinary than any so-called spiritualistic manifestations, is equal to that afforded to a cultured mind by statue ora sonata, in point of ideal refinement. The sense of wonder is not the highest with which we are endowed, and therefore the art that appeals to it cannot be the highest of which human ingenuity is o But we do nevertheless claim for the conjuror a place in the Pantheon of Art. There is no doubt that Robert Hondin could no more have written 'Lohengrin' than Wagner could have produced two boys, the exact counter. part of one notre, from two halves of a tub after having sawn the tub in two with a single live boy inside; but we believe that, although one miracle may be of a higher order than the other, there is bat little to choose between the ingenuity and talent ox. pended upon both, And there is oer. tainly no art in which a richer oppor. tunity is offered for making appeals to one's sense of the beautiful than in that of conjuring. A conjuror who lucks this sense in himself is devoid of one of the first requisites of -attractive noctomancy, There is something very wonderful in being able (apparently) to put one's finger through the crown of a hat without making a hole in it; in other words, being able to abstain from doing the very thing which five hundred eyewitnesses would be prepared to affirm upon their oath was actually done at that particular moment. There is something very wonderful, too, in being able to hold two rabbits out in full view of the audience, and, gradually bringing them together, amalgamatethemintooneincool defiance of the closest observation. Mechanigal
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.