"Supernatural"
About 60 years ago the element of the supernatural in magic suffered a severe shock. A famous Scotch magician had the misfortune while travelling to an engagement to lose through fire all the usual paraphernalia, such as his table, draper-Jes, ete., (under which his assistant could be concealed), which were the source of his audiences' illusions. Nothing remained for him to do but to carry out his performance by sheer sleight-of-hand, in which he was singularly successful. From that time modern magic had its beginnings as a science, explained by simplé~ laws, none the less natural because obscure to the many. Yet we still find numbers of people who confuse the science of the magician with the superstition of the occultist. A clever magician will play upon the credulity of his audience, but will be the last to affirm that he works with other than natural phenomena, while rightly refusing to disclose his methods.
To clarify the public mind and put an end to this confusion of ideas—for the benefit of magical science—the Society of American Magicians has started on a programme of education, by augmenting the ranks of the amateur. Tricks which have been exposed are now sold: amateurs are trained in sleight-of-hand: magic is consider. ed a profession and not a cult, in order that the public may come to realize that every human wonder has a natural explanation. When Marconi and his colleagues first attempted communication by wireless telegraphy, they were said to be playing with the occult. The commercialization of this wonderful, but natural phenomenon has but; emphasized the fact that a thing should not be called supernatural simply because we do not yet understand it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.