The Old and The New Magic 1st Edition - Henry Ridgely Evans - Stevens Estate
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From the introduction:
The very word magic has an alluring sound, and its practice as an art will probably never lose its attractiveness for people's minds. But we must remember that there is a difference between the old magic and the new, and that both are separated by a deep chasm, which is a kind of color line, for though the latter develops from the former in a gradual and natural course of evolution, they are radically different in principle, and the new magic is irredeemably opposed to the assumptions upon which the old magic rests.
Magic originally meant priestcraft. It is probable that the word is very old, being handed down to us from the Greeks and Romans, who had received it from the Persians. But they in their turn owe it to the Babylonians, and the Babylonians to the Assyrians, and the Assyrians to the Sumero-Akkadians.
The new magic originated from the old magic when the belief in sorcery began to break down in the eighteenth century, which is the dawn of rationalism and marks the epoch since which mankind has been systematically working out a scientific world-conception.
Moreover, it is not the trick alone that we admire, but the way in which it is performed. Even those who know how things can be made to disappear by sleight of hand, must confess that they always found delight in seeing the late Alexander Herrmann, whenever he began a soiree, take off his gloves, roll them up and make them vanish as if into nothingness.
It is true that magic in the old sense is gone; but that need not be lamented. The coarseness of Cagliostro's frauds has given way to the elegant display of scientific inventiveness and an adroit use of human wit. Traces of the religion of magic are still prevalent to-day, and it will take much patient work before the last remnants of it are swept away. The notions of magic still hold in bondage the minds of the uneducated and halfeducated, and even the leaders of progress feel themselves now and then hampered by ghosts and superstitions.
Introduction
History Of Natural Magic And Prestidigitation
The Chevalier Pinetti
Cagliostro - A Study In Charlatanism
Ghost-Making Extraordinary
The Romance Of Automata
Robert-Houdin - Conjurer, Author And Ambassador
Some Old-Time Conjurers
The Secrets Of Second Sight
The Confessions Of An Amateur Conjurer
A Day With Alexander The Great
A Twentieth Century Thaumaturgist
A Gentleman Of Thibet
Magicians I Have Met
The Riddle Of The Sphinx
Treweyism
Thurston The Thaumaturgist
The Davenport Brothers
The Great Slate Test
Mysterious Mr. Maskelyne
Automata
The King's Conjurer
A Master Of The Magi
The Necromancy Of Numbers And Letters
Appendix
1906 HC 1stEd - No DJ - Scratching on back cover, Darkening on covers and spine - Price written on front flyleaf, Ex Libris stickers on inside front cover "Property of Clayton Wyatt" - Good Cond
