THE chief requisites for success in the performance of feats of
Magic are manual dexterity and self-possession. The former can only
be acquired by practice; the latter will be the natural result of
a well-grounded confidence. We subjoin a few preliminary hints, of
considerable importance to the amateur exhibiter.
1. Never acquaint the company before-hand with the particulars of the
feat you are about to perform, as it will give them time to discover
your mode of operation.
2. Endeavour, as much as possible, to acquire various methods of
performing the same feat, in order that if you should be likely
to fail in one, or have reason to believe that your operations are
suspected, you may be prepared with another.
3. Never venture on a feat requiring manual dexterity, till you have
previously practised it so often as to acquire the necessary expertness.
4. As diverting the attention of the company from too closely
inspecting your manœuvres is a most important object, you should
manage to talk to them during the whole course of your proceedings. It
is the plan of vulgar operators to gabble unintelligible jargon, and
attribute their feats to some extraordinary and mysterious influence.
There are few persons at the present day credulous enough to believe
such trash, even among the rustic and most ignorant; but as the youth
of maturer years might inadvertently be tempted to pursue this method,
while exhibiting his skill before his younger companions, it may not be
deemed superfluous to offer a caution against such a procedure. He may
state, and truly, that every thing he exhibits can be accounted for on
rational principles, and is only in obedience to the unerring laws of
Nature; and although we have just cautioned him against enabling the
company themselves to detect his operations, there can be no objection
(particularly when the party comprises many younger than himself) to
occasionally show by what simple means the most apparently marvellous
feats are accomplished.