Front matter
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Foreword
That much abused word “Original” has found a proper setting in this book of Mr. Massey. Sol¬ omon said, “There is no new thing under the sun.”
For many years past, King Solomon’s sayings could be applied to magic, but Mr. Massey has disproved the axiom, and given us something new in practical magic. There lies latent in the brain of everyone, a vision, a dream, an imaginary some¬ thing that seeks to escape and become a reality, a tangible created thing of value. When Mr. Mas¬ sey submitted his manuscript to me for judgment, and criticism, I immediately thought of King Da¬ vid’s expression: “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, hast thou ordained strength,” and paraphrased it to “Out of the mind of the ama¬ teur, has been born a new thing in magic.”
Mechanical magic has been neglected, and almost forgotten in the multitude of sleights and parlor tricks that have flooded the market and crowded to the wall the greater effects that demonstrate the science of magic or the magic of science. There has been a plethora of books on magic but a pau¬ city of magic in the books.
New and Original Magic opens or revives an im¬ portant and indispensible field for both amateur
and professional performers. Among the effects
FOREWORD will be found something to meet every need, and satisfy the craving for something new. Not since Professor Hoffmann’s Modern Magic of fortyfive years ago has there appeared a book on prac¬ tical mechanical magic, until Mr. Massey gave us this truly original work.
The literature of magic is not only enlarged, but also enriched by this addition to the number, few indeed are the works that remain as permanent texts and guides for the worker in magic and mys¬ tery. I commend the book to you, my fellow la¬ borers, who seek to elevate magic, and place it among the arts and sciences, where it rightly and properly belongs.
A. M. Wilson, M. D.
Editor of “The Sphinx.”
Contents
PAGE
I. Introduction by Dr. A. M. Wilson, Editor
of the Sphinx. 1
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The end
You’ve reached the end of New and original magic : comprising a number of novel and entertaining effects : a fund of information for the professional artist and his younger brother, the amateur.