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Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring
·
Professor Hoffmann
716
CHAPTER
V.
MARIONETTES.
In
perusing
these
articles
the
reader
must
have
observed,
ere
this,
that
a
great
deal
of
the
success
of
mechanical,
and,
in
fact,
all
kinds
of
conjuring,
consists
as
much
in
the
credulity
and
ignorance
of
the
audience
as
in
the
perfection
of
the
trick
itself.
It
is
not
at
all
surprising
that,
centuries
ago,
the
performer
of
a
few
juggling
tricks,
or
the
man
slightly
in
advance
of
his
age
in
science,
should
have
been
looked
upon
by
the
vulgar
crowd
as
a
person
having
dealings
with
another
world,
and
that
his
Infernal
Majesty
himself
should
have
been
called
in
to
father
all
his
supernatural
tricks
and
wonders.
Happily,
we
have
reached
an
age
when
enlightenment
has
driven
superstition
almost
entirely
away;
and
while
we
marvel
and
wonder
at
the
cleverness
of
such
men
as
Maskelyne
and
Cooke,
Dr.
Lynn,
and
many
others,
even
the
most
ignorant
of
persons
would
never
think
that
these
gentlemen
had
any
diabolical
contract
with
such
an
uncanny
gentleman
as
Mephistopheles.
I
make
these
remarks
because
the
tricks
I
shall
shortly
describe
have
been
performed,
perhaps
in
a
slightly
different
manner
to
what
they
are
now,
centuries
ago,
in
the
distant
ages
of
Egyptian
might,
the
earlier
days
of
the
Hindoos,
and
long
before
civilization
had
reached
the
west
of
Europe.
A
venerable
and
oft-repeated
magical
delusion
is
that
of
dismembering
a
living
person.
Dr.
Lynn
relies
upon
this
worn-out
pantomime
trick
for
the
staple
of
his
performance;
but
it
must
be
confessed
that
his
method
of
manipulation
and
neatness
of
execution
saves,
what
would
be
in
a
clumsy
person’s
hand,
a
very
sorry
exhibition.
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