I HAVE been asked to include in this book a brief review of the general aspects of magic, including the historical past of magic, the present state of magic, and the probable future of magic.

The past history of conjuring takes one so far back that it is almost impossible to trace its origin; one has to delve deeply over a wide area to get any concrete evidence. As a matter of fact, Mr. Sidney W. Clarke has done this so cleverly and so thoroughly in his "Annals of Conjuring", published in the Magic Wand Magazine, that there is very little ground left for a new explorer, and in summing up past history one is forced to use much of the material already set forth by him.

Mr. Clarke dates the earliest conjuring performance at 6,000 years ago, and quotes a description from the Westcar Papyrus, which can be seen in the Berlin Museum, of the doings of bygone wonder-workers.

One of these was named Dedi, who did a surprising decapitation trick before Kufu, who built the Great Pyramid. The King offered him a prisoner to perform the trick upon, but this the magician refused to try, offering to do it with a goose. Dedi cut off its head and placed it at the other side of the hall away from the body. The body then began to move forward, the head moved to meet it, and when they were finally united the goose cackled with joy.

This trick survives to the present day. Servais Le Roy did it with a duck and a cockerel, cutting off both heads and transposing them.

In Ancient Assyrian records there is to be found a description of how the Father of the Gods caused a clay figure of a man to breathe, and sent him below to find a goddess who had wandered away from home. He instructs him how to prepare the magic which is to overcome the infernal deities.

Another contemporary trick was to bring forth fishes of the waters out of an empty vessel, a trick which also survives to the present day.

Mr. Clarke produces evidence in pictures of the Cups and Balls trick being done in Ancient Egypt and Greece, as well as fire-eating, sword-swallowing, and ventriloquism.

The Cups and Balls is, of course, a familiar trick performed by every Indian juggler. The secret is passed down from father to son. The balls are made to pass from one cup to another. After various evolutions they become enlarged, getting bigger until they become oranges or small chickens. It is still the most popular trick these jugglers do.

Heron of Alexandria described details of the construction of automatons controlled by hydraulic power and used in the ancient temples, together with mechanical trumpets and ever-filling jugs. This was written 150 B.C., and hardly comes under the general term of conjuring. However, these mechanical effects were freely used in the ancient temples.

In Ancient Rome were dexterous performers and jugglers. Doubtless some of these followed the Roman legions to Britain and taught our forefathers to become conjurers.

In the early part of the thirteenth century there was quite a varied assemblage of performers. They were called minstrels, or troubadours, while conjurers were generally termed jugglers, or jongglers.

The King of England's minstrels in 1344 were all instrumentalists. The Minstrels' Guild was formed to keep out workers of other trades, and jugglers or tregetours became more or less outcasts and wandered about by themselves.

From 1100 until the thirteenth century the jugglers were greatly persecuted, and were in fact denounced by preachers as rogues and vagabonds and such that no Christian should look upon. As late as 1571 a juggler who did card tricks was imprisoned in Paris on a charge of witchcraft.

In 1272 a Dutch conjurer decapitated a boy, and Turkish magicians cut children in two. Another conjurer was said to have cut off his own head.

A more charming trick was that done by Zedekiah, a Jew, who showed an emperor a garden full of flowers and fruit in the depth of winter. This was something after the style of Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Regensburg, who is said to have produced such a garden for William, Prince of Holland, when he visited Cologne in the year 1260.

About the year 1500, engraved playing-cards were introduced into England, and the jugglers soon began to do simple tricks with these. About this time, too, gypsies, or Egyptians, came to England and taught the jugglers many new Oriental tricks. But in 1541 conjurers were still whipped at the cart's tail, had their ears cut off, and were classed with wandering pedlars.

The Discovery of Witchcraft, published in 1584, written by Reginald Scott, tells of the performance of Brandon, a juggler who, according to Scott, painted on the wall a picture of a bird and, pointing out to the audience--which included a king--a pigeon on the top of a house, pricked the picture with a knife so hard and so often that the pigeon fell down dead from the top of the house. This, he explained, was done by drugging a live bird with some poison, which would act in a certain time, so that the bird fell down. Stabbing the picture was only to fill up the time that was to elapse. This may or may not be true. Scott put it forth as his own idea of the explanation.

In a rare pamphlet entitled Kind Hearts' Dream, printed in 1592, Henry Chettle, the author, gives an account of a quaint juggler whom he calls William Cuckoe, who must have been somewhat celebrated. Here is his description:

An olde fellow, his bearde milke white, his head covered with a round lowe-crowned silke hat, in which was a band knit in many knotes, wherein stucke two round stickes after the juggler's manner. His jerkin was of leather cut, his cloake, of three coulers, his hose painted with yellow, drawn out with blew, his instrument was a bagpipe, and him I knew to be William Cuckoe, better knowne than loved, and yet, some thinke, as well loved as he was worthy.

Banks was another celebrated juggler, who lived in the Old Bailey in 1608. He had a famous horse called Morocco, which danced to music, told fortunes, selected chosen cards, told the amount of money in a spectator's pocket, and is said to have climbed to the top of old St. Paul's. A good horse for a place bet!

Mr. Clarke tells us that Gonin was the first French conjurer recorded by name. He practised in the reign of Francis I (1515-47), and his clever performances gave a phrase to the French language, Un tour de Maître Gonin.

The greatest mediaeval wonder-worker, however, was Faust, or Faustus. He was a German born in Kundlingen about 1460. Not until 1587 did his marvels attract attention. From what can be gathered about this man, he was a charlatan after the style of Cagliostro, who was neither a conjurer nor a juggler, but who lived by his wits alone, and gained his reputation chiefly by specious promises and boasts.

In 1584 Scott published his epoch-making book, which altered the whole outlook of the public as to witchcraft, juggling, and conjuring, and taught them that the marvels they witnessed under these headings were not necessarily performed by unholy means--in fact that juggling was quite a simple recreative science.

Reginald Scott published his Discovery of Witchcraft for the set purpose of exposing the cruelties of superstition which were applied to so-called witches. So wroth were the divines with this exposure of their ignorance that they caused all the copies of the books obtainable to be burned in 1603, which makes the first edition very rare indeed. However, it was reprinted in 1651 and 1665 with additions.

A new, but not very pleasant, form of trick was that introduced about 1641 by two Italians named Maufre and Marchand, called "Water Spouting", which consisted of drinking huge quantities of liquid of different colours and spurting them out of the mouth into a bucket in separate colours--a most unrefined performance, which was nevertheless apparently witnessed by the highest in the land. Another delectable performance was chewing and swallowing live coals, and picking up glowing red-hot irons by the mouth. These and similar tricks had quite a vogue until about 1700.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century conjurers began to issue descriptive posters of their entertainments, and advertised in news sheets. At this time they used to perform chiefly in fair booths, such as those at Bartholomew's, but they soon afterwards began to take rooms and give entertainments at proper times and at fixed charges.

A man named Winstanley, the engineer who erected the first Eddystone Lighthouse, had an ingenious hydraulic exhibition at the Hyde Park end of Piccadilly. This "Water Theatre", as it was called, was really the first permanent room to be devoted to a magical sort of entertainment. He had a wonderful barrel, the precursor of many similar devices, which would produce any wine or liquids, hot or cold, that the audience wished. He also presented a dairy house, in which the spectators could obtain milk, or cakes, and cheese cakes, butter, and cream, on demand.

The Cups and Balls and card tricks were still a strong suit of the conjurers of the time.

There was one remarkable conjurer born in 1674 without hands, feet, or legs, who, however, managed to do many things like other people. This freak man was also able to perform the Cups and Balls. On the strength of that, he called himself the "High German Artist". His name was Buchinger.

A book called Hocus Pocus was first published in 1725 or 1728 by John White, which contained many exposures of simple tricks, including the great dictionary trick.

Another popular book was the Whole Art of Legerdemain.

Richard Neve, another writer of the time, published about 1716 a book called The Merry Companion, with instructions to the amateur conjurer, which are most amusing. The conjurer, we learn, should "be one of a bold and audacious spirit, so that he may set a good face upon the matter. Secondly, he must have a nimble and cleanly conveyance, for if he be a bungler, he discredits both himself and his art, and therefore he must practise in private life till he be perfect". Which is still all very good advice for the beginner.

Isaac Fawkes, or Faux, is said to have been the greatest conjurer of his time up till 1731. In connection with him we first hear of the musical clock made by Mr. Pinchbeck of Fleet Street. Fawkes used to perform at the Southwark and Bartholomew Fairs, and in a room adjoining the King's Theatre, Haymarket. One of his tricks was the "Egg and Hen Bag", in which dozens of eggs were produced, and finally a live hen. This trick was most popular for some time, and still goes on as well as ever in good hands.

Puppet shows, and what were called "moving pictures". such as a concert of several dolls playing on various instruments, ducks swimming in the river and a dog diving after it quite naturally, were really automatic machines of the penny-in-the-slot type, and were much used by the conjurers that of time to augment their performances.

In 1749 London was hoaxed by an announcement that a conjurer would get into a wine-bottle in full view of the audience at the Haymarket Theatre. There was a full house on the night announced, including members of the Royal Family, and they were kept waiting for the performance to commence until they lost patience. When they found they had been tricked, they wrecked the theatre and made a bonfire of the contents.

Flockton, Gyngell, and Lane were conjurers who came to the fore about 1784. Mr. Lane had a sagacious swan, the only one seen in England for nearly forty years. An inanimate bird is seen afloat in a basin of water, a variety of questions are proposed on a card drawn, an hour decided upon, when this beautiful swan is seen to hesitate for a minute, then she swims to give the answer, to tell the card, or discover the thoughts, to the great surprise of all present.

In 1785 a book entitled Natural Magic was issued by Philip Astley, a circus proprietor. This was really a copy of the Conjurer Unmasked. Astley claims to have invented the famous gun trick, in which a marked bullet is fired at the performer and caught apparently on a plate, or between his teeth. This, however, was disputed, as the trick was published in a book in 1631, attributed to a man named Coulew.

Here is an amusing description of Gyngell in 1814:

Monsieur Gyngell, Emperor of Cards, arch-shuffler, wizard-like held his pack, cutting, dealing, shifting in his delicate hands, sparkling with diamonds (as we thought them, but which were cut glass in reality). With what a courtly air Monsieur requests the loan of a hat, merely to boil a pudding in! Sometimes, in dulcet tones, he would entice a shilling, or half-crown, from a fair lady's purse, to be cut in half by his mighty magic, and then to be reunited before our very eyes. Incomparable Gyngell! Why, if you talk of attire, neither Worth nor Poole ever dreamed of so much elegance. Real ostrich feathers, three in a jewelled cap--three! like a Prince of Wales; silk and satin dress, spangles, lace, pink legs, milk white face, with a touch of rose colour; smile bewitching, voice enchanting. He never asked for money, it flowed into the ample pockets of his silken jerkin willy nilly. Such were the necromancer's powers of persuasion over juvenile hoards and savings.

This was written by Edward Sterling, the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre, when describing his boyhood days.

There was quite a vogue in 1742 for Vaucanson's mechanical pieces, which were shown in the long room over the Opera House. One of these was a flute player, which played difficult music perfectly, using the proper movements of the tongue and fingers like a real performer.

In 1774, Droz, the Swiss mechanic, presented an automaton figure which wrote and drew.

In 1784 we had Kempelen's famous automatic chessplayer at No. 14 St. James's Street. This figure had had a most adventurous career all over the world, thereby causing a sensation.

Then there were speaking figures, which had a surprising run, shown by Thomas Denton and others. These figures answered questions in every language, and were usually suspended in the air by a ribbon. They replied to questions whether put loudly or in a whisper.

Another exhibitor of automata was Maillardat, who travelled with a harpsichord player, a rope dancer, flying and singing birds, and a drawing figure; also a lady who played several airs by the actual pressure of the fingers on a pianoforte.

Ingleby, "Emperor of all the Conjurers" appeared at the Minor Theatre in 1809. Ingleby was later burlesqued by the famous comedian, Charles Matthews.

Robert Charles, a Frenchman, opened an entertainment at Saville House, Leicester Square, featuring the "Invisible Girl" a ball with four trumpet mouths attached, so that persons could listen to the answers which seemed to come from within the ball, which was suspended from the ceiling.

Conjuring was at a low ebb about this time, no very striking performance being available. Perhaps the best was given by David Prince Millar, who travelled about England and Scotland between 1830 and 1873.

On the Continent things were better. There was Comte, who was born in Geneva in 1788. He was 15 years of age, and he began with ventriloquism.

Comte got his chance in Paris in 1814. He started a "Two Hours of Magic" entertainment, which was of the highest class at the time and was much appreciated by the Parisians. One of his favourite tricks was the production of miscellaneous articles from a hat.

When performing before Louis XVIII he paid him a pretty compliment. The King had selected the king of hearts from the pack, and when the pack had been shuffled Comte handed His Majesty a portrait instead of the king of hearts. Said the King: "This is not the card, but a portrait of myself!" "Quite right," replied Cornte, "you are the king of all hearts."

Another great conjurer was an Italian, Bosco, who started in 1814, and for nearly fifty years was most popular in Europe and America.

It was thought until recently that his son Eugene, or Alfred, Bosco, was the conjurer that Charles Dickens saw in Boulogne in 1854, but it has been quite lately established that the performer who appeared before Dickens was a Frenchman known as Chevalier de Caston. The great author was very much impressed with the performance.