Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

CHAPTER VI. CLAIRVOYANCE. It is surprising with what avidity our forefathers, when they perceived some effect arising from an unknown cause, flew to the aid of diablerie and the supernatural for an elucidation of the mystery. Without seeking at once to work out a cause from the known laws of nature and natural phenomena, they stopped all pursuit in the paths of inquiry by at once bringing forward his Satanic Majesty as the cause of everything and every occurrence for the origin of which they could not give an immediate explanation. We have happily reached an age which is distinguished for its matter of-fact treatment of all that appears mysterious and unusual. Thus we have, by our rigid inquiries into the truth, banished, or almost banished, those dread preventives of progress and civilization--superstition, and belief in the supernatural. But even at the present day, with all its enlightenment and education, we find the weakness of our ancestors palpably predominating in the minds of the ignorant multitude, and spiritualism and magic looked upon by a certain number of persons as things existing and beyond the ken of men. Scientific inquiry--that broom that has swept away so many superstitions--has done its work well, and it cannot be long before the bigoted believers in the so-called “manifestation” of beings in another and unknown world will be looked upon, even by those whose belief in them is strongest, as the mechanical hanky-panky tricks of clever and astute conjurors, who feed upon the credulity and simplicity of their tools and followers.